Norwich accept Celtic offer on cusp of club sale

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It is surely no coincidence that Norwich City accepted Celtic’s offer for Adam Idah, reportedly £8.5m up front with another £1m dependent on results and a 15% sell-on fee, within hours of the club being sold to an American investment group.

On accepting the deal for Idah, City added £8.5m to their balance sheet – approximately 12% of the club’s net book value.  It was a deal outgoing major shareholder Delia Smith was clearly motivated to accept before City’s new investors arrived.

That deal is still significant.  It will inevitably reach £9.5m, which, in time, will make Adam our most expensive signing ever.  It is also less than the asking price Celtic were faced with until this week; the sell-on percentage is also less than it was.

Adam reminds me of Mark Viduka.  Strong and skilful on the ball, he can control a long ball and bring others into play.  Without Adam coming in on loan in January, I don’t think we would have got over the line in so many crucial games in the run-in. The league would have gone elsewhere, and who can forget his contribution in the Cup Final?

There is still a medical to complete before the deal gets over the line.  Lots happened elsewhere yesterday.  We’ll touch on Bosun Lawal, Bojan Miovski and others later in the week.

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396 Comments

  1. glendalystonsils on

    Daniel Kelly to Millwall.

     

     

    More money? Probably.

     

     

    More playing time? Possibly .

     

     

    Maybe be a better move than to a Liverpool or Bayern , with a high risk of failure and a subsequent move to a millwall anyway. Not to mention faded dreams of what might have been .

  2. Weebobbycollins on

    Apparently Delia, when she saw Michael Nicholson enter her office, cheque book in hand, sang, ‘ If I knew you were coming Idah baked a cake…’🎵🎵🎵

     

     

     

    Daft eh?☝

     

    But not as daft as some of the posts on here…😁

  3. 67 European Cup Winners on

    Good news about Idah

     

    Not sure he is a £9.5m footballer

     

    Time will tell

     

    But if Brendan wanted him – we need to pay for him

     

    67ECW

  4. CELTIC40ME @ 1:12 PM,

     

     

    A lot of good stuff in Paul67’s lead article as there often is, yet if you are meaning my facetious comment on this, if you could explain I’ll certainly apologise…

     

     

    “It is surely no coincidence that Norwich City accepted Celtic’s offer for Adam Idah, reportedly £8.5m up front with another £1m dependent on results and a 15% sell-on fee, within hours of the club being sold to an American investment group.

     

     

    On accepting the deal for Idah, City added £8.5m to their balance sheet – approximately 12% of the club’s net book value. It was a deal outgoing major shareholder Delia Smith was clearly motivated to accept before City’s new investors arrived.

     

     

    The first paragraph suggests that when the Club was “sold”, that gave the green light for the new owner, Mark Attanasioto complete the Idah transfer does it not!?

     

     

    The second paragraph suggests that Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones wanted to complete the deal before they “sold” the Club to the “new” investors!?

     

     

    So which is it…

     

     

    My understanding is that the deal has still to be completed as things stand as their has been no official statements made.

     

     

    Hail Hail

  5. !!BADA BING!! on 13TH AUGUST 2024 1:32 PM

     

    Informed by a youngster, the guy posting the Tapia stuff has 35 Twitter followers, not to say it could happen….

     

     

    ———————————————————

     

    I wondered that as my translation of the Spanish is,

     

    ‘While not one of the major leagues in Europe he’s on his way to sign a 3 or 4 year contract in Scotland with Celtic, where they sell delicious, nutritious pies, served at the optimum temperature and always reasonably priced’.

     

    He had me until his pies comment, charlatan!

  6. bournesouprecipe on

    That awkward moment when you think you’re going to Leverkusen, and land in Millwall.

  7. Weebobbycollins on

    Banksy continues his animals theme by putting an image of R2ngers fans on the wall at hampden…

  8. boondock saint on

    I am glad that we signed Adam. The Bhoy was brilliant for us on loan, even when most of us were upset at a 2nd choice striker coming from Norwich. He took his chance and scored some vital goals. Look at the prices that players are going for these days. I am quite impressed with Aberdeen and their spending right now. Their new manager seems like a good un if he is given time. I remember when Celtic bought Martin ” im not joggin about” Hayes, who had played over 130 games in the midfield for Arsenal and scored something like 30 goals as well. The rumor was that someone had offered George Graham 80,000 and then we came in and offered 640,000 I think, and we know how that turned out. Not every player is going to work out for us, but they need to be given the chance to feel accepted by us and backed by us. We are in an era for most of us, that is unprecedented with the success that we are achieving and have achieved. Compare that to many of our Bhoys who grew up in the 50s and early 60s, and stuck with it. We came through the succulent lamb times at aye it’s broke in the 80s and 90s, so let’s enjoy the good times that we are in right now and get behind those players that we have and thrive on the confidence a support can give them.

     

    Hail Hail my friends

     

    Sean

  9. Watch the last 10 mins of the cup final to see the value of Adam Idah. He scores the goal, he hassles central defenders, he holds the ball up on both left and right wings and won a few clearing headers – showing great strength and awareness. At 23 8.5m is great value, scores with left and right foot, scores headers, is very quick, can hold up and bring team mates into play and has Celtic and international experience. Plus, he will get better under Rodgers.

     

     

    Ready made funded by oh and Lawal money. Next up LB and CB

  10. Must say I found it surprising that the Celtic Board sanctioned the £8.5/£9.5 million spend demanded by Norwich.

     

     

    Then again Idah is an above average footballer. It wasn’t just once that his contributions helped us secure last season’s double. His goals at Easter Road, at Motherwell, at Ibrox and at Hampden helped salvage what could have been a borderline miserable season for us.

     

     

    So, all in all, we know what we are getting and his contributions have justified the transfer fee. We’re now in a market where fees for proven goal-scorers start at £6 million.

  11. AN TEARMANN @ 11:12 AM,

     

     

    Deepest apologies, didn’t have a proper read back this morning and just noticed your comment…

     

     

    ‘Flying a kite’ is thinking a change of ownership does not have a material impact on the future of NCFC.it will have,you and i may be on the same board,one of us will have the reins and power re direction of NCFC travel,banks/business community will know that.

     

     

    Flyin a kite is saying i am a board apologist when i was answering Malone Bhoys point that we just saved time and wages which imo is far to simplistic.

     

     

    Can you define what a board apologist is?

     

     

    I didnt mention them answering MBs post.

     

     

    Next youll be tarriering:-)) folk with the lawellite shoite next

     

     

    We have enough enemies outwith the club,without such divisive pesh internally and most of it a touch irrational.we are us,them is anything outwith the club,

     

     

    Anyway hope your well,never been a fan of kite flying

     

     

    All’s good here – hope you and your monklands pals are doing good…

     

     

    Well, the timing of the deal may have had a little baring on when the deal was announced, if it did, my feelings is it would be purely coincidental.

     

     

    So let’s get it in some context, the Norwich City shareholder swop had been on the cards for sometime.

     

     

    The Adam Idah deal had been on the cards for sometime.

     

     

    The shareholder deal was officially announced yesterday.

     

     

    Adam Idah’s transfer was unofficially announced yesterday.

     

     

    If you look at Norwich City’s transfer activity already this window, if you look at what the window will potentially hold for them before it closes.

     

     

    Putting a huge amount of cachet around Adam’s transfer is a herring rouge imo…

     

     

    Obviously just a wind~up with the Board apologist nonsense, it seems to have touched a few nerves, so apologies for that…

     

     

    KeepthehighkiteslowCSC

     

     

    Hail Hail

  12. Looking at the Norwich City transfers – Christos Tzolis

     

     

    Loaned out to Fortuna Dusseldorf last season

     

     

    The German Club used Christos €3.5mn buyout clause to sign him

     

     

    They immediately sold him to Club Brugge for €6 mn

     

     

    Doh!!

     

     

    Hail Hail

  13. Back to Basics - Glass Half Full on

    Interesting debate on structure of club.

     

     

    Chairbhoy – I thought your definition of a PLC structure was essentially sound with delivering value to the shareholders largely at the heart of it.

     

     

    The PLC structure (as outlined by earlier comments) provides value that is very real but not necessarily very sexy (transparency, compliance, regulatory requirements …. usual soporific stuff)

     

     

    I wonder if there is a simple variable missing from the discussion?

     

     

    Make more fans shareholders?

     

     

    The “ordinary” fan makes up a sizeable minority of the current shareholders.

     

     

    I haven’t a clue what the exact number is but I’d love to know.

     

     

    At a guess it is more than 10% but less than 30%.

     

     

    Personally I would love this figure to be at least 35% – if my rudimentary understanding of takeover regulations is accurate – at that level, there would be zero possibility of a Glazer type event.

     

     

    Despite strenuous efforts, the Celtic Trust’s attempt to create an umbrella group for existing shareholders ton consolidate their shares and votes into a single mass to leverage influence at Board level have, frankly. failed.

     

     

    Could be several reasons for this including a chunk of “ordinary” shareholders

     

    a. Don’t care for the colour of this particular umbrella

     

    b. Are a bit lazy and don’t really give a s*** (I think I might be in this group)

     

    c. Are perfectly content with how the board are going about things

     

     

    This is where the idealist in me comes out. I don’t know if this is legally possible but I would love every season ticket purchased to come with a single share in Celtic.

     

     

    55,000 new shares per annum / 550,000 per decade isn’t going to change the balance significantly.

     

     

    Secondly, I’d like the club to commit to a bog standard raise-some-dough share issue every ten years – with the bar set quite low e.g. £5m ? …. with the sole intention of giving new fans / younger fans the chance to buy into the club in the same way us older fans had back in 1994 and whenever the other one was.

     

     

    Every ten years feels about right to me. E.g. 14 year olds will likely miss out this time but next time they’ll be 24 and might have a few quid.

  14. Three tickets secured for next weekend at Parkhead……a home win /performance akin to the killie one would be lovely thank you very much …..

     

     

    Hope big Adam proves to be a success over a long period of time .

     

     

    Thank you board / DD for getting it done .

     

     

    Don’t know the ages but Macown of dundee and O’hara of St Mirren along with Tommy Conway could be good additions at little cost ……..

  15. BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL on

     

     

    ….

     

     

    Your well intended policy will result in Celtic shares becoming valued like confetti , as well as diluting the value to the current shareholders.

     

     

    We need to grow the business by getting better at everything not by giving away shares ….

     

     

    Is there any belief that the Celtic men in suit’s have a brain cell between them ? Or are they all in it for themselves?

     

     

    Askingforafriendcfc

  16. Back to Basics - Glass Half Full on

    EKBhoy

     

     

    Bit harsh with the ‘confetti’ jibe surely?

     

     

    Dilution?

     

     

    Fair enough but a bit of context might be useful.

     

     

    55,000 shares a year or 550,000 a decade onto the current 94,000,000 shares issued is 0.6% per decade.

     

     

    As for growing the business, fair enough.

     

     

    Just a punt but if more fans are shareholders perhaps they’ll be more inclined to put more money into that business which they legally own a small part of?

  17. Yes… Good luck in your new job Joe…

     

     

    Gie Liniker a kick in the hawmaws fur me…Oh… and Shearer 😂😂🤪🥊

  18. BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL @ 4:03 PM,

     

     

    Yes, that is a very interesting suggestion.

     

     

    My understanding is similar to yours, that when Fergus went down the PLC route he envisaged the vast majority of shares to be in supporters hands.

     

     

    We now have a principal shareholder with a substantial % of the shares, which gives him some serious clout, there are other major shareholders.

     

     

    Again, as you say organisations like the Celtic Trust have tried to mobilise Celtic supporters with shares to have a voice in the Club.

     

     

    However many are not interested and quite a lot of the shares have gone awol, insofar as someone has bought them back in the day and forgot about them.

     

     

    Moving house or passing them to relatives and such like mean so many aren’t even registered with current names and addresses.

     

     

    There was a drive to get these shares “active”, but don’t know what happened there.

     

     

    My view is that we are owned by businessmen and as TIM MALONE WILL TELL stated, that will be hugely difficult to budge them before they want to change things.

     

     

    Then there is more chance of them selling to the devil we don’t know rather than their benevolence leading to supporter ownership model.

     

     

    However we must never give up on that dream.

     

     

    A new generation of businessman, a new generation of supporters might well see the value in that vision – embracing the best of us from Bro. Walfrid to Keane and McCann to truly make us more than a club.

     

     

    Hail Hail

  19. it’s doubtful if Celtic would be sitting on a honeypot of 50 million of Champions league money without the serious contribution of Adam idah so the money to get him back to Celtic Park has been well spent. It’s great to see the Corkman returning to Paradise and advance his career under the expertise of Brendan Rodgers.

     

     

    i Perhaps missing out on the American tour was a good thing because if he banged in a few goals Norwich City would probably have added another couple of million to the asking price. We spent 9 million to get Edwrd from PSG a few years ago who was unproven so we get Adam for practically the same money which is good business by any standard after taking in 6 mil odd on recent sale of a couple players at a profit.

     

     

    Interesting times ahead to see how many more new faces………..we need a couple at least……….before deadline day ans hopefully we persuade Matt to stay another season.

     

     

    I

  20. BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL on 13TH AUGUST 2024 4:56 PM

     

    EKBhoy

     

     

     

    Bit harsh with the ‘confetti’ jibe surely?

     

     

    ….

     

     

    Point taken , to be honest issuing mire shares us way down the pecking order of things to do in my book at the moment

     

     

    HH

  21. MCPHAIL BHOY on 12TH AUGUST 2024 12:08 PM

     

    Scullybhoy

     

     

    Yes I was on the windup. But your point still stands, what is happening here, no communication on it since those drawings were shared. I get that a project like that is complicated and not only involves contractors to build it but also a company to run the hotel. We’ve also had Brexit etc. in the intervening years but still no update or even no plans to progress this in the short/medium term. I assume planning permission has/will run out soon?

     

     

    *Ok first of all we will never build an hotel, NOT too say one will NOT be built but it wont be us doing it as its not feasible enough, we would have to hire professionals to run and staff to maintain it.

     

     

    Now lets expand on this, over here we have an amazing stadium called the Rogers Centre, which was initially called the Skydome, owned and operated by the Stadium Corporation of Ontario, it was funded by a public/private partnership, with the government paying the largest percentage of the cost, the initial cost of $150 million was greatly underestimated, as the final cost was C$570 million ($1.2 billion in 2023 dollars).

     

     

    After going into bankruptcy protection, Stadium Corporation of Ontario, the Crown corporation that was established to run the stadium, sold the Skydome 5 years later for $151 million to a private consortium that included Labatt Breweries, much of the debt was attributed to the last minute decision to attach a hotel to it, pie in the sky as it turned intae a white elephant, at the time of the sale Labatt’s also owned the Toronto Bue Jays so all other sports and concerts playing in the arena had to find new premises as they wanted to concentrate on the boys of summer.

     

     

    Toronto has a proliferation of hotels, including the Fairmont Royal York, Westin Harbour Castle, and the Omni King Edward Hotel, I have been led to believe that the only sports team, not just baseball but the NHL, NBA, MLS and CFL, that stays in the Rogers Centre Holel is the New York Yankees, now to be fair to the Rogers Centre after a review of their prices they now have the most cost effective food and beverage prices in the MLB

     

     

     

    Moving on to Toronto Pearson International Airport, the largest in the country, of which only 1/3rd is in Toronto the rest in the City of Mississauga, it is surround by 2 major highways and a regional road which in the vicinity of the airport is called the airport strip with again a proliferation of hotels and fast food businesses, these hotels offer free parking as well as a shuttle to and from the airport.

     

     

    Parking at TPIA is a lucrative business and provides the largest of non-aeronautical revenue, but a lot of people shun at the prices plus the competition with the hotels as well as safety on the inbound roads for vehicles parking on the shoulder awaiting the calls from their pick ups, so in an effort to combat this they built 2 cell phone lots and an off airport no frills garage with a connection to the terminals via their in house railway aka automated people mover (apm).

     

     

    At that they were approached by a no frills hotel chain who provided a bed for night as well as a shower plus the use of the apm for their customers, they leased the space from the federal government who still own the land as well as initially a percentage of gross revenue which in turn would result in a minimum annual guarantee for the airport authority.

     

     

    Now TPIA is a $billion+ business but still could NOT run a hotel as neither could the original management of the Sky Dome which had been sold to Renaissance for a reported $31 million and with net worth $22 billion, now I have no doubt our club looked at the prospect of an hotel, they would have been remiss not to, but lets NOT forget when the bunnet put forward the idea of redeveloping Parkheid he did travel around the US looking at comparable stadiums over there and one in particular, the Skydome, really impressed him.

     

     

    Also, we would have carried out a cost based analysis of the situation as well as opening up dialogue with the major hoteliers who probably rejected the proposal, so as I said there is no chance that we will ever build a hotel on our own and unless it’s a no frills one as seen at TPIA, which is a 24/7 operation, I cant see that happening either.

  22. garygillespieshamstring on

    Back to Basics

     

     

    Having attended a number of AGMs, I always felt that the Celtic Trust people never did themselves any favours in terms of getting ordinary shareholders to align themselves with the CT.

     

     

    Just an impression I have gleaned from hearing the reactions from folk sitting around me at the meetings, so could be talking a lot of mince.

     

     

    However as many folk seem to against them as for them around me.

     

    I don’t know how that reflects the opinion of shareholders in general though.

     

     

    Also, in general when a show of hands is called they seem to be very much in the minority in terms of votes.

     

     

    I think they need to have a bit of a charm offensive if they are to convince a significant proportion of shareholders to support them.

  23. Chairbhoy

     

     

    “Well again, I didnt say I was dealing with An TEARMANN’s comment exclusively, there was obviously a previous narrative.”

     

    —————————

     

     

    Yes- you responded clearly naming both of us. You then attempted to weasel out of it saying it was mostly directed to An T, Now you’re back to admitting we were both labelled Board Apologists and you are crediting yourself with having “touched a nerve”.

     

    ————————

     

     

     

    “The idea that Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones stepping down had any baring on the Idah transfer is nonsense.”

     

    —————————

     

     

    Yes you’ve asserted that conclusion with 100% confidence again and you’ve C & P’d your previous reply. merely adding one more previous transfer Norwich concluded before Adam as if 3 deals clinched it where 2 did not suffice.

     

     

    What you did not do was address any of the possibilities (as I’m a less certain man than yourself) I raised and asked you to consider. The attitudes and feelings of the new and old majority shareholders towards a deal for Adam Idah may have been different and tush had an affect. The views of the new manager may have been different and either or both of the majority shareholders may have made a commitment to him on his evaluation of Adam and all his squad. I repeat those as possibilities so you don’t skip round them and repeat the line that “2 or 3 previous Norwich transfer were managed so the ONLY thing that could have led to delay was on the Celtic side.

     

     

    Now, you may be right and it was but you cannot KNOW that you were right unless you were in the rooms concerned and you weren’t. I’m not claiming to be right; I’m just outlining how factors you do not consider or give credence too might affect things. You are having as much trouble with this as you had with the idea that Celtic could have forced to make it a “loan to buy” and not just a loan last January.

     

    ———————————-

     

     

    “I’m not sure what your angle was in raising it, however it has been picked up by Paul67 and I know exactly where he is coming from;)

     

     

     

    NewsnowclickbaitCSC”

     

    ————————————–

     

     

    Well if you’re doubling down on the agenda angle- gloves can come off.

     

     

    What’s your angle in perpetrating FF tropes and memes on CQN?

     

    What’s your angle in repeating SMSM messages about biscuit tins, lack of ambition and Celtic’s failure to be a modern club like Rangers?

     

    What’s your angle in saying that two posters with the same opinion on a single issue, contrary to yours, must have an agenda at all, whilst you declare yourself agenda free?

     

    What’s your agenda in remaining an anonymous visitor to the blog who does not make contact with fellow Celtic fans? (I’ve no idea if that’s true or not but you’ve legitimised the tactic).

     

     

    Damn right, you’ve got a nerve! Now it’s my turn to press on it. You’ll have the multi-moniker troll backing you up shortly. That’s fine company to keep.