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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Celtic are in the group stage of the Europa cup. So let’s get on with supporting them in it. Player troubles are part of modern football. Let Celtic sort them out.
RON67…..
Cheers pal.
Mullet & Co
That’s fine if we’re a trading business where the stock coming through sits and behaves itself on a shelf.
Our stock needs nurtured, fed, grown and at times castigated, sucking the life out of the coaching team and paybill and leaving us with a squad of 36 for 16 berths per game.
Each of them also seem to command a price that can’t make them easy to trade off unless at knock down.
We either get better at recruiting and growing or find a different strategy.
Dissent to Treason
Thanks, led me to pop on and buy it.
HH jg
PS what a great blogname that would be!
@ TURKEYBHOY on 31ST AUGUST 2018 4:38 PM
The accounts aren’t my accounts TB. They are Celtic’s and readily available on Companies House. The accounts detail spend on player registrations/sales in relation to the same and net position.
There is no itemisation. It does not state the club from which they were purchased or the one to which they were sold. In any event, that is irrelevant as we are discussing figures not the clubs involved; and the accounts do provide certainty on figures.
MIKE IN TORONTO
I feel for you and qualify that by reminding you my better half is a lawyer.
Like on here i’m not sure if i have ever won an argument and also have been told i talk nonsense on a consistent basis.
Know your place CSC.
Cheers JG – looks good – only 288 pages too.
little did they know?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foDox5lshSs
In other news
Bright Enobakhare (Wolves) and Aaron Tshibola (Villa) are 2 cracking signings for Killie…
Brendan Rodgers confirmed that Filip Benkovic would be available to face Rangers
Amazing how foreign players claim that they were promised something by somebody at the club but failed to have it put into ther contract at the time.
Ron67
Really pleased about that…..big unit, fast and good technique.
Play him on right hand side of a back 3 of Benkovic (6’4), Ajer (6’5) and Boyata (6’2).
Big feckin line that won’t get bullied by the human Giraffe…
Kouassi up there with the worst of them!
Comper, Kouassi and Hendry have cos the guts of £7m!
We have serious issues in our scouting department
ABERDEEN have sensationally thrown out a £7 million bid from Aston Villa for Scott McKenna.
SunSport understands the Dons rejected the huge offer from Steve Bruce’s side in the last 24 hours.
The English transfer window closed on August 9 but Football League sides can still take players on loan with an option to buy in January until 5pm today.
Last week the Pittodrie side threw out a £3.5 million approach from Celtic for the Scotland stopper, who penned a five-year deal last season.
Villa boss Bruce had hoped to do a deal for McKenna, 21, in the final hours of their window as he looks to mount a Championship promotion push back to the Premier League this season.
But when Pittodrie chiefs were told of the figure they rejected it immediately. Boss Derek McInnes has always maintained his star man won’t be sold during this window.
Since January the Dons have also turned down approaches from Hull and Swansea.
What would be the better option, emptying the park, or eating each other ?
Or,……
Who would win between a £49 Old Firm supporter, or Wiley Coyote ?
Oh, and, where’s the last two 2 years CL money ?
Where are £49 Rangers FC getting all of their money from, just as two 2 years of Celtic’s CL money, as usual, disappears up a lumb ?
What PLC board does it suit, for £49 Rangers FC to be pumped up, and competitive ?
Are Celtic’s PLC scared of the likely, half empty stadium consequences, in the aftermath of Ten 10 in a row, and could they be planning ahead by trying to effff up Eight 8 in a row, like they did during Walter’s Three 3 in a row to keep the Old Firm lights on ?
Oh, and, who are the “real” £49 gullibilly’s ?
Asking to a friend √
Beep! Beep!
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Is there any truth in the rumour (which I have just made up)
that Sir David Murray owes Wonga money?
£7mil for McKenna and Aberdeen knock it back. What a load of rubbish, still what do expect from the Sun.
and right on cue – no show without punch
Zzzzzzz
Posters have mentioned about our poor conversion rate re chances to goals which I agree with.
Didn’t see any reasoning as to why though I might have missed it.
I think it’s mostly if not all down to match sharpness of our strikers who have been coming back from injuries. The goals will pick up when all up to speed imo.
Griff has had a few starts now and I think he’s ready to peak. Huns have a better defense than last season but I don’t think their good enough to keep us out when we’re on form.
HH
BIG WAVY
Villa signed the boy from Le Have that we were linked with..
Paul the Tim spotted in car park.
big wavy on 31st August 2018 5:02 pm
ABERDEEN have sensationally thrown out a £7 million bid from Aston Villa for Scott McKenna.
—————————
Didn’t the English transfer window close weeks ago, Villa are only allowed to loan players until the end of August so can’t see how that story makes any sense.
Starry Plough
Read earlier (I think) that it collapsed and he wants to remain in France…..
Could be wrong but I’ll go a googling
“The tragedy of this world is that no one is happy whether stuck in a time of pain or joy”
villa wanted McKenna on loan and sign him in jan
Can someone send £49 to KEV .
FAN-A-TIC on 31ST AUGUST 2018 4:16 PM
It’s not turning on the fans; it’s highlighting the fickleness of our support. I am simply asking the question. We are, after all, on a blog that is open to debate; so will it be Dembele good, Boyata bad or will the same treatment be meted out, including a critical banner and booing him on the park?
It also behooves me to ask will those on here who didn’t want Boyata to pull on the hoops again feel the same about Dembele?
Me, I was happy to see Boyata back and will be happy to see Dembele back.
If they want to go, sell them in January when we have sourced replacements and it suits both parties, not just one. It should also be asked that if we decided to sell Boyata or Dembele to clubs they didn’t want to go to, would they be wrong to decide not to move? That’s the flip side of the coin in the transfer world. Harold Moukoudi, who was apparently going to Aston Villa has returned to Le Harve; I wonder how Le Harve feel about that?
KTF
RON BACARDI on 31ST AUGUST 2018 5:18 PM
:))
STARRY PLOUGH on 31ST AUGUST 2018 5:09 PM
Naw they didnae; he returned to France not being too impressed with Villa.
KTF
While I agree with some of what Paul67 says it really depends on how you believe the players will respond… And also with news management. It was widely reported Dembele was talking with Lyon, even agreed terms. If that was the case either the club granted permission and were spooked off the reaction by the fans or didn’t give permission in which case the club should have a) refuted and b) made a claim against tapping up.
It doesn’t gloss over the fact that we should have been ready with targets regardless of whether we believed a bid was incoming or not. A bid for any player could come in at any point so any position we don’t have enough depth in should have a deep list of scouted players ready to act on. You can’t say it was too late but also say most business is done at the end of the window.
The Boyata palaver is worse. We knew he was in the final year of his deal, we knew he was going to the world cup. We must have known he wasn’t going to sign a new deal. So why didn’t we have a replacement lined up? Throwing away £9m is not good business. He will now leave in January for a few million at most or next summer for free and we’ll be at stage 1 without receiving a fee to reinvest.
On the plus side its looking like we now leave the window a fair bit stronger than we started. But at the cost of unhappy players. If we can get them to perform and keep harmony in the dressing room fair enough – although we’ll have sacrificed close to £10m in the process.
I don’t know if the club have held firm through strategy or through fear of losing the support. But the planning and preparation needs to be better. As it stands we still need a centre back for next year’s CL qualifiers, and a right back. We’re likely to need a striker as well… Signing players at the start of the window is necessary for the CL, but ideally it would be done a year ahead of the £30-50m matches, not the week before.
The problem with selling Dembele in January (from his perspective) is Lyon will not need him in January. I’m sure someone will be interested (if he has a good 6 months) but I’d imagine Lyon or PSG would be the top choice possibly behind the big 4 in the EPL.
WFT is wrong with CQN – why does the page keep reloading. Trying to post is now a major pain in the hole.
nottthebus @ 5.02
Serious issues in the scouting department?
You could safely argue these serious issues in our scouting department are for our rivals, given for example we’ve scouted Moussa Dembele for £500K and are allegedly sitting on a £22M player.
As ever CSC
BOURNESOUPRECIPE
That was under Deila
Well just read the fixture list and to say I’m disappointed is a major understatement. I can’t make Salzburg or Leipzig.
notfeckinhappycsc
This is my revised list – have I missed anyone?
Goalkeepers (4) – Craig Gordon, Scott Bain, Doris de Vries, Conor Hazard. 452-3068
Right back (3) – Mikael Lustig, Christian Gamboa, Tony Ralston.
Right Centre Back (2) – Dedryck Boyata, Jack Hendry, Filip Benkovic.
Left Centre Back (3) – Kristofer Ajer, Jozo Simunovic, Marvin Compper.
Left back (3) – Kieran Tierney, Emilio Izzagiurre, Calvin Miller.
Central midfield A (2) – Scott Brown, Yousuf Mulumbu.
Central midfield B (3) – Olivier Ntcham, Scott Allan, Nir Bitton.
Right wing (3) – James Forrest, Mikey Johnston, Lewis Morgan.
Attacking midfield (3) – Callum McGregor, Tom Rogic, K Benyu.
Left wing (3) – Scott Sinclair, Johnny Hayes, Daniel Armani.
Strikers (4) – Odsonne Eduoard, Leigh Griffiths, Ryan Christie, Moussa Dembele.
Jimmy Bones
Play that side on Sunday and we’ve got a chance :))