Lessons to learn from Pukki mistake

1527

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!

Click Here for Comments >
Share.

About Author

1,527 Comments

  1. mild mannered Pedro delgado on

    Graffiti on the wall

     

     

    That’s magic that’s magic

     

     

    Bet that’s been said before

  2. .

     

     

    I think FIFA should have a Look into the Qualifing from Group Stages to Quarter Finals in the Copa America..

     

     

    Definitely Fishy..

     

     

    The Top 3 Team Qualify for the Quarter Finals..

     

     

    Here’s the Deal.. There are 3 Groups ..

     

     

    Do Americans have Some sort of Bakers Quarters cause every time I get the Ole Abacus Oot I make it NINE Teams in the Quarters.. Wtf

     

     

    001

  3. sipsini

     

    09:29 on

     

    21 June, 2015

     

    Lifted from the comments on philmacgiolabain blog, a nice wee read…

     

     

    http://mattleslie74.weebly.com/blog/dave-king-needs-you-and-i-mean-really-needs-you

     

     

    Great read.The more you read,the more gullible the Huns become.Just when you think these shysters cant do any more to them,they come up with the first two signings.

     

    Good on the SMSM for trying to pass these two off as good signings.The gullible are falling for it.

  4. niallo83

     

    09:38 on

     

    21 June, 2015

     

    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?

     

     

    I said the same thing the other day.His goal ratio,and assists are very good.Someone on here the other day saying he does not score goals!!!!!!!!!.If we can get better for the money we can spend,it will be a miracle.Wont happen.Boy has said he is interested,but has heard nothing yet.

  5. ....PFayr supports WeeOscar on

    Austin …was available to us at a decent price as was Vardy …..we were too interested in pursuing the striking equivalent of Wanyama ….too many projects non goalscoring strikers

     

     

    Better off signing Russell or May …or even giving youth a chance

  6. ....PFayr supports WeeOscar on

    Anybody ever thought that Phil maybe on the wind up …..we love it ….don’t necessarily believe it

     

     

    Sends the Huns bonkers …

     

     

    All good fun

  7. Winning caplains Sorry but the spin that it’s all different now Regarding scouting just does not cut it. We have been told this for years that john park and his extensive scouting network has massive notes on targets

     

    How on earth could pukki end up costing us 3m plus wages for year. Not to mention Balde. Who scouted them and what on earth was Park up to

     

    For every vic he has found he has found 6 duds. Not good enough. Should not be in a job

  8. 08.15

     

     

    You don’t see the relevance? Oh dear.

     

    Sydney Tim said we should only buy strikers with a good scoring record. I agree with him. But he wanted us to shell out a huge fee. Sociedad paid nearly 8 million for Finbogason, whom Sydney Tim was keen on. So far he has flopped in Spain. Should Celtic have taken that risk? All I am saying is that there is no guarantee when you buy a striker. There was no guarantee with Henrik, but we didn’t break the ban to sign him.

  9. Pfayr. Totally agree. There lies the problem

     

    We have had a policy to sign foreign players that might be developed and sold on

     

    Nothing to do with team on park and success

     

     

    We should have signed May and developed him He would be low risk with cost , but did not fit into PL policy. PL striker policy has been a disaster and cost the club Millions

  10. ....PFayr supports WeeOscar on

    79caps

     

     

    Correct …no guarantees when buying players

     

     

    However….when you sign a player with a crap record he very often remains crap ….

     

     

    I was commenting particularly on the Pukki deal ….not praising Sydney Tim’s scouting ability

     

     

    Finbogsson’s failure in Spain is irrelevant ….that is unless you think I was praising ST …which of course I wasn’t

  11. 79 caps. I have said it before and will say again. If you sign a non scoring striker for a low fee , the chances are he wil remain a flop

     

    Ps henrik scored at a World Cup before he came to Celtic

  12. Sydney

     

    ———-

     

     

    How about we bring in Martin Bain as CEO and see where that gets us?

  13. 79 I am not a well paid scout

     

     

    But when my mate from Germany told me pukki was a dud and his fellow shalke fans Said the same , then you have to wonder why our well paid scouts are still in a job

     

    4m it cost our club

  14. We’re never going to be able to afford a top striker. And we also can’t afford to spend big money on a flop. So what’s the answer? Guys like Hooper with a decent scorng record at a lower level perhaps.

  15. Turkeybhoy,

     

     

    I’m guessing the person who said he doesn’t score goals just looked at his Middlesborough record (which isn’t fantastic).

     

     

    As we both agree his Belgium record is great and has proved he can score in Europe!!

     

     

    I’d like to know more though. Is he fast/ target man etc.

  16. 21 5 79. I don’t want our club throwing away money on duds. I want those responsible for wasting our limited cash , identified and removed from Celtic park

     

     

    Don’t really know what Martin Bain has to do with it

  17. Sydney Tim

     

     

    I agree with you. But Henrik was not a prolific goal scorer in Holland. Finbogason was, and I clearly remember you saying Celtic should shell out whatever was necessary to sign the Icelander.

     

    So it’s always easy to sign a good striker. But like you I am mystified as to what our scouts saw in Bandura and Balde.

     

    Perhaps Lenny also messed up by not giving Murphy a proper chance. He’s just had a great season.

  18. Sydney

     

     

    You want PL out, so who do you suggest replaces him. I can’t believe the stick that man gets on this blog, I hate to think where Celtic would be without him.

  19. 79. I saw murphy and thought to myself. Oh my god

     

    My view on him has not changed

     

    Yes I dont see the issue on shelling out 6m on a striker. It’s the only position that I would

     

    We shelled out about 5m on pukki and Balde

     

    I think finbogason would have played and scored more than those two duds

     

    Scandavians tend to do well in SPL

     

    The Spanish league is the best in the world

  20. Sydneytim,

     

     

    If you had a Feyenoord mate the time we bought Larsson what would he have said? Or a Chelsea mate the year we bought Sutton?

     

     

    Pukki had a reasonable scoring rate in Germany. He had a good scoring rate (18 goals and 13 assists) at a lower level in Finland. He had also just scored a couple of goals in the European Championship qualifiers for Finland against Belarus and then world champions Spain.

     

     

    It was a reasonable assumption by Celtic to think at 23 years old he would get better and be able to score a lot of goals at SPFL level. It didn’t work out unfortunately….so we move on!! But stop making it out that it was blatantly obvious that he would fail because that just isn’t true

  21. Henrik (and Lubo) were not products of scouting but arrived because they were known to the manager. Interesting that both were at low points pre Celtic. Henrik unhappy at Feyenoord and Lubo similarly disillusioned at Duisburg. That is one way of doing it….. It will turn up gems now and again but is not systematic.

     

     

    Problem is with scouting that part of the market where we look to recruit. Must do better.

  22. sydneytim

     

     

    Just telling you what is happening from information received from inside the scouting set up at Celtic. Ronny is changing things dramatically and there should be less mistakes as a result. We could have had Roy Keane and that doesn’t bear thinking about.

  23. 21.5..79. I don’t know who I would want as a ceo. DD tells them he doesn’t want debt

     

    How they go about it is up to them

     

    PL has taken the easy low low risk option to ensure his bonus is maximised

     

    The CL qualifiers of the last two years have been awfull due to lack of investment when cash was available

     

    We were lucky two years ago but last year cost our club about 20m in income

     

    Not good enough

     

    We are up against teams in the CL qualifiers who in most cases are on fraction of our turnover , but they tend to have invested for CL qualifiers. We don’t

  24. Gerryfaethebrig on

    Neil Lennons dream team

     

    1. Boruc

     

    2. Agathe

     

    3. Mjallby

     

    4. Elliott (Matt)

     

    5. Valgaeren

     

    6. Izzet (Muzzy)

     

    7. Larsson

     

    8. Thompson

     

    9. Sutton

     

    10. Lambert

     

    11. Petrov

     

    You’ve had thought he would have gave himself a game, Neil you are better than Muzzy Izzet !

     

    Enjoy your day fellow fathers we deserve the adulation

     

    Hail Hail

  25. HH CQN

     

     

    Hamiltontim

     

     

    You kicking about? Can you email me your address so I can send petition forms on – soz I deleted your email by mistake.

     

     

    HH

  26. graffiti on the wall on

    mild mannered pedro delgado

     

     

    09:41 on 21 June, 2015

     

    Graffiti on the wall

     

     

    That’s magic that’s magic

     

     

    Bet that’s been said before ……….

     

     

    …………………. : ). http://youtu.be/Dkky3YHzNBM

  27. I see the right wing facist SNP government continues to use its police force to subjugate its citizens

     

     

    THE equivalent of nearly one in every five people in Greater Glasgow were stopped and searched by police last year, according to a new report.

     

     

    Quite astonishing statistics compared to the rest of the UK.

     

     

    The cops spokesman says they are keeping people safe.

     

     

    Yeah right.

  28. Sydneytim,

     

     

    Two more points.

     

     

    Pukki scored more goals (8/47) and had a better scoring rate (1 per 5.8 games) in the Bundesliga than Finnbogason (2/25) or a scoring rate of (1 per 12.5 games) scored in La Liga.

     

     

    Pukki also has more international goals (8) than Finnbogasson has (5).

     

     

    Again I’m just trying to show how difficult scouting can be.

  29. Niallo. Pukki scored 8 goals in two years with Shalke. He failed when he went out on loan to Spain also

     

    No I did not have any dutch or cheski mates

     

    But my scottish mate who lives in Germany said he was a coward , never goes for 50 50 ball and is slow and his german mates laughed at him when bought him

     

    My question is same. Who on earth sanctioned him. We had been looking for over 6 months and all our top scouts could find was a slow non scoring striker who had no heart

     

    Must do better

  30. Anyone give me a reasonable explanation for the signing of Amido Balde ?

     

     

    Just asking :-)))

  31. TheOriginalSadiesBhoy on

    a ceiler gonof rust

     

     

    08:01 on 21 June, 2015

     

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

     

     

    Sumdy tell me.

     

    ……………………………

     

    No more signings yet but I can tell you that we have been priced out of buying Akechi Anya, Steven Fletcher (phantasmagorical wages) ……………..Keith Jangles Jackson

     

     

    Ajax have also signed Mitchell Dijks, who was reportedly a target, on a 3 year deal.

  32. Shudder when I recall, but Wayne Biggins also arrived because he was known to the manager. One way of doing it, but not always the best. That said, our scouting of strikers hasn’t been great either recently – Hooper aside.

  33. Marrakesh Express on

    I see some of thems have looked in on Phil’s latest. Their response to King’s alleged effort to dump shares is as you’d expect…. Paedos this and that. Typical Hun rationale and someone using the name Graham really taking it bad. Tinfoil napper?

  34. Morning all and a happy Summer Solstice.

     

     

    Btw the sun enters Cancer at 1737, Celtic Park time!

     

     

    There you have it.

     

     

    HH!!