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Lessons to learn from Pukki mistake

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By on CQN BLOG & Comments

Teemu Pukki’s permanent move to Brondby for a reported £500k is good business for a player who never came close to commanding a regular starting place at Celtic.  While we did well exiting him from Celtic Park but his arrival two years ago is worthy of review.

He came from Schalke as a 23-year-old, having been at Sevilla as a teenager and scoring slightly better than one in two in Finland.  Even his Schalke stats were decent, 8 goals in 7 starts and 30 appearances from the bench, which for a sparingly used young player is around the mark expected.  On paper, Teemu looked a good fit for us, so do we have anything to learn?

For a start, being able to score goals in the Bundesliga does not guarantee you will be able to translate this into an even better scoring rate in Scotland.  We have made similar mistakes when recruiting strikers from Spain in recent seasons.  For all our lack of financial clout, delivering in Scotland is not an easy task.

There is a whole world of potential issues around psychology, motivation and appetite, which I regularly hear cited about players from people in the game.  For the most part, I reckon these are excuses to bridge the unexplained gap between expectation and outcome.  You get the odd indulgent nutcase, but most players have an overwhelming sense of their need to maximise their commercial value by delivering on the park.  I suspect Teemu is no different.

Whatever the reason behind him not fitting at Celtic, the exercise cost us not only the £1.5m net loss on transfer fees, and wages paid, but more importantly the failure to kick on from reaching the last 16 of the Champions League in season 2012-13.

There’s a truth in the game which has stood the test of time: only people who watch a player week-in-week-out know his true value.  Schalke fans would have told us things about Teemu which we can tell others about John Guidetti.  John will pick up a club keen to exploit his untapped potential.  A year from now they will be a little wiser.

Our lesson: scouting is the only important part of recruitment, stats, references and YouTube clips don’t count.

Our friends at Magners have offered us two of the new Celtic away jerseys.  It’s another fantastic offer from Celtic’s main sponsor, my thanks to them.  In order to win, answer the following question:

Which team won this year’s Premiership Play-off final 6-1 on aggregate?  Put the answer in the SUBJECT line of your email to celticquicknews@gmail.com

Competition closes at midnight TONIGHT, so get busy, these are two great prizes and there’s less than a 12 hour window to win them.

And………….. while you’re entering, you might want to kick a pound or two towards our Marys’ Meals Malawi school kitchen appeal.  Thank you.

And #2, if you enter, check your inbox for a response over the weekend.  There’s a home shirt unclaimed from a similar competition last month!

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  8. petec on

    leftclicktic,

     

     

    We need to chat more when we meet amongst so many Great Celts, most definitely.

     

     

    HH and may the Lord give you and yer Mum many fantastic moments together for lots of years to come.

  9. Cowiebhoy on

    Melbourne Mick

     

     

    Great to hear from you, hope you and Family are doing great

     

    That Grandson of yours is going to be a Star

     

    Enjoy your day oot today :-))

  14. petec on

    It tis a Wonderful Life

     

     

    I know personally, I am extraordinarily lucky, especially when you look around the World at this moment.

     

     

    I dinnae have much compared to many but I am so very Lucky.

     

     

    I’m determined to keep my Galaxy s2 for as long as it works. I’d love one of those Smart TV’s as they seem really cool, no need to get rid of a TV that still works though, IMO.

  23. Gerryfaethebrig on

    roy croppie

     

     

    22:39 on 20 June, 2015

     

     

    The Waterboys

     

    Whole of the Moon

     

     

    88/89 after the centenary season bhoy who drove us to all the games wouldn’t have the “tunes” on as he was driving and we were all swallying, the music tape was “whole of the moon” “dignity” “the only way is up” (Yazz) and a few other dodgy tunes, after one or two sherbets the car music was drowned out with a few of the old favourites, but it’s quite funny when I hear some of those old tunes it reminds me of our away trips more than the songs that we were singing…..strange but true !

  34. clogher celt on

    Sorry, is see before but the funeral of The Lord Mayor of Cork who died on hunger strike.

     

     

    For the weekend lhads.

     

     

    Hard to believe the crowds in London.

     

     

    Terence McSwiney

     

     

     

    http://youtu.be/qU16rhRHP7M

     

     

    Clogher

  37. The Green Deila on

    Just reading Phil’s blog there, the comments section full of hurting huns…..They even appear to have organised themselves repeating the usual retorts over and over (ahem) again…..hilarious!

  40. Art of War on

    Big nan- do you know who Paddybhoy 1888’s da is?

     

     

    He is on holiday so I can understand why he is slow getting back to me. Just dying to know….

  41. Cowiebhoy on

    Big Nan

     

     

    You put up a player, under if you know your history, back in February

     

     

    I believe that was my Great Ganda – although we thought his name was John and not Pat

     

     

    Clubs played for and dates all tied in

     

     

    Hail Hail

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