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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Transfer window — looks uncharted territory to me.
I fear PL has gone all trendy vicar with his talent management / talent pipeline ideas without engaging with BR and his thoughts — all the chat surrounding the Ukrainian winger was very cringeworthy.
We have the illusion of activity but in reality we have a couple of crowd pleasers and the can has been kicked down the road regarding the really difficult questions.
No matter the team we put on the park all the real action is happening in the MIB Ludge.
Wednesday was a taster to what they are planning for the next 4 months.
Introduce compete novices and try to workout what damage they can do.
Plus there is the bonus that they will make AD aka Daddy’s boy look good.
As noted before the positioning of the ref on Wednesday would shame an 11 year old.
Sunday has all the elements of the fix being on.
Do they do drugs tests in the SPFL?
Wonder what team we will put out?
Next season our first team squad, without short team loans and without any further signings will likely be:
Goalkeepers: Bain, Gordon, Hazard
Rightback: Ralston, perez
Centreback : Ajer, Simunovic, Hendry
Leftback: Tierney, gutman
Midfielders: Ntcham, Brown, McGregor, Kouassi, Bitton, henderson
Rightwingers: Forrest, shevd, Arzani
Leftwinger: Sinclair Johnstone, Morgan
Attacking mid: Rogic, Christie
Forwards: Edouard, Griffiths, Bayo
That excludes perm Celtic players ddv, compper, Miller, lustig, izzy, gamboa, hayes, benyu, mulumba, allan and the short team loans.
If we can move all of those bhoys on we will have a wade of available wages that could be used to secure a first pick Rightback back and Centreback. If being greedy would not mind a goalkeeper too as Gordon heads into last year of contract Next season.
By my reckoning Celtic will likely be one of the youngest teams in the league and there are several very good players in that mix. I dont think a major rebuild is needed next season but we do needed to see a massive cull and 2 or 3 first choice pick.
HH
Clear blue sky ,a big sun and a mighty fine 18 degrees at 11 30 am –Way Down South
A fine day for Dillinger –
https://youtu.be/tOacamDiz7o
https://youtu.be/hay2U2o2RAc
Off oot to Catania .
SOT…..
A few on here could be doing with some of that sunshine mate, I dont think the sun ever shines in their lives.
H.H
GOod morning, friends.
I doubt anyone is really that bothered anymore but, anyway, here’s today’s CQN coupon –
Jobo – Motherwell
GFTB – Crystal Palace
The Exiled Tim – Ross County
BMCUWP – Sheffield Utd.
Lennybhoy – Villa
Pogmathonyahun – Wolves
AWATR – Lincoln
Thanks for posting the cqn picks jOBO. I look for them every Saturday
Leftbackagain
Delighted for your great news.
There is no tatie tastier than the one dug from a Donegal garden.
A feed
David66,
What effective leverage does Celtic have in the face of the SFA’s refusal to respond to their request?
Thom- at least call them out, when a wrong/cheating is done call it out.
Keep calling it out, make it public, let sevco/sky sports, msm, smsm show our despair at the cheating. Bring a spotlight onto it.
Then maybe people will start asking why Celtic are going on about referees/systems/SFA.
Once you call a bully/cheat out into the open, they don’t like it and more often than not they are forced to change their ways.
D. :)
David66,
The very act of asking to see the report, etc., is, in itself, calling them out.
We called them out on Dougie Dougie and became the villains of the piece.
Every man/woman/child and their canines know they are cheats, but from FIFA downwards, nothing is done about it.
On the contrary, the identified culprits get promoted.
Therefore, I ask, what effective leverage does Celtic have, apart from metaphorically throwing stones at the windows of SFA HQ?
Yilligafbhoy
Please stop with the personal attacks.
GFTB
I would ask you not bite.
Thanks
Smyth @ 11.08 –
Noted! Hope you don’t follow our investment advice! But one day soon…..
Mod 2 12.24pm
Apologies, don’t like not to respond but will take your advice on board
Cheers :-)
Thom- I guess I am as frustrated as the rest of us.
Do you suggest we just get on with it, accept the cheating and outright bias.
I know the best way to beat them is to keep winning but it sticks in my craw that the cheating is so blatant.
Surely the idea of a group/ board who get paid to look after our asset/club, is to come up with suggestions, brainstorming around a table and fight for our cause.
Not for the likes of one individual (me).
What do you suggest we do? That is not me falling out with you, a serious and genuine question.
D. :)
From the game last night ; Steve Clarke says “the referee had no control of the game. “
Referee debate has been going for as long as adam was a boy, i’ve been listening too and reading since my bhoyhood about cheating refs, and all other levels of paranoia.
If you ever listen to the sevco lot, they say the opposite, about referee corruption and their “celtic friendship” on how decisions always go against them.
Fact is (irregardless of any bias) Scottish referees are and always have been diabolical, fully incompetent and not actually fit for purpose.
HH
https://twitter.com/cammyb81/status/1091557796473118722?s=12
This will give you a laugh..
David66,
I was almost at the end of a long reply, which got lost.
Bottom line is the people who support the SFA are the ones who buy their tickets and for those at Ibrox.
Celtic is one club-one vote and are bound by the SFA’s arbitralily applied rule book
They can only operate under those rules.
The paying customer/fan has the real power.
The SFA know that they will still sell to Celtic fans who, in my view, have the mistaken idea that they are backing the club.
Nothing is further from the truth.
They are backing the SFA.
Bada
??
I wonder if hibs quick news have got over Celtic not selling them Scott Allan yet?.
MODERATOR 2 on 2ND FEBRUARY 2019 12:24 PM
I refute the allegation that it was I that started the ‘personal attacks’. However I know where you’re coming from. Certain people will definitely be on my ‘scroll on by’ list.
son of dallas pen sevco 2 mins
MODERATOR 2 on 2ND FEBRUARY 2019 12:24 PM
Yilligafbhoy
Please stop with the personal attacks.
GFTB
I would ask you not bite.
Thanks
Are there differing standards applied to posters?
Your above post has one being rebuked and the other gets a friendly nod.
I have not scrolled back but surely a cease and desist would have been the way to deal with?
The reason i ask is i recently got into a debate with a much lauded poster on here.
He for his own reasons got incredibly personal and started hurling personal insults.
I stuck to the debate and never got personal.
Subsequently the posts were deleted.
I emailed and asked why my posts were.
Two days later i got a reply saying all but one of mine were restored.I don’t see the justification for my deleted post but accepted.
Still puzzled as to why others were removed at the time and i can only think that it was to protect a favored poster.
Surely the moderators job is to take action on merit?
FAN-A-TIC-it wouldn’t be the first time ??
FAN-A-TIC on 2ND FEBRUARY 2019 3:13 PM
All i’ll say is i got into go forth and multiply territory, so i’ll accept my visit to the naughty step. ;-)
Fan a tic
It’s a pity the posts are deleted I probably should not have replied but my replies were rather polite
Yilligafbhoy 2.39pm
Again apologies sometimes a bit of light hearted replies can be read differently, no probs this end
Cheers Gerry
son of dallas 2nd pen sevco 25 mins
Dallas, a other penalty awarded.
Morelos aff the post, still 1-0 Monkey Huns.
Absolutely NO contact on Defoe for huns 2nd pen.
Watching Scotland Italy from Murrayfield.
The SFA could,learn a thing or two.
Particularly how the ref communicates with the players, explaining decisions providing guidance at loose play.
Also he is miked up so we all can listen in.
Why didnt Tavie not take pen ?
Why did Tavie…
I guess Southampton didn’t increase their £8m bid for Tavernier then?
#Levelpi5h
Think it was Tavie who missed it.
Hun commentator….
” it’s not usual to get 2 penalties in the one game ”
Obviously wan o them new rangers common tatters
Dallas will book Tavsie for missing that.
He will furious that his cheating was in vain.
Defoe has been well versed in the fact if a hun goes down in the box it’s a penalty.
Thought first one was a penalty second a dive. In general play there isn’t much between the teams.
Two penalties already for Der Hun, someone pointed out, don’t know which website, that the Hun has more penalties than the entire league. Anyone know if that is true?