I heard earlier this transfer window that the club didn’t expect an offer for Moussa Dembele. There was interest a year ago, but a year of injury, then a fresh injury at the start of this season, convinced all that the player would be with us until January, at least.
When Real Madrid invoked a buy-out clause for Lyon striker Mariano on Wednesday, the French club were prepared to throw a lot of money around to buy a replacement, and their primary target was Moussa Dembele.
There are millions of euros at play here. Agent fees alone would be in seven figures, while the contract available for the player would dwarf anything Celtic pay. In addition, they were prepare to offer Celtic a lot of money. So what do you do?
Celtic were not planning to sell Moussa Dembele, just as they were not planning to sell Kieran Tierney in July. The club gave very clear messages to Lyon that they would not entertain a bid. Note Lyon president, Jean-Michel Aulas’ comments “I know the boss at Celtic well. He is basically like a bulldog who negotiates after yapping.”
The assumption in Lyon was that after Peter Lawwell’s “yapping” there would be some negotiation. Lyon expected Celtic to roll over, but Celtic did not bite.
The choice was to pocket the money without buying a direct replacement (as it was too late), or reject the offer. The sale was not even considered, by the manager or board. As we saw three weeks ago with Boyata, Celtic do not need the money, what they need is talented footballers.
It was right to reject the offer. Not just because we need players more than money, but because if we fold under player pressure, we will only encourage more ‘sore back/not the right frame of mind’ scenarios when contracted players are tapped up during a qualification campaign.
The football business is incredibly unstable. We contract players, who, if they succeed, will soon be able to earn millions of pounds per year more than we will ever pay them. You either sell when the big offers come, or turn your face to stone and sell when you are ready.
I don’t know if playing hardball this month will stop this happening again, but folding would guarantee tantrums every time a player receives an 80€/week offer. We could be sitting this morning with all the money in the world, but a little light up front. That’s not the plan and never has been.
The first piece of business today was the signing of central mid, Youssouf Mulumbu. Youssouf’s career came off the rails when he broke his metatarsal weeks after joining Norwich three years ago, but a cameo half season at Kilmarnock convinced Brendan Rodgers to move. Welcome to Celtic, Youssouf.
Let’s get Filip Benkovic signed up, and spank Newco back into their dystopian existence on Sunday. Oh, and Malmo and Sarpsborg would do nicely in the Europa.
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NORRIEM,
Read that.Pity they will not go back and strip previous recipients.
In the same Newsnow section,I also read Trump has now blocked Palestinian regugees.In the past two weeks,he has lifted the ban on Insecticides in the States that kills Bees.The repercussions of that could be calamitous.He also lifted the ban on Animal trophies being imported into the States.Is there now no Lee Oswalds left in America.
St Stivs
great photo ! Going to a real game of football today – Bankies v Kilbirnie. Entry, pie n bovril and scrap all for change of a tenner
If we had held out against the Dembele transfer we would have had a very unprofessional and highly paid sulky player in our squad until january.
We would also have been accused of not allowing such players to follow their dreams and bank balances to the major leagues .That would have brought problems further down the line when making signings.
The money was also pretty good £20 million?…about three quarters of Rangers turnover.
Yes the timing was bad.But it was always going to be.
I’m sure we can pick up someone on a emergency free IF our attacking options are reduced through injury.
Time to focus on the season ahead and the CORRECT targets for january.
Like a previous poster said I offer no blame to the board with regards the Boyata and Dembele situations.Only the McGinn transfer stupidity.
NorrieM no retrospective stripping of honours??
D. :)
TURKEYBHOY on 1ST SEPTEMBER 2018 10:59 AM
GARY 67.,
Weaker now? OK,thats your opinion,but please explain your reasoning.
——
Lol. The intellectual dishonesty in that question is breathtaking.
He has to explain HIS reasoning?
His reasoning is clear-cut. It is transparently obvious that we are weaker having lost two key players even before Dembele, with neither adequately replaced.
The bank balance is certainly in better nick, but as for anything else you are having a laugh which is why I opened with literally laughing out loud.
Seems when Brendan went onto training pitch yesterday, and asked Dembele if his ‘liar’ references were directed at him, MD said yes, Brendan then chased him…..
PRESTONPANSBHOY,
Dont really see how PL was thinking about his bonus,when he was quite prepared to back Brendan in keeping Boyata,and Moussa.£ 30 million.
Maybe its fans like you that Brendan was thinking about when he said he was happy with the backing the Board gave him in these matters.
Ddv, Izzy, Gamboa, Lustig, Boyata, Comperr, Allan, Christie and Forrest are all out of contract end of this season and will free up over 100k a week wages. The big loan centreback will also be away too. Outside Forrest i dont see anyone else getting/ accepting new contract offers.
On top of that lot we have hayes, benyu, bitton, eboua, ralston, hendry and millar, none of whom have shown much, all be it that most are still young.
All efforts should now turn to getting four quality players throught the door in the form of a gk, rightback, centreback and striker.
Although not happy with the transfer window i am not keen on idea of keepimg unhappy players as it just causes unrest in team.
I will miss dembele, he was class and contributed in the big games. Amstrong had a good half season and roberts, gifted as he is, bearly kicked a ball last season. Eduard is dembele replacement.
We are not a worse team than last season, we are not better either.
However, the squad is way to big and needs cut dramatically.
HH
when we played psg last season we had an 18 rear old right back up against the £200m player.
the most expensive player in history.
this season we played champions league qualifiers with two young centre backs. one who was recently on loan with kilmarnock and the other who was playing for dundee this time last season.
we are beyond incompetent.
Turkey bhoy,
You’ve spent to much time aboard, that second paragraph is meaningless ?
Me, i’m a pragmatist. we have gotten in a decent centre half, kept Boyatta for now, have two very good strikers, am I missing something??
My big concern is that I have a hunch Broony is carrying an injury, other than that I want Ryan Christie kept, the bhoy is good.
4 -1 tomorrow
KINGLuBO
TURKEYBHOY on 1ST SEPTEMBER 2018 10:59 AM
We’re one striker, our best striker, down.
We haven’t replaced our best box to box midfielder.
Our Right Back is regressing so much it’s now noticeable at every game how bad he’s getting.
That’s where we are weaker than last season.
On th positive, we have back up for KT and Mulumbu is a good option to Brown/Ntcham
KINGLUBO:
You clearly ARE missing something, but it’s something that nobody is going to be able to help you with on this site. The question itself is telling; I really do believe that the effort required in sustaining that kind of blind unwillingness to accept what is blatantly obvious … it has to be exhausting.
This window was a train wreck.
Anybody who needs it explained to them – and I can put together a wee diagram if you like – just doesn’t WANT to see it. It’s unbelievable that anybody in our support can be in that much denial.
JAMES FORREST,
Yes,I am entitled to ask.I already posted on the subject.Not saying we were stronger,but how could anyone say for definite,that we were weaker.What evidence are you putting forward that we are weaker?Who are the two players we have lost ?Dembele and Armstrong?Nothing we could do to keep them.We have replaced Armstrong with Mulumbu.Griff will now get much more game time,and Eddie is there.We have much better options in defence,with a very good CH added.So I ask you,in what way are we weaker.And bear in mind,before you rant on about Dembele,we had no replacement lined up to bring in.
Those wanting DD and Lawwell away from our club probably don’t have long to wait – share price at 18 year high, long term sponsorships in place, oodles of dough in the bank, sold out season tickets etc etc – we are being fattened up
Overlooking the inconvenient fact that Brendan played Dembele and Edouard up front, together, it has appeared to me that Edouard is the pipeline replacement for Dembele.
Given Thursday night, it seems Christie is being given a chance to fill the pipeline position behind Edouard and Griff. Good luck to him in that, he’s got a lot of work to do.
We’ve got a lot of kids in the wide right position behind Forrest – Johnstone and Morgan joined by the loaned Arzani.
Much less so on the left, although as Sinclair himself is right footed, perhaps gives space for the above kids to get a shot at the inverted position when Johnny Hayes doesn’t get first dibs.
Behind that lot we’ve for Callum and Tom taking alternate weeks in the hole, with Mulumbu providing reinforcement to Broonie and Ntcham. It seems Kouassi has run out of chances, while Bitton is not Brendan’s cup of tea in the middle of the park.
It’s the defence where we’re in the poo.
Emilio as back up to Kieran might offer Kieran a break in the SPFL, but is no one’s idea of a succession plan, while on the other side you could play both Lustig and Gamboa and still be unable to stop the cross coming in.
In the centre, Simunovic seems to have a rather brittle mentality which fractures randomly, requiring a months of counselling to recover from.
Boyata is here for the next 5 months with whatever form his attitude allows, while Hendry, bless, is just petrified playing for Celtic.
That leaves Kris Ajer – a kid learning a new position – and Benkovic – a kid learning a new language before heading down to Leicester in 9 months time.
Year on year, we’re largely unchanged at the front, wide or centre, we’ve swapped Armstrong for Mulumbu in the middle, and the defence has become a shambling tragi-com.
We’ve downgraded from the UCL to the EL, as a consequence of being unable to defend.
Meanwhile that huge pile of cash we were sitting on last summer has doubled in size. It seems everything we touch turns to cash, like some latter day Midas, dismayed that all the money in the world can’t put the ball in the net or keep a clean sheet in Europe.
It all goes to show that we really do have more money than we know what to do with.
Situation summary: Vincible.
I can choose to bang my gums negatively but won’t change a thing so on the positive for me :
Benkovic on the right hand side will be an excellent upgrade and along with DB and KA I like that back line.
Making an impact this year will be Arzani, Morgan, Johnstone and hopefully Christie. Breaking lines and keeping SS and JF on their toes.
Worried Sevco would go after Mulumbu and I think he’ll be a Billy Stark type signing, helping the young uns and adding more steel and protection to our game. Ntcham will get better and better.
Up front reeling from MD’s implosion but with LG and OE there’s a risk – I think the young guy Armstrong might feature as No. 3…
Feck it. Glad it’s the myth of Sevco tomorrow. Hopefully a pumped up team will wipe the floor with them.
Keep the faith fellas and girls
EPL 25 man squads out today, we will get another striker in on loan, not ideal but….
Bhoys while I like your optimism re Benkovic he is a year younger than Jack Hendry, but obviously has good pedigree. Corkcelt good to see you back on posting ,I was listening to Domenic Behan singing about Tom Barry’s column the other night and thought you would have enjoyed that. NorrieM hope the back is better, I agree with your post re 6 year old team hope we put them in there place on Sunday. Personally I think Edouard is a better team player than Dembele but when they played together earlier this season we looked a lot better.HH
JAMES,
One thing I will say about you,you can fairly jump dykes.I remember your blogs backing our stance on the Mc Ginn signing.You actually wrote that no way would Petrie want to sell him to us,and he would be the one looking stupid when the end of the window came,and he had to accept our offer or get nothing.When Villa signed him,you went straight into attack mode towards the Board,blaming them.WTF.So were they right or wrong?
Are we weaker or stronger?.I dont honestly know,but excuse me if I dont take your answer with your past record.
Still love the Blog though.
TURKEYBHOY:
Let’s go through your point back to front.
Good start, because that sort of is my whole case in a nutshell; that a player who’s been linked with a move almost since the hour he arrived finally got it … and we had nothing in backup. We had no plan. The hard luck story about how it was too late in the day, that’s so transparent that had they did it at Ibrox we’d have been howling with laughter at the fans lapping it up. Howling.
Mulumbu is 31 and closer to the end of his career than the start. Armstrong’s not even in his peak yet. The idea that one’s a replacement for another is laughable. I like Mulumbu. We’re not building a team around him. We would have built a team around McGinn.
We have one better option in defence. On loan. We have cover at left back, but even then I’m suspicious now because Paul has flagged up Tierney more than once and I think we’ve already replaced him on the cheap. Happy to be wrong on that.
Defensively, we’re alright. Except I wouldn’t Boyata in the building, in the city, in the country at the moment, but that’s a digression from your point.
We didn’t replace Roberts and a wide man who could cut inside and score goals was near the very top of Rodgers’ wish list. Not even close to getting it.
The whole “Dembele and Amstrong were always leaving” argument cuts no slack with me at all. They WERE both leaving, there was plenty of time to replace them and we didn’t. I was forgiving over McGinn, but it was a fiasco all the same.
This window has cost us one of our top midfielders, who we’ve replaced with a freebie from Kilmarnock. A better player? Not in a million years. Roberts? Replaced, if you can call it that, by a loanee the manager didn’t even know we were signing; spin it how you will, it’s a fact. It came from the man’s own mouth. A signing with Lawwell’s name all over it in more ways than one; quite who’s being served with the Arzani deal I really don’t know. Lawwell PLC maybe.
What evidence do I have for all this? About the same amount as I have for saying the Earth is not flat, but a round floating ball in space. No matter how ridiculous that might sound when you say it that way it remains an incontrovertible, acknowledged fact … except for Flat Earth people.
And this place is full of them today.
Turning to tomorrow I though Leigh was looking extremely tired and was limping when he was replaced
That and the fact that Eduard is also carrying and injury Who do we go with?
James F
Respect your views and enjoy your many blog posts.
However having had my hero sold for £ 440,000 when a bhoys to see our efforts in the window is just part of the ups and downs of football. We will prevail in Scotland this season again and we may go some way in Europe but that is as far as our little corner of world football can expect. We have a club that can look forward to many years of success with the others simply fighting to stay competitive.
So tell me what are your expectations of our club?
I for one never thought I would see a European final. That was thexception not the realistic expectation now or then.
HH
“Don’t get it wrong Bhoys and Ghirls nothing to do with people who really care about the club @CelticFC ?too much love and respect for you and the crest #CarefulWhoYouCallTheLeaderOfYours”
Aye Moussa love and respect for us? Love and respect for yourself would be more accurate you disrespectful 2 faced lying git. Mind the door doesn’t hit your huge head when exiting paradise.
TBB,
Arzani is a left sided player.Agree with much of the post,but I think we are better equipped to compete in the Europa,barring injuries,with what we have until January.I think Benkovic speaks English.I think.
Blantyre Tim
Play Boyata and Ajer up front – they’re on a great streak at the moment :)
Hope you’re well fella.
Keep the faith
LMCBHOY:
With all respect brother, it’s not me you have to worry about. I’ m a humble blogger. There’s a guy who’s delivered six trophies out of six who, in my view – and that’s all it is – will be eyeing the exit door because I cannot believe, after his public comments, that he is at all satisfied with the backing he’s received in the last two and a bit months. He made that clear, crystal clear, even before the Dembele clusterfeck. His team has been weakened instead of made stronger. He was given no money to spend, and I mean that in terms of net investment. It was zero before £20 million was added to the income last week.
I’m the last guy who’s opinion matters here. There are much bigger problems than whatever I decide to write and post later today. (It’s almost finished, this is what passes for a coffee break these days. I really should get my blood pressure checked again.)
Bada Bing
Can we still take people on loan ????
Who is this guy?
https://twitter.com/CelticFC/status/1035828883940093952
Another prospect sorry :)
James
Not worried about you, ( do watch your BP though) but what are your expectations??
If Brendan leaves, it happens. Many good ( and bad) managers have gone, the club continues. The supporters are there.
If Brendan throws the toys then he is just justifying his stance. If I had left every job I had because I didn’t get what I wanted from my boss I would have been in a revolving door.
Even Mourinho doesn’t get what he wants from Man U. Brendan can be replaced.
HH
Big Wavy
Good mate apart from my trip down the stairs at the city chambers on Thursday
Sober too???
No Wavy but we can still get players out of contracts
!!BADA BING!! – how does that work out if both our and their transfers windows are now shut and any players not in the 25-man squad are still under contract?
Battered Bunnet
Excellent. Articulates the frustrations felt by myself and the few other tims at my work.
JAMES,
Let me answer your reply.You still dont acknowledge you initial stance on Mc Ginn.You mention Mulumbus age,31replacing Armstrong.Reminds me a bit of Keevins slaughtering Lubos signing.Not comparing,but you get my drift.Mulumbu could do a great job for us.We did not replace Roberts?.How could we?.We wanted him,but City had other plans.To buy someone like him,would have smashed our record.We got Morgan,whom Brendan wanted.We now have Arzani,who could be better,who knows?But if slagging PL for bringing in a guy so highly rated,for two years,is your idea of being constructive,you have failed miserably.
You mention something that I have been on about .Our shocking recruitment team.To say on the last day of the window,that we had no one to bring in,I agree,is shocking.Who is to blame?And again you mention Mc Ginn.You still have not answered me on your turnaround.To finish.To even think that Izzy has been brought in to replace KT,is nothing short of paranoid.We have all beenscreaming for help for KT,to give him a break.When we do bring in someone,there is an ulterior motive.
All I can conclude with is,I hope I am 100% right,and you are the opposite.Like you,I have no idea.
The most laughable thing I’ve been reading is that a back up plan for dembele leaving was feasible. Hands up those decent replacements who were willing to sit around all summer waiting for a call from brendan if a, turn Mousa’s head, bid came in?
Can anyone see any hands? No?
Still looking!….
No??
Nope! can’t see any hands.
AnyOldSwipeCFC