Celtic’s January transfer window saw seven new players sign deals, although only four will be at the club for the remainder of this season, and only one of those, Vakoun Issouf Bayo, is on a permanent deal.
Bayo is a classic centre forward-target man, unlike Leigh Griffiths or Odsonne Edouard, who like to play in the channels. He has not played for two months, so it is likely to be a couple of weeks before we see him. He is here because of our Ivorian Connection through Kolo Toure, who is a coach at both Celtic and Ivory Coast. That being the case, the club should know more about him than most new signings, which should mitigate the risk inherent in any signing.
Since the resumption of action after the winter break, we have seen Oliver Burke and Timothy Weah fulfil the striker role, each on loan, from West Brom and Paris Saint-Germain respectively. Neither player is here to play the striker role long-term; expect them to supplement the wide positions after we return to a more normal compliment up front.
With minutes to spare, Jeremy Toljan signed on loan from Borussia Dortmund. This is a player who great things were expected from when he left Hoffenhiem 18 months ago, but Dortmund is a different beast and he did not find the move easy.
That’s not dissuaded many of his talent, which means Celtic’s chances of securing his services on a permanent basis are slim. I also believe the player is on pretty decent (cough) contract. He will not be here beyond May.
Maryann Shved, 21, arrived this week from Karpaty Lviv in Ukraine, where he has returned to stay until the summer. We moved early for Maryann, interest in the player was generated in only 38 competitive games. Players grow up on the football field and Maryann needs as many opportunities as he can get right now. With the manager having so many wide options for the remainder of the season, loaning him back to Karpaty was an easy decision.
Two American full backs were signed yesterday, Andrew Gutman (22) and Manny Perez (19), both loaned back to US clubs.
So all these loans arrivals, signings-only-to-be-loaned out, what’s the plan?
The top-level plan is to win the league, do our best to win the two cups and to give us the best chance of qualifying for the Champions League. Everything else is a consequence of this. Two decades ago, when Martin O’Neill set his mind to the same task, he signed talent who were at the peak of their physical capabilities. Many of those who arrived not only had experience in the English Premiership, they were top performers there.
By the time Gordon Strachan took over, signing strikers who were recently top scorers in England was no longer possible. Gordon took to Poland (as well as Easter Road), as we searched for talent in value markets.
Neil Lennon’s term saw the transitioning to where we are now. Neil found African talent, and successfully raided the lower leagues in England, but under his tenure we embarked on what would become one of the mainstays of our recruitment planning – loaning young players (Fraser Forster) who were not getting a sniff at wealthier clubs.
Many doors have closed to us in the last 20 years. There will be no more Chris Suttons, while competition for players across Eastern Europe is vastly greater than it was when we signed Artur Boruc.
The news is not all bad, in fact, significant things are much better than they were 20 years ago, most specifically, the development of young talent. Callum McGregor, Kieran Tierney and James Forrest are more successful than any player Paul McStay and Aiden McGeady – and both of them were notable as exceptions for their eras.
The ‘Fraser Forster strategy’ – scout teams too distracted elsewhere to give opportunities to players, has been very productive. Olivier Ntcham, Odsonne Edouard and Dedryck Boyata all fall into this category (we’ll reserve comment on Daniel Arzani). We managed to get Odsonne on a try-before-you-buy loan first. During his loan he did enough to convince Brendan Rodgers to beak our transfer record on him. Celtic think this will continue to be a productive furrow for them.
Not all signings are Development Projects
Not all loans fall into this category. Some, like Jeremy Toljan, are here to do a job for a specific period. Development Projects are not the only game in town, sometimes you just have to plug a hole to strengthen the team.
There were choices for the right back role. Lech Poznan’s Robert Gumny was looked at and liked, but the player failed a medical a year ago and has not played enough football since a subsequent operation to convince anyone he would be fitter than Jozo Simunovic. Or we could have tried to find a nugget elsewhere, but Jeremy got the nod.
We sign a lot of players
Two American full backs on the same day we sign a German full back, “millions of wingers”. This has been going on for a while. You, me, Celtic and the players know, not all of them are going to make it. Football, for a century, has harvested talent, picked the cherries and cast the darnel aside.
I remember Martin O’Neill, flush with the success of his early signings and before his Ulrik Laursen and David Fernandez period, told us that every signing a football club makes needs to be a success. Yes, if you have the wisdom and insight, the luck and the money, maybe you can be so bold. But there is a real world out there full of scouts and managers who each carry the weight of experience of players who just didn’t work out.
There are formulas, some better than others, but we should know that just putting a Celtic jersey onto a player will not, and has never, made him a certain success. Martin would have been more accurate by saying ;You have to kiss a lot of frogs in this business’, just do your best to get some handsome frogs in the first place.
We have exceptional domestic talent: Scott Brown, Kieran Tierney, James Forrest, Callum McGregor and Ryan Christie – better than any Scottish team in 30 years, and we have done very well to retain them.
There is room for others to follow. The opportunity is there for Scott Bain and Tony Ralston.
As well as developing our own talent, we have cooperated with two of the world’s richest, Manchester City and PSG, to foster young players who are not getting a chance at their parent club. This is affordable, enhances the squad, and has helped achieve our football objectives.
We have five young players out on loan: Lewis Morgan, Calvin Miller, Andrew Gutman and Manny Perez, and Maryann Shved. The hope is some develop into first-team regulars, like Callum McGregor and Ryan Christie did.
That’s the strategy. Is it better than signing the best permanent players we can? Like you, I prefer the good ones to be tied down to long-term contracts at Celtic, but despite this, the answer is a clear yes. We need to work angles with PSG, Borussia Dortmund and Man City. We need to take risks on players with only a few dozen games under their belt. When an opportunity to sign a Ntcham or Boyata arises, take it. And we need to continue to do what we are doing with youth development.
Will it deliver 8-in-a-row? You bet your bum it will.
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whistle/flags we don’t. in all honesty it doesn’t matter a hoot what we think of the spl Lanarkshire clique and their bias and anything you can do i can do better attitude to assist sevco between themselves , they have the
Fairhill Bhoy.
The mods are like Scottish refs, they have their favourites. :-)
Hail Hail
I was listening to Radio Scotland at lunchtime yesterday and heard it repeated this morning, a program entitled The Good, The Bad and The Unexpected. It is a comedy quiz show. They had comedienne Jo Caulfield on who was endearing herself to all things hun ?
Footballing questions included: what two Scottish teams would be playing if the teddy bears were playing the jam tarts. Eventually the correct answer was given then the bold Jo interjects “ Before I moved to Scotland I used to think it was a reference to a picnic like a Teddy Bear’s picnic but then I found out it was violent, bigoted sectarianism.” Well that’s her card marked.
in all honesty it doesn’t matter a hoot what we think of the spl Lanarkshire clique and their bias and anything you can do i can do better attitude to assist sevco between themselves , they have the whistle/flags we don’t.
I take it Hudson is commentating on València v Barca game? Embarrassing ?
Dallas has been in charge of 20 games this season
He’s awarded 7 penalties in total
6 of them have been to Rangers
JIMMYNOTPAUL-they certainly do?
Hi mate ,I see you’re fighting fit and then some ?
MAH- wow what a stat
D. :)
Cheating has been endemic In Scottish football since RFCIL and sevco became the Establishment club. All we have to do is concentrate on our own game and keep on winning then cheats like Dallas, Beaton, et al become an irrelevance.
Celtic as a Club cannot complain about what happens in another match but need to do more than make meaningless statements about our own matches in a bid to fob off the fans.
Hugh Dallas will go all out now to have andrew added tp the uefa list of referees. and he will appoint him for all rangers qualifiers next season.
Andrew Dallas being fast tracked through the ranks, sums up the utter shambles of referee recruitment in the Scottish game.
I’ve stated before that he’s by far the worst in Scotland, and that takes some doing.
Others whether Sevco lovers or not, can at least claim to be fit enough and have a “presence” on the park. Dallas is lacking in any of the required abilities, but does possess a surname that matters. Nothing else is important.
Compare and contrast the penalty we didn’t get on Wednesday night compared with the utterly soft gifts the deady bears received today.
A blatant hand ball , with both hands. We got nought.
They don’t even try to hide it .
Where did the live Spanish games go?
I used to get them on sky sports… Not any more :|
D. :)
HUNNISM -A Scottish psychological disorder where cheating and dishonesty are justified and accepted as normal.
Often associated with marching and dignity
FAIRHILL BHOY on 2ND FEBRUARY 2019 7:08 PM
JIMMYNOTPAUL-they certainly do?
Hi mate ,I see you’re fighting fit and then some ?
Thanks F.B.
Yes, fortunately I’m having a more stable week or so, they are great,and I really appreciate them, but mentality tough, when I get another, inevitable, attack,because at this moment I think I’m invincible.
My wife is away on another Buddhist retreat, so it’s just me and the 8 year old.
I’m watching the cricket, posting stuff and making stuff from Lego, magic.
How is your Dad? I think he’s,better than you or I.
Hail Hail
MURDOCHAULDANDHAY on 2ND FEBRUARY 2019 7:06 PM
That speaks volumes :-(((
HH
David66 7.12pm
Spanish fitba is on 11 sports think STV iplayer has some but only going with the adverts
JNP/FB
The Mods surely don’t have favourites it’s just following P67s rules … shoorly it’s not that difficult … this coming from a poster who has frequently … walked the line :-)
Sevco are on track for 24 domestic penalties this season……a Scottish record.
Defoe’s legs are long gone and so is the £65k per week ( NOT £35k as Traynor leaked when they realised he wasn’t that good anymore ).
Alfredo hasn’t scored in his last 5 games…I predict he will never in his career be transferred for over £1m.
Crazy Sevvies
Hope the new FB is playing tomorrow….probably left back.
If bid Kris Ajer stays fit this year and next, I think we will have a player that could be really special like VVD.
4-0 to Celtic tomorrow and Jamesy to run riot again.
UP THE CELTS
Barca 2-2 Valencia.
Valencia are a seriously good team.
JNP @ 5.55
Looks like my memory was playing tricks on me.
Paul67 et al
Maybe we could have a meeting up in Perth the morra or summit.
Last time the huns had so many penalties, was from the taxman…
GFTB.
Are you trying to get me carded? :-)
The mods have a difficult job, it would be unfair to deny that and I would never want to do it.
In my opinion though, there are inconsistencies on how Paul’s rules are applied, particularly with swearing. A recent example Sandman had a funny and long post deleted for using asterisks to hide swear words, yet other posts that used feck weren’t. That’s one example of many I could list and if you are Fairhill Bhoy, you just get deleted for the sake of it. :-) :-) :-)
Sadly it looks as if Sandman has gone elsewhere.
Hail Hail
Lovely TIFO at Cardiff game for Sala
H.J.
I was impressed, so long ago and 4 penalties were taken in the game.
I can’t even remember my name at times. I blame it on the medication, of course. :-)
Hail Hail
JIMMYNOTPAUL-your invincible at this moment to me ,my dad is a one of,my van was playing up last week and he wants me to just get a new one,and he will give me the money.yestarday
My boiler gave in ,My dad is like,get a proper boiler and I will pay for it ,79 in march and still looking after me?I’m 49 this year ffs?
Gftb-7:22pm uter pish?
GFTB – Thanks
D. :)
JNP 7.40pm
Don’t read back the next day then if you get deleted you are oblivious.. was working this morning so caught the Mods deletions … am pretty content being deleted then nobody has to read my guff :-)
Hopefully everyday a school day and I can only try and learn …. you are one of the posters who doesn’t have to worry about being carded …
Maybe I should start posting during the week and taking a break at weekends :-)
Fairhill Bhoy 7.49pm
Like most of my utterings :-)
That post made me laugh
Fairhill Bhoy.
He’s a star.
I get what you mean, my mum is 80.
We have to treasure them, my friend.
Hail Hail
Gftb-honestly couldn’t see why you were deleted,you definitely never bad mouthed anyone ?
I read somewhere that 8% of the penalties given to all SPFL teams this season were given to Sevco today.
That is a staggering statistic which defies any rational explanation.
GFTB-pish as in the mods don’t have favourites!
Feck right af ya nugget ?
Fairhill Bhoy 7.57pm
It goes with the territory if any posts relate to a post that gets deleted then it’s fair game.. I seriously don’t take this place too seriously but really enjoy it 99% of the time … a new day a new dawn … the more Celtic win I feel the more the posts are about Celtic and for me that’s the best reading
When are you 49 Auld yin :-)
FB 8.02pm
I knew exactly what you meant fellow nugget ?
Michael Lustig man of the match tomorrow … Jeremy can watch and learn
JIMMYNOTPAUL-absolutely,I love spending time with my dad because it wasn’t always like this,me and him being off the same argumentative nature,spent a long time not talking.But and it’s a big but I always knew he was watching from a distance,?
Embdae got stats on Sevco penalties v The Rest of SPFL this season?
GFTB-may 22nd mate a big 49-and your earlier maestro love in will do me ??