Lessons to learn from Pukki mistake

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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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1,527 Comments

  1. Delaneys Dunky on

    ACGR

     

     

    Aye, they have signed you for the half time entertainment. Kevin Bridges is beelin that you have better patter.

  2. Nye Bevans' rebel soldier on

    Good Morning Timland.

     

     

    Happy Fathers Day tae all the daddies oot there,I’m going

     

    tae kick the erse oot it.

     

     

    Happy Summer Solstice tae all the Druids,I’m sure we have a

     

    few,we are all inclusive after all.

     

     

    Off oot tae the hangover Mass,have a great day cqn.

  3. ....PFayr supports WeeOscar on

    Signing a striker who scores regularly is a help ….see Griffiths / Hooper

     

     

    Signing ones who don’t …Bangura ,Pukki and Balde ….no use

  4. I wonder if there are strikers in the ‘Denayer’ market. Up and coming who need experience in big games. Can’t think of anyone we’ve had on loan who might fit that bill? Worth looking at.

  5. ....PFayr supports WeeOscar on

    Sydney Tim

     

     

    I remember your comment re Pukki at the time …..the usual suspects abused you …Pukki played to form …ie poor ….

     

     

    I made a similar comment re Boeriggter ….I did a wee bit of research …didn’t take long …the research suggested he was a soft, lazy sicknote…..I was abused for this

     

     

    Thus info is fairly readily available …why are we signing players in the face of this

     

     

    Don’t get me started re Tonev ….another dud who played to form

  6. PFAyr

     

     

    Yes, but didn’t Sydney Tim want us to shell out eight million on Alfred Finbogason, a prolific goalscorer in Holland, who has now scored 2 goals in 23 games for Real Sociedad.

  7. ....PFayr supports WeeOscar on

    79caps

     

     

    Perhaps

     

     

    What’s Finbogasson’s performance at a club in Spain got to do with us signing Pukki ?

  8. A Ceiler Gonof Rust on

    So, have we signed anyone. Not got great internet access and few opportunities to check.

     

     

    Sumdy tell me.

  9. Pfayr. Indeed. And we are not paid handsomely for scouting

     

    The pukki think really worried me

     

    My mate told the shalke fans laughed during the warm up when a wee ball boy outran pukki. They said his big behind slowed him down

     

    Paul 67 said his pace was one of the reasons we signed him as this will help in Europe

     

    Who told Paul this ? They should be sacked

     

    Yup the derk Another one that a wee bit of Google would have the alarm bells ringing

     

    We are not taking a few pounds here. We are taking millions

  10. ....PFayr supports WeeOscar on

    ACGR

     

     

    Nope

     

     

    Not too much chat either…..Hooper return is still doing the rounds……VVD will he stay or go …if he goes ..who to ???

     

     

    Otherwise hee haw

  11. PFAyr

     

     

    Well, you were praising Sydney Tim’s great judgment of players. So was he right about Finbogason? And you were saying we should only sign strikers who have a good scoring record. So should we have signed Finbogason?

  12. 79 caps. There is more of a chance that players with good scoring records will continue to score

     

     

    There is a large chance that non scoring strikers will continue to be non scoring strikers. Hence pukki bangura Balde etc etc

  13. Not going to let weather stop me today, gym, visit the faither, garden, bit of cooking, red wine and beer….roughly in that order..

  14. ....PFayr supports WeeOscar on

    79caps

     

     

    I was commenting on a particular signing..ie Pukki …and the info he gave at the time

     

     

    I wasn’t praising anyone

     

     

    As for Finbogsson …no idea…couldn’t tell you what he looks like

     

     

    I’m afraid I don’t see the relevance

  15. Eurochamps67 on

    Kalimera from day 1 Aegean Adventure 2015.

     

     

    Ever notice how backpacking students never factor in their sizeably increased body mass, especially in confined spaces e.g. Aircraft or queues?

     

     

    swim, then off to local fruit and veg stalls for initial provisions.

     

     

    EC67

  16. Happy fathers’ day to all dads, off to Mass then bar duties at the cricket club later.

     

     

    Have a great day – being a Tim is a helluva good start.

  17. These players were signed under the previous manager and a different system and possibly give an insight into why Ronny got the job last summer. Celtic’s scouting is now more thorough and another factor is Ronny starting by looking at the Scottish market – at all age groups – to make sure we have the best players. At first team level he signed Armstrong and Mackay-Steven, Danny Wilson was watched extensively before a decision was made that will see him sign for The Rangers next week.

     

     

    We now have extensive notes on every player we are watching at every level for just about every game they play. Ronny wants to develop his own first team players while being absolutely sure re spending on players. It wasn’t like this previously.

  18. Happy birthday to one of our greatest songsmiths ever – Ray Davies (Kinks) and my little brother also called Ray. Anyone do the linky to “Till the End Of the Day” cheers H H Hebcelt

  19. gene thanks a million CQN a site like no other, the rest of you log on to that link and enjoy. Hail Hail Hebcelt

  20. Good morning friends and a Big Happy Fathers Day from this one to all others out there from a rather damp (formerly* wet) breezy and grey EK.

     

     

    Jobo

     

     

    * – as in all through the night just passed…

  21. Tim Malone Will Tell on

    Seem to recall us being linked with both Austin and Vardy a few years ago – pooh poohed by many on here as “projects” and “not Celtic class”.

     

     

    For the money we can afford in both transfer – and most importantly wages – some risks are inevitable. Either of fore mentioned two would have been decent options even though none of us had a clue about them.

  22. The dug got me a card…………..

     

     

    ……….feelin’ emotional.

     

     

    HH

  23. Thunder Road on

    bankiebhoy1

     

     

    It’s probably angling for you to take it a walk to the pub.

     

     

    It is the least you can do to thank it.

  24. Tim Malone Will Tell

     

     

    I believe the reason we didn’t sign Austin was due to a knee injury, QPR signed him in the knowledge he failed a medical at Hull if I remember rightly.

     

     

    I also doubt we could have afforded the fee or would have risked that kind of fee with his known injury.

  25. Lennons passion – why? He’s been pretty accurate to date.

     

     

    He can be a wee bit self aggrandising at times. That’d be my only gripe. Fantasist though? No. Evidence points the other way.

  26. Greetings from an overcast Paris en route to Montreal shortly.

     

     

    I like the idea of Jelle Vossen ( assuming not related to the Dutch ‘striker’)

     

     

    He seems to have something to prove and a target to reach with Belgium.

     

     

    Not sure of his games/goals ratio. If this checks out he could be a good buy.

     

     

    The clock is ticking and we need a few more in to ensure CL qualification.

  27. Been on holiday and on reading back noticed the imbecile Keith Jackson has been banned from Celtic Park.

     

     

    If so, for what reason and why haven’t our PR people highlighted this?

     

    An absolute imposter, a sevconian sycophant and a disgrace to journalism.

     

    Celtic should be highlighting actions like this

  28. Anyone seen much of Vossen play?

     

     

    A quick background search shows he has a great scoring record in Belgium. More importantly he has scored goals in Europe. Lots of goals in Europa League and the year Genk qualified for champions league he scored twice in group stages (including a goal against Chelsea).

     

     

    Best we can get in the 0-3m bracket?