Nawrocki, good in air, passes through the lines, focussed

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Celtic confirmed the signing of German-born Poland youth international central defender Maik Nawrocki (22) this morning.  The player emerged through the Werder Bremen youth system and featured only seven times before going on loan two weeks after his 20th birthday to Warta Poznan in the Polish topflight.

He spent half a season at Warta where he made only two starts and one substitute appearance before Legia Warsaw made their move and took him on loan for the 2021-22 season.  Still 20, this was his breakthrough season and Legia made the transfer permanent last summer.  The player has made 43 starts and four substitute appearances in senior football, well below our typical harvesting point in the mid-60s.

Zbyszek, our man in Warsaw, firmly endorsed him.  Maik is “great in the air…. Focussed on the game… Good at passing through the lines”.  Legia were fending off bids for him from Galatasaray that were close to double what we paid them for Josip Juranovic two years ago, indicating how much more they value Maik.

And wait for it……….. he’s two footed.

Our settled central defensive pairing has a clear hierarchy.  Cameron Carter-Vickers rivals the great Virgil in status, while Carl Starfelt sits somewhere beneath the clouds.  This is harsh on Carl.  Both players are right footed, but Carl carries the burden of playing on the left, presumably because this suits the pair’s merits and weaknesses.

With Cameron not yet match fit, I would expect to see Maik on the left in the games against Wolves and Athletic Bilbao, allowing Carl to play on his natural side.  Brendan Rodgers has not worked with any of these players.  It will be interesting to see who he selects for the important games in September we discussed earlier.

Virgil was a week shy of his 22nd birthday and had started 50 matches when he joined Celtic.  Maybe the sweet spot for central defenders is a little lower than mid-60s.

Welcome to Celtic, Maik.

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  1. bigrailroadblues on

    Emeraldbee

     

    Prestonpans

     

    Not an issue in the Laurieston, the Cathedral of Guinness.

  2. bournesouprecipe on

    Tea time TV news ‘ an undisclosed fee ‘ for Nawrocki could be worse could have been an undisclosed Bosman

  3. And an inspirational republican, absolutely loved her, her music, her GIRFUY to the stifling free state poxigarchy, her spiritualism and not giving a flying you know what. We need more like her in the love island age.

  4. A unique talented Lady, Sinead had everything except Peace of Mind.

     

    There is universal sadness around the place.

     

     

    God Bless Sinead, you have found Peace at last.

  5. Watched first half of der hun game on a sausage….they are 1-0 down. Outplayed by the Greeks.

     

     

    Northseabear summed their display up….”Creating nothing, slow boring unimaginative football”

     

     

    Everything of theirs down the middle and Greeks have freedom of the wings.

     

     

    HH

  6. RIP Sinéad O Connor. Brilliant musician gone far too soon. I only saw her once live , at a Nelson Mandela 25th anniversary of his imprisonment concert in the Olympia theatre in Dublin.

     

     

    Ar dheis láimh Dhé go raibh a hanam.

  7. Just switched tv over to the Huns game.

     

     

    Plenty of vacant blue seats abound.

     

     

    That will no doubt be disappointing news to the poster that was on here last week (can’t remember who it was) bemoaning the fact that JF’s testimonial hadn’t sold out 2 weeks prior to the game, whilst insisting that Sevco’s preseason friendlies were (according to him) all sold out.

     

     

    HH

  8. And in the 10 mins I’ve viewed, I’ve seen Brother McLean give Sevco their obligatory penalty, for what was a blatant Cantwell dive.

     

     

    5 mins later and Cantwell dives again in midfield. Only surprise was that McLean waved play on (though probably only doing so as Sevco were attacking).

     

     

    Sevco will be gutted that they can’t have Scottish refs in Euro matches.

     

     

    HH

  9. For all the pundshop glacticos theyve secured (not), that defence is mustard…

     

     

    1-3 Greeks.

     

     

    HH

  10. Even with the usual dodgy Tav pen they are totally out played by the 3rd team in Greece.

  11. Call me Gerry

     

     

    They have had over 120,000 including 40,000 sold for tonight ( only 32,000 attended) through their gates this season already.

     

     

    We will be lucky to get 30, 000 for our match v Bilbao.

     

     

    They have 2 further pre season games. So it’s not about money as their fans are not 5 x richer than ours.

     

     

    We are on the back of a treble and have a new manager and 6 new signings. Only 2 have left.

     

     

    Explain ?

  12. McClean is an absolute cheat. Penalty a joke. Two huns should have been sent off for violent play but yellows.

     

     

    Know it’s a friendly but they were a collective mess. Outplayed by a team who wanted to play football.

     

     

    Over to us. Spend the money Celtic.

     

     

    HH

  13. bigrailroadblues on

    McLean is looking to ingratiate himself with his favourite team. Hard to tell which hun was worst there. Dead heat.

  14. !!Bada Bing!! on

    Never seen a team kicking up fk about a penalty like that before,in a friendly

  15. That not 3 pens already?.

     

    That game was Airdrie v Montrose,( Apols to both) standard.Passing by both,woeful,all round play,worse.Huns defending,worser man,:-)).Pyoor rank.

     

    New signings,won’t say to much,but Barasic,Soutar,Fandancer,Raskin,etc,worser than the previous worseness.

     

    Laptop thinking,what kind of word is that,wanted to write,soreness.:-)))

  16. The dancer conned the Ref,left his leg in.I am cutting the vile,cheating Hun bassa,a wee bit of slack.

  17. Just in

     

     

    RIP- Sinead- talent doesn’t always bring happiness. She liked singing but hated the idea of stardom.

     

     

     

    Not too up nor down about Sevco friendlies performance. It is their performance in Euro qualifiers that will define how much we can earn in Europe. I hope Servette/Genk can send them to the Conference but I’ll accept them being knocked into the Europa by Eindhoven/Marseille and suffer a beating in all Europa League ties.

     

     

    I’m off to Gweedore on an early morning ferry so I hope to catch the Wolves match in Sean Ogs on Saturday.

  18. If you haven’t seen Orla Guerin’s report on the BBC News @ 10 of suffering in Yemen, and you think you have problems, think again.

     

     

    Disgusting to think that innocent people are suffering like this, in this day and age.

     

     

    Being proud of our origins is fine but supporting people who make a real difference is vital too.

     

     

    I can’t post a link but you will catch it on the IPlayer.

  19. Prestonpans bhoys on

    Hun blogs no happy, here’s the summary of their manager 🤣😂

     

     

    Manager:

     

     

    Beale with a very odd team selection, Davies starting and no sign of Balogun or Roofe, injured? This was a mess of a match, both the starting XI and the subs – not a single thing the manager tried worked here, and just like v Hamburg, an experiment failed. He might be feeling a little concerned that his team isn’t gelling much with barely over a week till the serious action starts. 0

     

     

     

    👍👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👍

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