It was revealing that days ahead of the international break, the subject of the January transfer window tripped off Ange Postecoglou tongue. It is as though he spent much of the previous week planning ahead.
When you manage a team that competes in Europe your availability to scout players in person is very limited. Most of the work is delegated out, supplemented by TV coverage, but the latter will only ever tell part of the story.
Club managers have been known to take in eight games over an international break. With travel restrictions still in place, Ange is unlikely to see anything like this amount of action, but if he is going to spend some of our money in January, he will want to make the most of the break in Celtic action this month and next.
I’m in the glass half full camp and expect us to improve as the season progresses, but the squad is perilously thin in places. Reinforcements in January will be crucial for whoever wins the league. This is an important fortnight for Ange and his scouts.
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Happy Friday eve all!
Hate the international breaks, fingernail biting awaiting injuries and not always a popular thought on here but really want Scotland to qualify.
HH!
Surely not?
Back of the net?
OK, I’ll stop.
“Three quarters of Americans believe in at least one phenomenon that defies the laws of science, including psychic healing (55 percent), extrasensory perception (41 percent), haunted houses (37 percent), and ghosts (32 percent) — which also means that people believe in houses haunted by ghosts without believing in ghosts. In social media, fake news (such as Joe Biden Calls Trump Supporters “Dregs of Society” and Florida Man Arrested for Tranquilizing and Raping Alligators in the Everglades) is diffused farther and faster than the truth, and humans are more likely to spread it than bots.”
Worth a wee read
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/09/an-excerpt-from-steven-pinkers-latest-book-rationality/
I am in an alternate CQN universe?
“999 thanks for calling, what is your emergency?”
“I’d like to report someone missing I’m afraid.”
“OK, do you have a description?
“Yes, a big rowdy group of folks that post on a blog have suddenly all fallen silent, something has to be afoot.”
“Did you say left foot?” – Disconnects call.
*wonders if anyone has taken a top ten clean sweep?
Does this make me second ?😜😜
Jan transfer window — AP seems to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time so we are in a better position than is usually the case.
Normally January is the time of PL finding a project under a rock and paying three times the going rate to land him — great work for his pet agent and a small team in a faraway league.
Less good for us.
Well done AIPPLE
This lurker appreciates you for bringing a little humour back to the blog🤣🤣
Leftfield moan — the global “chip” shortage.
Seems to be in the main a shortage of cheap commodity chips built using old school equipment.
Nobody builds the old school equipment to make them so we are now having our issues as demand increases and we do not have the production equipment to meet that demand
I wonder whatever happened to the equipment that came out of the NEC plant when it shut down? In its day it seemed to have a rosy future but the high pound and the trend for low cost country sourcing in second rank Far East economies stopped it in its tracks,
Anybody know what they built there?
What production equipment did it have and where did it end up when the plant was shut down?
From memory there was also a chip plant in Greenock above and beyond the IBM assembly plant.
Plus something at South Queensferry — all gone unfortunately.
Interesting Pablo.
One cameo to this is the presence of a resource market that Ange knows inside out …
…. Japan.
Whose league season ends 04 December
If he wants a slightly easier life?
and wants to reduce the risk of signings who don’t add value?
I’d respectfully suggest he targets two specialists currently playing in J1 league.
Objective : each of you makes half the impact Kyogo has made.
Second priority for January – two pre-contracts signed with players currently playing in Europe … joining us 01 July.
Third priority – a high profile loan to give us oomph for the run in.
All of the above would require the purse strings to be loosened
So how does Ange pitch that to the board?
Simple : “Total number of other new signings in the Summer of 2022 : ZERO”
“Outgoing squad fillers off the wage bill? LOADS
See this management lark from your armchair?
It’s a dawdle
🤔
Recruitment and Scouting requires a lot of boots on the ground. Only after they have been watched and the 2nd opinion applied should the coaching team be asked to run their eyes over the candidate, The analysts should prepare a report from the video records and if all are thumbs up then the manager receives the recommendation.
The scouts should be briefed by the manager as to what type of player that he wishes.
As has always been the case then the manager has the final say on any new signing
AIPPLE,
Be careful what you wish for.The Madman answering your call.
Are any of those Rednecks and their Kin taking the Vaccines yet?
B2B @ 12.49
We need more than two players in come Jan.
The squad is paper thin regarding players good enough to win the league.
Happy to work the J League even to the level of a couple of projects.
However we need to get rid of the deadwood and the brain dead.
AP should know who they are after 6 months of coaching.
B team — sore result last night.
Looked a much changed team from the normal.
International break must have hurt us hard.
Good article on Newsnow Celtic today about Greg Taylor.Totally destroys the opinions of the naysayers.Loads of stats.Get that new contract signed wee man.
WEEROCH1 on 7TH OCTOBER 2021 12:40 PM
Well done AIPPLE
This lurker appreciates you for bringing a little humour back to the blog🤣🤣
Spot on from another lurker
We’re certainly making Ange work for his money.
Maybe bolster his backroom team while he’s out looking
WEEROCH1 on 7TH OCTOBER 2021 12:40 PM
God bless all the lurkers friend!
——————————————————-
TURKEYBHOY on 7TH OCTOBER 2021 12:52 PM
We have a ball busting 53% vaccinated. A few points lower than the US average. Have told you before (I think) that Louisville is a little different and more of a blue state. About the only time I am happy to be around blue people. Blue grass, blue city. Blue people you say?
https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/the-science-behind-the-mysterious-blue-people-of-kentucky/
THAMISEO on 7TH OCTOBER 2021 12:59 PM
HH good sir/Ms.
https://mobile.twitter.com/FriendlyFires/status/1445752098390360064
The forward play in encouraging but unfortunately the defending is disheartening. I think Ange needs better, if not the very best players to play to his system, it could take a few transfer windows to get it right.
“WEEROCH1 on 7TH OCTOBER 2021 12:40 PM
Well done AIPPLE
This lurker appreciates you for bringing a little humour back to the blog🤣🤣”
Spot on from another lurker
I ‘d like us to prepare for a horrible run in…………
Our main men will get hobbled again as the Handiicap Hurdle Race to the CL tape looms into site so we have to have enough depth and quality or we’ll miss out.
No excuses Celtic.
MADMITCH on 7TH OCTOBER 2021 12:41 PM
Leftfield moan — the global “chip” shortage.
————————
Mass production left these shores many years ago. During the 80’s, 90’s, and early OO’s the likes of IBM, Motorola, and National Semiconductor, provided thousand’s of highly paid, highly skilled jobs. And many more in the supply chain. Now, there is still some activity but in R&D rather than mass production. From memory, quite a few upped sticks to Poland and the Czech Republic. Equipment was stripped for spare parts with any value.
Intel still has a strong presence in Ireland (Leixlip) and it’s a great pity that Scotland cannot attract, and retain, high value jobs in this industry. The site that Amazon currently occupy in Dunfermline was at one time earmarked for a major plant (can’t remember name of the manufacturer).
…sight.
MADMITCH
… From memory there was also a chip plant in Greenock above and beyond the IBM assembly plant…
_____
That would have been National Semiconductor, which became Texas Instruments, which became Diodes Incorporated.
Diodes is still alive and well in Greenock.
MADMITCH on 7TH OCTOBER 2021 12:53 PM
B2B @ 12.49
We need more than two players in come Jan.
The squad is paper thin regarding players good enough to win the league.
————
Madmitch – cheers.
I hear what you say and the very prospect of multiple signings is obviously seductive to us all.
My thinking is this is a balancing act.
Too many new faces could take too long to embed.
The scale of Kyogo’s positive impact is often discussed.
Less so, the sheer speed of his positive impact. Almost instantaneous.
(Big) if there are two specialists on our radar who are
– highly focused
– highly disciplined
– highly motivated
– can easily buy into Ange’s methodology
and can make a quick impact?
Good shot in the arm for the run-in for the team/squad with less risk of upsetting the balance of either?
BTW – MM,
I did actually advocate 3 players in January?
🙂
Jimdom @ 1.19
The site in dunfermline you refer to was Motorola then Hyundie. It is now the site for a super campus of 2 high schools and Fife college. The amazon site is down the road a bit and was built on old farmland.
HH
we have had Mr White
M Green
………………….Mr Coco the Clown
………………….Mr face painter ezc etc etc
and now the main man dealing with the Protocol and the staunch parties of the north
smiley Mr Mr Šefčovič thing
hahahahhahaha as our man in Dublin would utter…have they no suffered enough
Braw
JD @ 1.19
Your last comment is more in my area of “expertise” …
From memory / lots of scuttlebutt / gossip in dark and dank pubs.
Or failing that the Drum and Monkey.
In the mid 90’s — the SDA courted Hyundai with fine wine and Belgian chocolates.
Seemingly everything was set up to go until the 98 case of Asian Flu / economic style.
The plant at Dunfermline was to be a silicon fab / packaging plant for various chip types.
As noted they actually pored concrete and put up some steel.
There was also talk of a car assembly plant for Glesga / West — not sure if a contract was signed before the SK economy tanked and expansion was out of the question.
One intriguing chapter to the story is Hyundai’s subsequent expansion into the EU.
After 98 — Hyundai Auto merged / bought over Kia and they are still going strong today.
When it came to them building their first plant in the EU — Slovakia from memory — it was not billed as a Hyundai plant it was billed as a Kia plant.
Kia were / are the junior partner in the company so to make them the first to build cars in the EU was a bit strange given that they are a very competitive odd couple.
My thoughts / guesses were that Hyundai signed an agreement with the SDA that for a period of time any Hyundai car plant built in the EU had to be built in Scotland.
That time period was not up and so the plant in Slovakia was billed as a Kia plant to get around the contract.
The time period then expired and the second plant could be built as a Hyundai plant.
Late 90’s was full of chat that the Hyundai plan was very well developed — sites looked at / layout finalised — until the SK economy tanked in 98 and it was canned and then when it came to the time when they had to build a plant in the EU for political / logistical reasons then Central Europe was the cheap place to build cars in the EU and not Scotland.
Linwood hangs over us like Banquo’s ghost.
Everywhere you go in Big Auto someone has a story about the plant.
Any sign of a head of recruitment Paul, or is that Anges job now.
Worldwide production of all sort of chips is at its highest production output of all time’
It is just demand is at an extra-ordinary level.
Particularly impacted is car manufacturers. Many plants going onto reduced hours since the summer.
Cars have upwards of 2,000 chips in them.
Also impacted gaming machines, and hand held devices.
Semiconductor plants making everything from base chips to graphic cards, from SCI in Irvine to the very east coast at Haddington, all gone bar a half dozen specialist manufacturers including the larkfield plant.
Greg Taylor shouldnt be anywhere near a celtic top.end of.
Mark Scott. Rip
https://twitter.com/Stephen4_2/status/1446021830754684929?t=wsCSwAj6StkuCYMPak-p5w&s=19
HH
B2B @ 1.31
OK — buy two players plus a high profile loan?
Things are so tight at the moment that I would be looking at the out of contract box to box MF’s to see who was available.
We need to improve out tackling.
I think we should start taking the *iss when we press in the opposition half.
Comedy / clowning about — other team shielding the ball with their back.
Place a finger on their back and see if they fall down.
Humour has a strength all of its own.