Living so close to England it’s easy for us to get drawn into the ways and processes which prove effective south of the border. SPL clubs all scout there, more often than not trying to pick up physically robust scraps discarded by the lower leagues, or troubled souls looking for a sixth chance. Scottish clubs are full of players who have failed to make the grade in England.
When Motherwell were looking for a manager a year ago I heard one of their directors say they hoped to get someone with experience of the English lower leagues, as this has proven to be an effective place for them to network in the past.
Problems with the neighbours works both ways. It’s too easy for English clubs to use the loose change part of their budget to scoop up anything that looks like promising talent from the SPL. While most players will earn well in England, few enjoy the career progression they hoped for.
They do things differently elsewhere. When was the last time teams from Cyprus or Switzerland badgered an English League Two side for their surplus talent? Developing football teams is difficult but a good top level plan helps. One of the most encouraging aspects of Celtic’s top level plan is that it meets criteria that match our place in the world. Recruit talent from the right markets, at the right age and price. Some money has been spent in England, but not much, and those who have arrived from there look decent value.
If Celtic are to match the recent Champions League achievements of Basel or Apoel Nicosia, players like Izaguirre, Kayal, Wanyama and Ki, who pitch up in Glasgow from what appears to be beyond the horizon of the English, will be crucial. Just as those players at Basel and Apoel, they arrived here within an affordable budget and appear to have the talent required to compete at the level Celtic aspires to.
11 years ago we bought Chris Sutton from Chelsea against competition from other FA Premier League clubs. He was soon joined by others at the peak of their ability and reputation, all relatively low-risk signings. We had a few years in the sun but it was neither affordable nor sustainable.
We’ll know soon enough if the current crop of players trying to establish a reputation for themselves have what it takes to win the league and compete in Europe. Good top level plans can still fail in execution, but I’d rather this strategy than send my cash down the M6.
Issue 5 of CQN Magazine is due out next week, let me know if you would like to advertise, celticquicknews@gmail.com.
Read CQN Magazine for free online here. Subscriptions to the online copy are discretionary but you can contribute here. Old-school hard copies are available here from Magcloud.
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Naismith retrospectively banned on review for sneaky devious hateful behaviour.
Naismiths replacement retrospectively banned on review for sneaky devious and hateful behaviour.
I look forward to the witch hunt in the scottish meedja regarding the cheats at Ibrox and their cheating ways.
I’ll give the lazy lurking press pack a hand:
Mention McGregor’s visit to Easter Road Last season where he got in to bother for ‘simulating’ an injury after no one head butted him relentlessly in the build up to the match. Call it a ‘controversial return’ or call him the ‘controversial keeper’ – you’ve loads to go on there – mobsters, black eyes, police investigations…. fill yer boots.
Highlight the various ‘diving’ incidents involving rangers players in recent years – there are tons of them
of course you could just revert to type and tell the world that Aiden McGeady once got a second yellow for trying to avoid a scything tackle at Easter road and got sent off. Jazz it up and don’t mention the scything tackle though.
You lazy, hypocritical shower of ………
Haven’t read through all today’s posts, so sorry if others have already made this point, but re Sone Aluko, I thought it was interesting that he said “I’m not one who normally dives”. My, admittedly biased, reading of this was that he might possibly have been instructed to “dive dive dive” at any opportunity and that this is a shift from advice given at previous clubs…. This suspicion was strengthened watching the footage of the incident on Reporting Scotland a wee while ago, where Whittaker seemed to congratulate his teammate for his – shall we say – “artistic merit”.
Also, Coisty’s comments about a former referee, which clearly criticised not only his ruling on this incident, but his judgement throughout his refereeing career, must surely attract a sanction. Why, only last season, the poor referees felt so undermined by the robust criticisms that they received from managers that they felt compelled to withdraw their labour. I’m sure everyone on CQN would join in a call for referees to be protected from such intemperate criticism….
Time for an example to be made, I think; as CQN favourite Napoleon put it, pour encourager les autres.
HH
PV
McCoist was being openly scorned by all and sundry on Radio Shortbread earlier for his stupid remarks. He blamed everyone except the player. As has been pointed out, if this is his reaction to a 2-game ban for clear simulation, what will he be like when something more controversial comes up – as it inevitably will?
Perhaps he’s taken this one so badly because simulation – what used to be described more faithfully as ‘cheating’ – is a subject with which he is so well acquainted?
Was Mc Cluskey no a Grand Master down Ayrshire way??
McCoist must be given a ban for his disgraceful intimidatory tactics in naming McCluskey. How amusing, mind you, that in the midst of a crisis the bears start fighting amongst themselves!
Ceaser67 says:
8 December, 2011 at 19:15
I think he lead an orange walk through Stewarton or some other wee bigoted place in Ayrshire.
Hail Hail
BJMAC
Just scrolling back,wi yer Jack Russell comment about Carluke.
Carluke? Yet your new job is in Paisley?
Bit of a train ride,that-and costly.
Why don’t you move somewhere closer,say 20 mins away by “fast train”? Two stops,in fact.
My Dad could do wi some decent male TIM company in Kilwinning……….
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo says:
8 December, 2011 at 15:47
Auldheid
I am more concerned about your world view.
Under these circumstances then clearly there is NO IMPROVEMENT no matter how much you would like to think that there has been. This is why we are so crap generally at game of football as South of Tunis very eloquently illustrated.
Has the law improved if petty crimes and misdemeanour’s are trawled through the courts and highlighted at the expense of major crimes ?
I think it is insignificant.
I see it as beads to the Indians.
You are happy with that I am not.
For sure that does make me a bad person just consistent and I would argue reasonable person.
I wont accept anything other than fairness. What´s wrong with that as far as you are concerned ?
Hail Hail
———————————-
Aw Naw
If you know how to change what is in somone’s heart then get crackin. In the meantime checking the symptoms is next best thing.
To quote a wise nun I spoke to “Better to wear slippers than try to carpet the world”
What position we adopt does not make one right and another wrong or bad, just different.
oops led not lead
The Honest Cover-up says:
8 December, 2011 at 19:17
From listening to Clyde it sounds like the SFA are not at all happy about the names being leaked.
This “leak” should be investigated and those who made the information public asked what their motive was.
Sleekit Sally is right…..McLuskey was a crap referee,that gave the huns everything.
Turning on your own ……how immoral fat sal.
it appears there are 2 hurricanes blowing through the country.
More p%sh from the orcs about being victimised by the sfa. Not the bbc or uefa or hmrc this week! How on earth can a single person in scotland call celtic paranoid.
No club in the history of football has had more favours than them but a succession of their managers, mcleish, ‘walter’ and now ‘alistair’ cry foul.
The real story about the compliance officers intervention in rangers incidents this season that for both naismith and aluko the referees were yards away with an unimpaired view. Go figure ally. He is never a manager and is cracking.
Cant wait for the greetin faces that will await me tomorrow at work. Whos next to have it in for them. The loyal orange lodge???? Probably more anti rangers than the bbc in all honesty.
A club beyond parody.
stpat
Was he on the white horse??
A Ship
Called
Dig-
Ni-
Tee….
Celticrollercoaster
Happy Birthday, mate.
Multi-page thread on FF speculating about the identity of the panel members.
Very threatening, very sinister.
On a funnier note, several threads saying the Huns should pull out of the Scottish Cup….
Paul67 et al
Roy Keane has not yet proved himself to be a great Manager, but there is time yet for that to happen, and he showed last night a hint of what he might bring to the dressing room with his comments on Manchester United last night. Part of the problem, for Roy is the “bigging” up of young players, to the extent that they forget that “they have a lot to learn about this game”. Manchester United did not become a consistent European side overnight, neither did Arsenal and neither will Manchester City. Jones and Smalling in particular have been hailed as world beaters, promoted to International status, when in fact the former had started less that thirty games for Blackburn, while Smalling had played even less for Fulham. Our younger players are getting a good grounding, lots of games, against different types of opposition and the pressure of having to try and win every match. If they keep learning they will do well as professional footballers, that is the message.
Ceaser67,
No that was Alan Hasson, the minister of Bonhill South Church. Hasson was certainly full of contradictions. He was known outside Bonhill as the Grand Master of the Orange Lodge in Scotland, and perhaps his best-known pose was astride a white horse leading Scotland’s main Orange Walk into Balloch Park ,less well known at the time was the fact that the horse was a replacement, the first one having been painted green during the night by some Vale Bhoys.
Hail Hail.
Was’nt McCluskey not anti-Celtic late 80s/Early nineties? I remember giving him a bit of stick on a job in Bridge of Weir Hospital in 1990. ( He was the MD of the building firm) He gave the Huns 2 pens in a 3-0 win at ipox and on the Monday I gave him pelters, got to say he took it quite well. I remember him saying to me it should have given another (Rogan was having a nightmare).
Think he could have have given them two in another match around that time.
HH
On one of my few trips to Ibrokes, McCluskey “missed” one of the most obvious penalties I’ve ever seen, when Kanchelskis scythed down Mahe.
Even Kanchelskis said it was a penalty, a few days later.
To be fair to McCluskey, I think he later gave an interview to a Celtic fanzine in which he admitted that he got that one wrong…
ItaliaBhoy says:
8 December, 2011 at 19:32
Multi-page thread on FF speculating about the identity of the panel members.
Very threatening, very sinister.
On a further note, several threads saying the Huns should pull out of the Scottish Cup….
=============
I listened to the Real Radio phone in the other night when Alan Rough continually called Aluko a cheat. The huns calling in were hyperventilating. Pure comedy.
whats this about the “trampoline trampoline “??
HAIL HAIL
iki says:
8 December, 2011 at 15:49
Having read his rant, I think the anonymity of the panel members will not last long.
Not often I can say this …. I got that right!
From FF…
Either a Tim on the wind up, or the true face of a sizeable element of the Huns support…
“Listen up all you protestants from all spl clubs.These scumbags from the eastend of my city are useing football to get ahead in our country we need to stand together yes we can dispute what happens on the park with each other .but we must realise what theses bstds are up to”
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo says:
8 December, 2011 at 15:56
Auldheid
will Sally be brought before the beaks for his outburst ?
Neil Lennon was for intimating that they probably have their story ready already last year and with COMPLETE AND PROVEN justification.
What you are encouraging is not the road to fairness but a few cherry picked incidents that will allow the self serving politicians and football administrators to pretend that they are doing something about it.
Hail Hail
======================
When one of the Clyde pundits tonight suggests McCoist will be brought to book then there is at least a questionning of McCoist’s questionning. I heard same guy (Hannah?) say the SFA were most unhappy at anonymity, the basis that makes the system work, being broken by the very club who have “worked” the old system for years.
If I were the SFA I would be demanding an explantion if McCoist indeed named anyone on the panel.
Working my way through this thread still, but I’ve got as far as truthwhatever, asking what the difference between the o’connor and aluko dives is. Well, for my money o’connor dived too, but there is some contact, some dubiety. People will always make mistakes and in my view o’connor got away with his. Aluko (who I quite like actually) dived in splendid isolation; it was spectacularly obvious that no contact was made and even more clearly there was no intent to foul him. The decision of the panel was therefore ridiculously easy.
And that’s………………………a fact!
PV
Bobby Tait has asked SFA to put his name on Panel list.
bada i think your problem could be that sky charge 10 pounds a month for h d .so you will need to agree with sky so as they can activate your sky hd box to allow you to watch hd on your tv
Now that’s embarrassing
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16098562
Bluff and bluster by McCoist as he deflects from the three points gained by cheating…again!
Willlie Collum was invited on to Video Review Panel but declined when it was insisted that he should actually be looking at the video.
What gets me about this whole shebang is that Aluko’s dive was so utterly obvious.
It wasn’t even a sneaky wee “Naisy I’ll leave the leg in” bit of cheating.
It was a comical fall, worthy of Tom Daly.
That Sally is going to war over this is utterly laughable.
AULDHEID 1942
Hannah?
Was that Daryl Hannah?
Got all the attributes to be a football pundit in Scotland. Called Daryl-never actually met anyone with that name,but they’re all over the meeja,Proddy-sounding surname,and knows sod all about the game.
At the back of my mind is a lingering doubt,but cannae put my finger on the reason…….
DUSHANBE BILLYBHOY says:
8 December, 2011 at 17:51
steady, I thought he was referring to Kojo :-o
…but a fair enough point -you are getting on a wee bit now.
hehehehe
HH
M
Whyte up at court on Monday?
One Stop Roofing Supplies Ltd v Tixway UK Ltd
Mmmmm
Things Rangers players never got pulled up for in the last few years:
Bougherra booted the Aberdeen keeper in the head and a still photo and video footage proved he did it yet this as rescinded in jig time to allow him to play at Tannadice despite this not being in the rules and Glenn Loovens’ punishment was held back for months.
Lafferty was never banned for the Dive against Mulgrew – scored the next week.
McCulloch elbows Chris Maguire in the face – no review panel
Rangers vs Celtic ( the Craig Thompson apology game)
2 stonewall penalty claims turned down both involving Weir – No cards – later admitted by the ref, Weir not banned
Lafferty assaults McManus and Zhi – No review panel
Whittaker has his hands round McDonald’s throat for a free kick – No penalty given, no review panel
No second card for Novo for handball again this was a 50/50 call – No review panel
Weir studs first tackle on McDonald into his knee – NO cards and no video review panel for Weir whereas McDonald was subjected to one in an incident where the referee had dealt with it last season – no review panel
Bougherra boots Robbie Keane off the park – no review panel
Lafferty attacks Brown and Lafferty not referred to a review panel
McGregor dives at Easter Road – no review panel
Naismith stamps on Hearts player – no review panel
McCulloch fly kicks an Inverness player in the midrift, shows this to the ref – no review panel
Rangers players take it in turns to take off Alexi Eremenko’s legs in a cup game – no review panel
Jelavic headbutts Hanlon of Hibs and gets a yellow card – no review panel
Broadfoot dives for a penalty in the 3-1 game – no review panel
Jelavic Dives for a penalty at home to St Mirren – same as Aluko – no review panel
Bougherra man handles a ref and gets away with it when another player got a 14 game ban WHEN IT DID GO TO A PANEL
Diouf – the same
Now those are a lot of occasions where rangers didn’t get pulled up.
Where is this Timmy controlled SFA?
Is it really that different when Gordon Smith isn’t picking and choosing what gets looked at?
It seems the rules being upheld are an issue now.
iki says:
8 December, 2011 at 19:49
That is very unfair. We all know Collum has 360 degree peripheral vision and can see through walls/ in the dark/ read minds to boot!
Roy Croppie
Bang on the money
Ally hasn’t lost the plot – he’s overegging the pudding in regards to the fact that any (ANY) acceptance of the dive makes his 3 points ill gained – moreso that his team’s slump is actually still in full flow. OG and a penalty and all in the first half… 0-1 or a 1-1 anyone…
Who knows, if he keeps saying it loud enough then maybe he’ll believe it too…
Other words he could have used are – Hurt (Too weak), offended (Too meek), dismayed (Too twee), betrayed (Too near the truth)
He ain’t anywhere near his day, but when it comes I’m taking a day off work just to laugh at him.
U