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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Sftb@11:50pm last night-I didn’t say anyone called anyone ‘scheidt’
I said some folk ‘weren’t impressed ‘
Big difference ?
Celtic dont always have control over players circumstances. Sometimes the opportunity to sign a player does not fit into Celtic’s timeline and sometimes celtic have to accept that part of the deal is not ideal but is better than the alternative.
Why would the bhoy perez or gutman hang about waiting till the summer for us to give them a contract when they could sign up with another clubs and start earning asap. It appears we had to spend 1.7m and sign up the winger now or lose out. given the situation It seems reasonable to me.
We already had our quota in these positions for this season. That is not the case for next season. It is good forward planning from a club accused of not firward planning.
The panic about a complete rebuild being needed in the summer does not stack up. We will certainly need a first pick rightback and a first pick centreback asap. Another centreback would be nice too.
The large squad will be much reduced with DDV, Izzy, lustig, gamboa, bayota, benkovic, Allan, german rightback, burke and weah’s contract ending. There is a real possibility that compper will be released early pssibly mulumba too and ntcham will likely be sold.
All in All its not half as bad as people think, just a shame we could not secure long term rightback now.
HH
Totes agree HS – Marseillaise just wins for me.
come on the hoops we’re gonna stuff the miniminihuns this year (killie)
I think i have backed my first winner of the year.
KILLIE V HEARTS ……………………………………BORING HALF TIME AND FULL TIME.
FU,
Just stopped watching it, dreadful game
According to some,SC is the preferred choice ?
Pre match and post match atmosphere to be enhanced.
https://www.facebook.com/448120868723656/posts/970322023170202/
CELTIC BY NUMBERS @7-07
What baffles me is why the coach employed the system in the first half?
I could see after ten minutes the side to side shuffling was never going to create chances.
It was no surprise that both goals came from McGregor and Christie breaking the two compact lines they had used to combat our one paced lateral approach.
I will stert the sing song
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ofhao4SHXGo
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3e-mkINU5GY
Beautiful song
Hearts one up.
I decided to watch Vera with the Killie game on my phone muted, 1-0 hertz
Two up Hertz.
2-0 now Killie bubble burst?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q11ium_-Lv8
Pen. Killie
And Hun boy Jones makes it 1-2
2-1 Hertz
Surely the 2nd half will be better? Cliche time – Killie need to get the 4th goal ;-)
Adi D 7.49pm
Am ok with that, when the mud sticks I will worry :-)
Broony & Lustig will prove their worth (yet again) from now till end of May … the young pretenders will hopefully learn as they go
CELTIC BY NUMBERS on 1ST FEBRUARY 2019 7:07 P
Struggling to break down a well organised opposition, Rodgers made the half time changes to alter the flow of the game. McGregor and Christie did the rest.
made the same observation/comment during halftime that SB should be subbed and CmcG moved into his best position as SB was slowing everything down and was passing poorly , BR kept SB on but moved him to the right hand side , game changer .
ps i was question on the blog for suggesting such a move.
Two fairly evenly matched sides at Rugby Park.
Killie can never be discounted on that surface and pull themselves back into the game.
A draw would be fine.
MOM so far at Rugby Park : The Cheerleaders.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2ChPI5pAet8&index=26&list=RDofhao4SHXGo
class CCE
JJ
Agree. Two brilliant anthems. Les Bleus looking formidable…in every sense.
HH jg
GFTB @ 7:15 PM,
Do you Brig boys still say…
“Knew you’d get it”
One of my dad’s favourite and more condescending comments…
Yes, Brendan is of course little interested in those ghuys, he didn’t know much about Maryan at all. I’m pretty sure he’d not be that interested in an American College Soccer lad. Maybe at one time the lad Perez might have had a BR develop plan but not now.
Brendan had little or nothing to do with their signings, he has little or nothing to do with their development.
The body language ghuy is smart eh! Like that…
Worth checking it out…
Another skill worth developing is “active listening”.
In my experience the average Monklander is more of your active talker;))
Hail Hail
Poor game at Rugby Park. Killie toiling.
France are hibbsing it!
GREENPINTA
How did they manage to find cheerleaders in hun infested Ayrshire?
Hope tv used an anamorphic lens to squeeze and stretch them like the did on the chunky midget Paula Abdul on the Straight up video.
Chair bhoy 8.58pm
At long last .. knew you’d get it :-)
By the way … read your post last week in response to Delaney’s about Brian McClair… really enjoyed you signposting to Liam ? A terrific read and delighted he is doing well with the music… if you don’t mind me asking are you related ??? It was when you write “oor Liam” :-) a Monklands favourite
SFA botch deal to buy Hampden.
Shock !
Loans, Moans & Hobby Horses
As someone else said on here, loans form the majority of moves i the January window.
Celtic have made good use of the Man City model of loaning out surplus players for 4 years or so, and now all top clubs in Europe operate some version of that loan system. Arsenal got Denis Suarez on loan from Barca, while Real Betis gained Emerson from Barca till the end of the season.
When Europe’s top clubs trawl through every country to gather up all the cream, they find themselves with wealthy but unfulfilled players sitting in their stands many of whom realize that they need to have game time – somewhere – anywhere.
We know what Celtic an offer; trophies, a few rousing domestic games & a tilt at some of the European big hitters. Everyone of us who has ever roared the Celts on have heped make the reputation of Celtic fans another motivator for some of these players.
Loans are therefore the most common form of player transfer because they suit all parties concerned, both clubs & the player. I’ve no idea whether agents get a fee for brokering loan transfers, but I imagine that they do since loans have largely replaced full money transfers.
I don’t want Celtic to pay over the odds for any player or indeed ppay any player over the top wages. I am happy for us to have loan signings where appropriate. We still produce high quality players of our own & we will buy when all boxes are ticked – (a Commper will become as commonly used slang as a Scheidt).
The last few weeks have shown how the plans that we make can easily be shredded by “acts of god”. Tierney, Boyata, Benkovic, Rogic all lost to the team through injury when they would all be starters for Brendan Rodgers. By the same token, signing any player, loan or purchase, regardless of how good he is carrries the same level of risk of injury.
Had Brendan known yesterday of Rogic’s unavailability for up to 6 weeks might he have stopped the Morgan loan to Sunderland? Not the same type of player true but it does mean he is now down 2 midfielders since lunchtime yesterday.
We have cover at right back now, more striker options than before the break & wing players to spare but we’re also experiencing a glut of injuries to key players. This is how it seems to go though.
The old model of transfer activity has almost gone completely & who knows what variant will exist in 10 years time. But I’m reminded of a quote attributed to Brendan Rodgers about players being possibly signed,
“Availability, affordability & will they come.”
Watching Killie & the Jambos skid about on the carpet in Ayrshire.
2-1 to the away team so far.
Sean Clare becoming every inch the Jambo – now pretending to be injured when he kneed the other guy in the guts.
HH & have a grand weekend
BT programme guide…BT sports 1…
Kilmarnock v rangers live now !
They are on the telly even when they aren’t …
Wonder if they’ll claim the payment… “but but look at the scheduling it says we played”
Bognorbhoy 9.26pm
I said to my Sevconian wife BT missed out the “wee”
Kilmarnock v “wee” Rangers … a bit unfair to the Edinburgh Huns they managed to avoid LIQUADATION :-)
Hertz hanging on .
Killie lose.
Good.
GFTB
???