Henry Onyekuru, the wide-attacking 20-year-old Celtic targeted in January, looks set to join Arsenal from Belgian club KAS Eupen. The player had a tremendous season for his newly promoted club, alerting Celtic, and prompting a walkout by the player, when his hope of a transfer in the winter window was rejected.
The moral of this story is that it has become increasingly difficult to sign even 20-year-olds who had no pedigree a year ago, when Arsenal can bid £6.8m for a player who is likely to sit for most of the season in the stands.
For Celtic, the Onyekuru experience should be informative. The player came to Belgium from the Aspire Academy in Qatar. He joined the Academy’s Senegal training facility as a 13-year-old, before moving to the Aspire Football Dreams (AFD) project at the Qatari capital, Doha.
The AFD is a humanitarian project, allowing promising kids the best opportunity to develop as footballers, while receiving an educational scholarship. As you would expect from a Qatari project, it is not underfunded.
KAS Eupen were bought by the Aspire Zone Foundation five years ago and are the Qataris route to Europe for their Academy graduates.
Processes like Aspires costs money and takes time, perhaps a decade, to bear fruit, but the money involved isn’t beyond Celtic’s grasp. As we continue to look to innovate, this case study is worth contemplating.
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Tell you what though – you could properly clad a lot of tower blocks for £1 Billion.
Still – in the ‘smart world’ where you scratch my back and I scratch yours, stuff like adhering to regulations or paying your taxes is strictly for the mugs and the ‘little people’.
Democrats support democracy.
And Theresa it is.
Course , Fidel wouldn`t have tolerated the niceties of elections.
Fascism is so much less complicated.
Google promotes Google – who’d have thunk it
£2bn fine from EU
Macjay
You sound like Oswald Moseley.
I bet you have a secret basement where you can march about with your Black Shirt on:)
Do you even understand what you are saying?
HH
Celtic’s good sense on Linfield tie praised by NI-based supporters
A leading official from a Celtic Supporters club in Brendan Rodgers’ home town has insisted that the Glasgow club made the correct decision to decline their allocation of away tickets for the prospective Champions League clash with Linfield at Windsor Park.
And even though Jonny Mulholland from the Carnlough Travel Celtic Club admits it would be ‘brilliant’ to see Rodgers bring his team to Belfast, he urged Hoops fans to follow the club’s lead and NOT attend the possible encounter.
The Glasgow giants will face Linfield in the second qualifying round of the Champions League if David Healy’s side defeat San Marino outfit La Fiorita in the opening phase of the competition.
The first leg of a potential Linfield v Celtic clash was scheduled by UEFA for July 11 or 12, but with both those dates and July 13 ruled out by police in Northern Ireland due to heightened tension in Belfast with Orange Order marches on July 12, all parties agreed that the game would go ahead on Friday July 14 with a 5pm kick-off.
Celtic announced on Friday that they would not be taking up their allocation of tickets for Windsor, which would have been around 4,000, for ‘safety and security’ reasons.
A section of Celtic fans have expressed frustration at that decision with some Hoops fans in Northern Ireland saying they are able to travel all over the globe to support their side yet are advised not to do so a few miles from their own homes.
There have been suggestions that with tickets for the match expected to go on general sale that Celtic supporters could buy them anyway and end up in the Linfield end of the ground.
Jonny Mulholland from the Carnlough Celtic Travel Club is hoping that won’t happen.
“Tickets will be available but I would appeal to all Celtic fans to follow the club’s approach,” he said.
“Celtic have turned down 4,000 tickets and I would urge Celtic supporters to stay at home. Please don’t be risking your safety and the good name of the club. There will be plenty more European nights at home and away. I really feel with the timing of the game and everything else it would be best for Celtic fans not to go.
“Of course for Celtic fans, and none more so than ourselves in Carnlough, it would be brilliant to see Brendan bringing his team to Belfast but I think Celtic have taken a sensible approach.
“It is the right decision not to take tickets for that game. It’s too hostile an atmosphere and with the reputation Celtic have in Europe there is no point in jeopardising that.
“All it needs is for something to happen to spark an incident and the whole club gets into bother and it lets the name of the club down.
“I know there are Celtic ¬supporters saying they would love to go but it’s in the middle of Belfast on the week of the 12th of July so it could run into ¬dangerous circumstances.
“The police are going to be up to their eyes on the 11th night, the 12th and the 13th and then they will be asked to come out again on the 14th so they don’t need it.
“We have seen dangers there (at Windsor Park) before even with Linfield and Cliftonville, two Belfast teams. If you get Celtic fans there it would open up a cauldron.”
While the Carnlough Celtic Travel Club won’t be going to Windsor 35 miles down the road, they will travel to Parkhead for the return leg on July 19.
Mr Mulholland added: “We will travel to Glasgow for the Linfield game if it happens. Remember Linfield still have to beat the San Marino team.
“If it is San Marino, I would think a few of our boys might go there.
“We go to the away games in Europe all over and enjoy ourselves. I’m just not sure that if this game happens going to Windsor Park would be enjoyable.”
Belfast Telegraph
mcphail bhoy just read back spot on. only we call it glumboge.
These multi-posters are way too clever for me…YAWN.
Nothing more than talking sawdust.
HH
Thanks for the birthday wishes chaps .
Phil , thirty one years too many ;-)) . Park Road , I know you have a fondness for your local team down in Girvan . I had a chat recently with a younger guy I used to play fitba with , I also know his family . Turns out he’s assistant manager down there . S. McNally , a good guy .
Amazing that the establishment can find a magic money tree when it suits .
When does the season start ? HH . Aff oot.
Well has it finally been decided that the game with linfield is on the 14th…..actually surprised they were able to agree to this date……seems Belfast grinds to a halt wi all this marching …..down this street up this street…..cannae be must work getting done or maybe they are all on benefits……
Angelgabriel
Happy birthday
must = much
BREAKING NEWS!
Shock news as Dave King claims ‘The Rangers’ never really won any titles in the lower echelons of Scottish football ‘cos Rangers FC were not part of the competition.
TGM…talking about sawdust…there was a tory farmer who, trying to save money, decided to teach his horse to eat sawdust. Just when the horse was getting used to its new diet, it died.
Not interested in the “Who is signing”rumours,as long as its not Mc Ginn,but I would have expected word on Stuart Armstrongs contract.This is dragging on.We were told last week,not too much of a problem,now we have the team on tour,and still no word.Why is it every bloody deal we do is never straight forward?.
I take it BRs boy is only training with the club.I bloody hope so.
Wonderful send up on E Tims Twitter sidebar of Theresa May And The Holy Grail.Some very clever people out there.I was going to say,none in the DUP,but to get 1.5 billion of taxpayers money on a silver plate from the Tory Govt,in an age of,so we have been fed,deep austerity,well,thats a result.
Never mind,I am sure we are all”Better Together”and “Strong And Stable”for it.
THE GREEN MAN SAYS SACK THE BOARD on 27TH JUNE 2017 11:20 AM
Macjay
You sound like Oswald Moseley.
================================================
Oswald Moseley was a socialist.
BANKIEBHOY1 on 27TH JUNE 2017 11:20 AM
The alternative view…
Football without fans is nothing
It is now just over 50 years since thousands of Celtic supporters flew, drove and hitch-hiked to Lisbon to see Jock Stein’s Lisbon Lions conquer Europe. As the great man himself observed, ‘football without fans is nothing’ so it is with deep disappointment that we note the board’s decision to reject our ticket allocation for any potential UEFA Champions League qualifying match against Linfield in Belfast. The vague statement released by the board late on Friday afternoon did not contain any clear explanation of this decision – a decision made with no consultation at all with fan organisations, groups or regular European away travellers.
The statement noted ‘safety concerns’ but it is our understanding that the PSNI does not object to Celtic fans travelling and, indeed, Linfield has publicly encouraged the board to accept our allocation and stated they are ‘more than happy’ for Celtic fans to attend the match. We believe that the board is more concerned with protecting the brand than the welfare of the fans or the success of our team. It is a very sad and strange turn of events when the custodians of our own club do not want the world famous Celtic support backing the team in a ‘crucial’ away match yet the home club welcomes us with open arms.
We call on the board to reconsider their decision, and should they fail to do so, for Linfield to sell tickets directly to Celtic supporters. Our away support has significant experience of dealing directly with host clubs in the distribution of domestic away match tickets and doing so again for the match in Belfast should be a straightforward process. This should be done in a fair, responsible and transparent manner and would avoid the scenario of ticketless Celtic fans accessing the home end, which may in itself lead to genuine safety concerns.
Football without fans is nothing.
Green Brigade and Celtic Trust
Signing John McGinn would be totally underwhelming, thought the mantra was quality over quantity, McGinn is a bit short in that department, wouldnt get a game if everyone was fit. id expect that anyone we sign, Hayes apart, would be a first pick for the starting 11, if not well it bloody well should be
I’m always suspicious of people who come on to a Celtic supporters blog using right wing rhetoric to try to trigger some irate responses. It seems almost pathological and I picture them sitting at home in their wee sports direct furnished shrine to Ibrox, moaning with pleasure every time they get the attention of some Tim trying to counter their nonsense.
ERNIE LYNCH on 27TH JUNE 2017 10:22 AM
Theresa May is turning out to be even more inept than Cameron was.
The next UK government will be a Labour one.
No it wont Ernie.Unless Corbyn gets rid of all the back stabbing Blairites still in his party.
Anyway,what kind of image is that to foist upon us from your last post
“Theresa May getting into bed with Arlene Foster”.A plague on your house sirrah.I will have that image with me now until my last breath.
new article posted.
I see mention of the ‘CQN Clique’ again….the only Clique i see here is that of posters here who exclude themselves from the wider family. Honestly, get your arses removed ( surgically if necessary ) from your chairs and meet with the wider community. You might have wildly opposing views on some things to everyone else there, but i can guarantee you will have at least one thing in common.
And another ‘hot topic’. Tickets for the game in Belfast, should it happen.
why is it that the only stories I see about it are to disect the issue the rights and wrongs of Celtic fans wanting to go and watch their team. That is not, and should never be, an issue.
the ONLY issue – for anyone with anything to say about this – and even those ill-informed who open their mouths to let the s***e come out – the ONLY issue is why Celtic fans can’t go to watch their team in Belfast. The fact that UEFA are prepared to accept a football match to be played in these circumstances is an absolute disgrace and an embarrassment, and the spineless SFA should be supporting a member club vocally.
But we know that’s never going to happen when it comes to our club.
Don’t get me started on Dave King. rant over.
have a nice day Bhoys. 1 day until the fitba’s back :-)
Happy Birthday Angel Gabriel.
HH