Over the last few days of the European transfer window I was keen to find out what business Ajax would be able to complete (what Milan and Barca did is of scant interest). Between Friday and yesterday Ajax lost two players, Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen moved to Tottenham, and yesterday, Belgian defender, Toby Alderweireld joined Atletico Madrid.
Both were big players for the Dutch champions, who could realise €20m from the sales, but attempts to sign Ola John from Benfica and Eljero lia of Werder Bremen failed, instead they paid Heracles Almelo €2.5m for midfielder Lerin Duarte.
The Amsterdamers had a frustrating final few hours of the window. No doubt potential targets were worried about having to face three huge teams in the Champions League. In a difficult group, this is what counts as a break for Celtic. Only five games into their league season and without Champions League qualifiers to use as a yardstick, the group stage will come early for Ajax.
Living adjacent to an over-monied behemoth has considerable drawbacks as even our top clubs struggle to retain teenagers in the face of English lower league competition but such a rich market can also bring enough transfer income to make the difference between feast and famine.
The English Premier League spent £445m on transfers outside England but apart from Celtic and Hamilton Accies, who between them will earn around 4% of that total, I don’t think anyone else in Scotland got a piece of the action.
Nurturing and selling talent to England has to be a strategy for dozens of clubs here. Paying (for them) top wages to players who are no longer able to gain employment in England can only be considered a waste by comparison.
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TSOAL
Where did you find that?
That is the product of a very diseased mind,truly appalling.
The Onlooker
Yeah, you are right as things stand at the moment.
So we have to come up with a way of changing that.
I don’t have the answer, but maybe by putting it out there someone else will.
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo
15:01 on 3 September, 2013
Kilbowie Kelt
Look up opinion in the dictionary…..
______________________
I had a rough idea about the meaning of the word ‘opinion’, despite the fact that I left school the day I turned 15.
However, in my ‘opinion’, the notion that constant negative criticism will increase the performance of our board strikes me as somewhat curious & is indeed risible
Good luck.
Currently 10,000 supporters will be able to walk up to the ticket office and buy a 3 match package for champions league whilst not being season ticket holders.
No chance Onlooker, the same thing will happen as last Season when once the
Season Card holders closing date which is Wednesday 11th of September 2013
has come to pass then Season Card Holders will be given an extra day to buy
a ticket for their friend/family/associate etc-etc after that what’s left over will be
sold to the general public for around £115 per package, that’s if there is any left
over. The easiest way, buy a Season Card it’s as simple as that to guarantee
a CL Match home package.
SOAL
WTF?
;O
Check – Taser, and Bald as a Koot, – terminus Larkhall
CQN train updates.
Bobby I agree
the penultimate post in our discussion is where it all went haywire from your mind reading buddy who tried to pigdeon hole me as being homophobic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pidgeon …. you did not know this ?? Really ??
I used it for the ancient amongst us who are too frail and old to develop their mindset.
Moving on now
HH
GreehunsAgoGoCSC
The Spirit Of Arthur Lee
Thats the maddest bit of writing I’ve read this year! Where’d you find it ?
Marti “Asparagus” Sandino
Turkeybhoy – Actually I was talking about the guy from the english lower league. Pretty sure Barry Fry would have been trying to get more than he was worth, considering we had the money from the VW sale.
As for Fin Bog´s son, kind of tired about hearing about him now. Do we know if he was prepaired to come to us on our current wage budget? Do we know the exact amount that his club wanted? Enquiries were made, the deal broke down. I think we just have to accept that the guys in charge didn´t think it was a good plan for the club. There is no way we can know all the details of every single possible transfer, but I am confident that our people are doing what is best for the club, and they seem to be getting it right for the most part. Maybe they got this one wrong, but who can know for sure.
Oh and for the record, I like HP sauce on my cheese on toast.
Chairbhoy
That’s Gods country you’re in, those winding streams, and countryside.
I’ll bring the rods, tea and cake and we’ll play at Mr Crabtree goes fishing, *he always had a hip flask*
HH
Kilbowie Kelt
I give up.
HH
” No! I’m ASPARAGUS!”
The Onlooker
One of the great advantages of the old stadium was that supporters could do exactly that, decide to go to the game, turn up, pay (or not to pay) get in and support the team. And not just at Celtic. We did not have many season ticket holders in those days, and then only in the Main Stand. The present model, pioneered by Fergus McCann, in effect financed the construction of the new stadium, but Fergus allowed for the possibility of increasing the capacity, at some point in the future. Rascar is looking beyond the present economic recession. I tend to agree with him, and Celtic would be remiss if they have not at least looked into design, engineering and construction of the South Stand. It might not appear to make sense at this particular point in time, but may be well worth at least being open to design, CGI models for example.
TSOAL
Wonder what he would have written had his steak been served with; peas, mashed potatoes and carrots???
EatYourGreensCSC.
AWE NAW
Haha,aye,I’m aware of the spelling as a surname.
Not however as part of pigeon-hole.
Anyway,agree to differ,there’s a new argument awaiting us the morra!
As I said earlier,after a fractious window,we now have an international fortnight. A perfect storm from previous experience on here.
Hoping to meet yer bro later this month,btw.
And re Hooper ´only´ scoring, of course its a great atribute for a striker. But in our games against our Champions League opponents, especially away from home, we will have no room for someone who only scores. We will need someone who can play upfront on his own. Someone who can make the ball stick, bring teammates into the game and create chances from nothing. And we need them to come to us at a bargain price! Maybe we have found that player, maybe we haven´t, but we tried. And Hooper wanted to leave anyway, no point in keeping players who don´t want to be here.
pauloantony
You’ve had some informative posts over the last few days.
You are quite right to point out the apparent malaise in the transfer market.
It’s an interesting development…
Clubs stifled by rising valuations?
Not confident of securing replacements?
Your guess is as good as mine…
I don’t think we can point the Celtic spend as being
overly ambitious though. I agree that taken in perspective,
The fact that we have been and are in a position to
invest is very positive indeed.
However…
If we look at player sales/percentage of transfer income reinvested,
then that tells a different story
-doesn’t it?
It’d would read about 50% right?
This may turn out to be an excellent piece of business…
There are certainly reasons to believe this may be the case.
I’d imagine that this doesn’t seem to be the case to a large
section of the support who would like that figure to be nearer 100%
Also, I must admit that your
‘ignoring Neymar, we’ve spent more than Barca’
comment really cracks me up…
Lets hope the defence don’t ignore Neymar when we play them!
Pauloanthony,
Take a look at the transfermarkt.com website, it has us down at number 68 in terms of the recently completed transfer window. It is not perfect but it is a pretty comprehensive look at transfers, expenditure and revenues. It also probably lets us know who the really big players in world and more particularly European football are.
Turkeybhoy
“Many would argue that £5 million for Finnbogason was a very fair price.
But, surprisingly, not a single one of that many was in a position to use a football club’s money to actually pay that price. Does that not surprise you or , at least, give you pause for thought?
You go on”he might not even score the goals,especially in the CL”.In the SPL,I would put my house on him getting very close to the 30 goals we want.
I really doubt you would be that reckless with a valuable property such as your house. You are, I would humbly suggest, be more likely to make a modest bet on his scoring tally, an amount you could afford to lose. Thankfully, the people handling Celtic’s money are just as prudent in their gambles as I feel you would be.
P.S. Hyperbole does not strengthen your argument. I have told posters a million times not to talk hyperbolics :-)
“As for the CL,Ajax are one of our opponents.In his last 5 games against them Finnbogason has scored 6 goals.I think Ajax will be delighted they are not facing him in a couple of weeks.”
And yet they could have resolved that dilemma by having him in their side, using the money they got for Erikson and Alderweireld and saved on Babel, to turn that proven firepower on Celtic. But they did not buy him for £5m either.
“While trying to put up reasons for Celtic not buying him,you then go on to say that Pukki and Balde MIGHT get the goals we need.The combined total of the two players would maybe have got us Finnbogason,and there would have been no “Mights”about it.”
You have a frightening, but unconvincing, degree of certainty about your opinions. If I am wrong, you must be residing in the biggest palace in Turkey on the proceeds of the racing certainty bets you have made.
An opinion can only be strengthened by supporting evidence not by exaggeration or asserting an opinion is a fact. I am more impressed when I see the word “might” rather than “will” because I am hearing the thoughts of a reflective person who has considered the alternative viewpoint that they might be dead wrong.
The Spirit Of Arthur Lee
What’s all that mince tripe about, has FF gone down today
dear oh dear living in 1690 are we
Well here is some fact’s the Papa @ that particular time
backed William yes he did go and read your history books
Also there is a verse in the UK’s national them about how
the English came to our wee bit hill and glen and plundered
the said place by hanging/raping/looting/& Burning said
villages and towns.
.
Transfer window: 10 things we learned this summer
By Sam Sheringham
BBC Sport
Monday night’s closure of the transfer window brought an end to a record-breaking summer of hype, hesitation, hope and heartbreak.
Now that the fun is over, football fans all over the country are like mis-matched partners on awkward blind dates, asking each other “what are we going to talk about now?”
But just before we put this window to bed and start willing the January sales to arrive, let’s reflect on some of the lessons that have been learned from the summer’s comings and goings in the Premier League.
1) Do your business early
Chastened by the loss of their title to Manchester United, Manchester City began overhauling their squad almost as soon as the season had ended, snapping up Fernandinho, Jesus Navas, Stevan Jovetic and Alvaro Negredo for almost £90m by mid-July.
Meanwhile, Manchester United boss David Moyes and his Arsenal counterpart Arsene Wenger resembled stressed-out husbands on Christmas Eve as they shopped around at the last minute and did not make their first significant purchase until the final hour of the window.
2) Don’t change your manager and chief executive at the same time
Ten most expensive signings 2013-14 across Europe
Gareth Bale
1. Gareth Bale – Tottenham to Real Madrid – £85.3m
2. Edinson Cavani – Napoli to PSG – £55m
3. Radamel Falcao – Atletico Madrid to AS Monaco – £50m
4. Neymar – Santos to Barcelona – £49m
5. Mesut Ozil – Real Madrid to Arsenal – £42.4m
6. James Rodriguez – FC Porto to Monaco – £38.5m
7. Gonzalo Higuain – Real Madrid to Napoli – £32.5m
8. Mario Gotze – Borussia Dortmund to Bayern Munich – £31m
9. Fernandinho – Shakhtar Donetsk to Manchester City – £30m
10. Willian – Anzhi Makhachkala to Chelsea £30m
United’s botched transfer policy, which saw high-profile moves for Spain-based trio Cesc Fabregas, Thiago Alcantara and Ander Herrera break down, before Marouane Fellaini joined in the final half hour of the window, has thrown the spotlight on the relationship between new chief executive Ed Woodward and manager David Moyes.
Their predecessors David Gill and Sir Alex Ferguson were always going to be difficult acts to follow at Old Trafford, but did the club err by allowing both to depart in quick succession?
3) North East soap opera still delivers
When Joe Kinnear was appointed as Newcastle’s director of football in January, he not only claimed to have “more intelligence” than the club’s fans, he also boasted that he could “open the door to any football manager in the world”. But Kinnear’s quest to strengthen a squad that only avoided relegation by five points last season has resulted in very little, with Loic Remy’s loan signing from QPR their only noteworthy acquisition.
Meanwhile, down the road at Sunderland, a chaotic summer has seen no fewer than 14 new faces brought in and 15 shipped out by boss Paolo Di Canio. In theory, the Italian now has the squad he wants, but after no wins in three games he is under pressure to prove there is method in his madness.
4) You can sell your best player and still keep fans happy
If you were making a movie of the transfer window, then Daniel Levy would have few rivals for the leading role. The Tottenham chairman pulled off a masterstroke in appointing Franco Baldini as his director of football, and with the help of the Italian’s contacts, has attracted some of the brightest talents available to a club that is not even competing in the Champions League.
Only when he had strengthened his squad in all areas did Levy allow Gareth Bale to depart to Real Madrid for a fee that ensured Spurs ended the window in credit.
5) Player power isn’t everything
European Leagues summer transfer window spend 2013
Premier League – £630m
La Liga – £335m
Serie A – £335m
Ligue 1 – £315m
Bundesliga – £230m
Bale may have eventually realised his dream of a move to Real Madrid, but this was the window that taught us that players do not always get what they want. Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney and Liverpool’s Luis Suarez both agitated for a move, but when their clubs flatly refused to sanction a transfer to a rival from the same league, both were forced to stay.
6) Premier League can’t attract the best
Although the Premier League’s overall spend of £630m nearly doubled that of any other European league, there was plenty of evidence that the world’s top players are increasingly looking to ply their trade elsewhere.
The billionaire takeovers at French clubs Monaco and Paris St-Germain persuaded star strikers Radamel Falcao and Edinson Cavani to choose Ligue 1 over the Premier League, while the enduring allure of Real Madrid and Barcelona drew Bale and Neymar to Spain.
Overall, only three of the 10 biggest deals across Europe involved players moving to clubs in England.
7) English players – overpriced and overlooked
Premier League club record transfers
Mesut Ozil
Mesut Ozil – Real Madrid to Arsenal – £42.4m
Roberto Soldado – Valencia to Tottenham – £26m
Pablo Daniel Osvaldo – Roma to Southampton – £15m
Andy Carroll – Liverpool to West Ham – £15m
Wilfried Bony – Vitesse Arnhem to Swansea – £12m
Gary Medel – Sevilla to Cardiff – £11m
Ricky van Wolfswinkel – Sporting Lisbon to Norwich – £8.5m
Stephane Sessegnon – Sunderland to West Brom – £6m
Tom Huddlestone – Tottenham to Hull City – £5m
Dwight Gayle – Peterborough United to Crystal Palace – £4.6m
Scrolling down the endless list of Premier League ins and outs this summer, one striking factor is the scarcity of deals involving English players. Of last year’s top seven clubs, Chelsea were the only team to pay a transfer fee for an English player, and that was the £209,000 they handed West Brom for 16-year-old Isaiah Brown.
Andy Carroll, who cost West Ham £15.5m from Liverpool, was the only Englishman to command a fee of more than £6m.
Long considered to be overpriced, English players are being increasingly overlooked.
8) Give teams money, they will spend it
Flush with the cash from their £3bn TV deal, Premier League teams have been spending like never before. A staggering 10 of the 20 clubs – including all three promoted sides – broke their transfer record this summer, with Norwich, Southampton and Cardiff all splashing out more than £25m on new recruits.
9) If you want a player on loan, go to Chelsea
Just when you thought he was mellowing, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich provided a reminder of his ruthless streak by hijacking Tottenham’s deal for Anzhi Makhachkala midfielder Willian with an 11th-hour £30m deal.
The Russian, however, has been making a concerted effort to trim the club’s wage bill by farming out no fewer than 23 players on loan this summer.
10) Nobody does a transfer quite like Real Madrid
Real Madrid underlined their status as the richest club on the planet by breaking the world transfer record for the fifth time in a row to make Bale their latest “galactico”.
The summer-long deal to capture Bale may have moved along at the pace of a Terrence Malick film at times, but it ended with fanfare straight from Hollywood as more than 20,000 supporters turned up at the Bernabeu to greet their new idol as he was unveiled on a giant stage before performing tricks out on the field.
Summa
The Spirit Of Arthur Lee
I don’t know which school you went to, but that essay either got you an A+ or an F depending which one it was!
Istanbulcelt Oscar’s Green & White Army
I recieved it as an email
But I would have got F
LOve
TSOAL @ 15 08 .
Ah ——- the good ole Battle of the Boyne .. King William was funded by the Vatican and his elite regiment [ the Blue Guards ] were Catholics who carried a Papal banner into battle ..
Guess the numb nut responsible for that piece of writing is a wee bit ignorant re the facts . [ no surprise ]
Yeah & Real Madrid is being bankrolled by the Spanish Government,
which is a fact.
.
bournesouprecipe
15:17 on
3 September, 2013
Check – Taser, and Bald as a Koot, – terminus Larkhall
CQN train updates.
..
BTW..He is a Big Hoops Fan..
Summa
HT
In season 88-89 they beat us 5-1 and 4-1 at Ayebrokes, but the worst for me was the 4-0 defeat when Dalglish was manager.
It is incredible to think that in just 2 competitive matches Martin O’Neill was able to field a side ( minus Viduka) and thump Advocaat’s team ( improved by millions of pounds of players in the summer) 6-2.
Rangers were the benchmark , he wasn’t lying.
He raised the bar even higher , so high Dick had to spend £12m on Flo.
TT
Doing a wee bit of research re. Amsterdam. Return flight from Manchester £187, one night in Ibis at airport £66 and a ticket from dutch agency £80. £333 in total, probably still a lot cheaper than Thomson/Celtic travel judging by Milan prices. Tempted. Been to see us twice in CL/EC in Amsterdam and seen us win twice, could go for the hat trick
The Spirit Of Arthur Lee
15:35 on 3 September, 2013
Istanbulcelt Oscar’s Green & White Army
I recieved it as an email
But I would have got F
LOve
!!!!!!!
lol Great
H H
South Of Tunis
15:36 on
3 September, 2013
errrrrrr- i might be wrong, but i assumed the original article was written tongue in cheek.
(If i am wrong, then yes – the author is seriously retarded!!!)
Istanbulcelt Oscar’s Green & White Army
15:34 on
3 September, 2013
The Spirit Of Arthur Lee
I don’t know which school you went to, but that essay either got you an A+ or an F depending which one it was!
Yeah if he was @ my school he would have got six rapid belts over the
back of his hand and sent home to read the Bible particularly the part
about the sermon on the his and loving ones neighbour friend or foe
the same as one loves thyself end of
.
He said: “Most people in Scotland live in cities and towns but that does not mean they are not lovers of trees.
“Where I live, Glasgow, is known as the dear green place and even people in Glasgow love to hug a tree, maybe not literally.”
Summa
Yeah Tiny Tim,
Dick spent £70,000,000 in total of other peoples money including HMRC
while @ the helm of old/bust/ & out co.
Tore Flo, was he not the one that all said old footy tops had to be recalled
in to add a ‘P’ onto his surname Tore.A.Flop
LuxCelt @ 15 43 .
Indeed ———–
It can be difficult discerning whether something is a piece of rabid bigoted ignorance or a parody of rabid bigoted ignorance.
BMCUWP
No no Its the Old spelling…Ehen pidgeon holes were in their hay day ;-)
I hope you do meet my Brar …a finer person you could not hope to meet apart from my two Sisters ;-) actually I have three sisters and two brothers
HH
‘Mon the peas!!!
TT
I was at the 3 games you mention and agree that the 4-0 game was by fat the worst.
My point still stands though, I don’t recall us getting battered in any of those games in the manner that Ajax did last pre season.