After a flurry of transfer activity, it was reassuring to hear Brendan Rodgers say “We will look to do more business, January is important for us.” We have brought in players who will help us with domestic and European challenges this season, but the strategic objective of arriving at the Champions League qualifiers with strong central defensive choices remains.
While the manager is in Dubai, Celtic scouts are busy on this task. The previous two transfer windows saw Marvin Compper and Jack Hendry arrive on permanent contracts but fail to impress. Getting players in is not the problem, but signing players capable of competing in Champions League qualification games is another matter.
Our most reliable method of recruiting central defenders in recent seasons has been loans from English Premier League teams’ younger ranks. We have a reputation there for improving defenders, adding value for Manchester City and Leicester. It would be better to add value to our own playing assets, but squads can have both strategically consistent players (Vakoun Issouf Bayo) and short-term patches (Filip Benkovic).
Would we get a better player through this method than buying on the open market? Probably.
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I see now that the signing of Missing Marvin last year was a stroke of Machiavellian genius on Pedro’s part…..allowing P67 to forever feed us the line that you’re only likely to find shite centre halves for sale in January.
Want real, enduring quality? Then take a loans lads! Every 6-12 months.
Tomorrow on CQN…..how welcoming the creative midfielder who can’t defend as the ‘Nir Perfect’ solution to defence is like a new signing.
HH jg
Loan players don’t come free of charge, a lot of money squandered, why rent when you can buy? Some are outwith our limits,but if we done a deal for Benkovic, we would easily double or treble the outlay IMO
FAN-A-TIC on 10TH JANUARY 2019 2:46 PM
If we resort to only loans for the rest of this window to strengthen obvious weaknesses then what should be the finite number of our cash reserves/mountain before we spend on a player to enhance the team?
=====
Definitely a concern, with 2 consecutive CL appearances, a high profile manager with excellent contacts in the game, and the best commercial deals we have ever had on top of excellent merchandising sales, that recruitment in the last few transfer windows has been such a let down, including the ongoing reliance on loan deals, now which are shorter in duration with no option to buy.
HH
!!Bada Bing!! on 10th January 2019 2:33 pm
Laffatme told to find a new club…
———-
What – newer than the one he is at???
Glass2- VG?
JAMESGANG
Tomorrow on CQN…..how welcoming the creative midfielder who can’t defend as the ‘Nir Perfect’ solution to defence is like a new signing.
it’s well known on here that i think Nir is mince.
But have kept silent as numerous posters have been waxing lyrically about his imminent return.
Last i want to say on this but agree he can’t defend.
Also unconvinced of creative midfield tag as his goals and assist stats do not support this assertion.
Scottish Premiership
IN 101 SPL games he has 8 goals and 7 assists .
Hardly someone who would improve our title chances
Greenpinata,
first off I call out information stated as factual knowledge when it is propaganda dressed as fact, I give the benefit of doubt that it is borne of ignorance due to lack of research and research sources as opposed to agenda driven lies. Unfortunately 99% of western search engines provide party line propaganda, looking for any neutral commentary on Iran in the west is near impossible.
However my own knowledge stems from socialising with Iranian couples who, whilst acknowledging women are not treated the same as men do not recognise the social commentary that portrays Iran as worse than any other Islamic state where women’s rights are concerned, in fact there are feminist movements in Iran which is more than can be said for the majority of Islamic states. Islam has rules, like Judaism, Hindi and Christianity people who profess to be faithful follow those rules hence my suggestion that faithful female Shea Muslims in Iran follow the same rules as non Iranian faithful female Shea Muslims.
BADA BING
Nobody is suggesting loan players come free of charge but they definitely make less of a dent in our cash pile.
While buying players comes with risk the sell on fees we made on Aemstong ,Dembele,Vic,Forster and VVD have shown buying can be a good source of future income.
What do you think our cash reserve should be before we invest money for players we will own?
There are about 7/8 players that need to go however this will be difficult as they are well within their rights to see out their contracts like Boerigter. BR said he preferred a small tight squad supplemented by academy players..the academy seems to be bearing fruit so it would seem that the recruitment isn’t working as well as it should. This should be a concern.
As regards the centre halfs I think that they will be here til the summer and only then will a permanent signing/s be considered. We should be looking at CBs who are out of contract or offloading the players who don’t feature and use that freed up money to attempt to sign Benkovic and try n get a deal done or in place. For me we need a right back in now on a permanent deal. Lustig and Ralston are not the answer in my opinion. So for me 1 rb and get 2 cb’s sorted and try n sign Benkovic (Leicester have 5 cbs in their squad)
That for me would be a successful January window
???x2
Kikinthenakas
Who would win in fight between Wil Trap and Won’t Trap?
Bournesouprecipe.
Claptrap!
BSR
How many balls will a Will Trap trap, if a Will Trap will trap balls?
(works better with woodchucks)
We are currently on a fantastic run of success.
CQN is currently a very negative place.
I understand the desire to continually improve but that seems rather pointless if we never take time to enjoy any sucess which comes our way.
Balance.
JJ
PS I think Nir Biton is occasionally a very classy player and on other occasions he is not !
Will Trap any relation to the Von traps.
I see that the Arsenal manager is saying that his Club cannot buy in this window and can only afford loans. Hmm..
Can’t see anything on SLY Sports, regarding Laffatime , being told to find a new club,were did the rumour come from,
F-A-T @ 1.50 & 2.05 approx
OK — how big was today’s catch?
Me — I jumped in the boat and brought my own tartare sauce.
SOUKUS
Hope not as the Von Traps sound like huns.
http://www.bravotv.com/blogs/wedding-announcement-in-ny-times-gets-couple-bashed
MADMITCH
Failed as usual.
Guess i will have to resort to my Nir Bitton rants.
Fanatic
I agree with JJ (Lord help us both!!!)…. Nir can be good and bad.
Sometimes a very accomplished passer of the ball with precision and metronomic regularity.
Sadly, too often he’s simply passing it back to his own defenders and/or the metronome is set at too slow a tempo. We need allegro, not largo!
And he’s a less than ideal tackler of defender.
Less than helpful while in midfield.
???????when in defence.
HH jg
JAMESGANG
As a comparison to CMcG another who is considered creative.
NB 101 games 8 goals 7 assists
CMcG 132 Games 20 goals 20 assists
Fan a tic- i don’t know how much money we need in reserve till we invest in our own players. Loans can work if we have an agreed fee at end of the loan period,but Burke cost £15m,a 6 month loan with no chance of buying him, makes no sense to me.HH
Fanatic
CMcG will make those lovely wee furtive give n goes and break into the box. Hence goals.
Too many of Nir’s laser like passes are straight back to the no 5 who’s just passed it to him from (our!) central defence. Hence fewer goals or assists!
Football’s a simple game game. Especially when you face the right direction!!
HH jg
Bada
Will it make more sense to you if it becomes a factor in our winning the League?
JJ
JJ- Absolutely…..?….i think we have the money to buy players,rather than expensive loan players, its all down to scouting, and identifying a player for a particular position, not collecting wingers and midfielders, hope you’re well HH
HS
‘Celtic is currently on a fantastic run of success’
Because 23 have won 7 titles in a row and 2 trebles?
The zombies won 9 titles in a row. Would you also describe that as a fantastic run of success?
I would not because we now know that, in their myopic pursuit of winning at all costs, they were salting their own earth/mortgaging their future.
Because our Board wont speak about the behind the scenes issues, We dont yet know the real cost of our ‘fantastic run of success’.
It has always seemed to me that Celtic did not speak out about the cheating because (i) they didn’t want to blow up the league (it wouldn’t have happened, but that was their fear),and (ii) they believed that most fans wouldn’t care, so long as Celtic were winning. CQN spun the narrative that we would have such a financial advantage, that the zombies would never really be competetive with us. , So, Celtic and most fans were, at the end of the day, happy to continue paying into the sham….
but, what was the real cost?
I would suggest that, since the zombies were liquidated, the cheating has not gotten better, either on the boardroom side, or on the pitch. Actually, on the filed, I think this season, the refs have become even more emboldened in their cheating, and this might be the worst season I can recall. Is this going to be the new norm?
If the cost of our recent run of success was that we have, even tacitly, agreed to stay silent on the cheating, ‘our fantastic run of success’ will prove to be a false economy in the long run, and perhaps not really so fantastic.
Hot Smoked on 10th January 2019 4:05 pm
We are currently on a fantastic run of success.
CQN is currently a very negative place.
I understand the desire to continually improve but that seems rather pointless if we never take time to enjoy any sucess which comes our way.
Balance.
==============================
HS Spot on
On recent day’s one would have been forgiven for thinking they had logged into Charlie Nicholas’s (prophet of doom) blog, instead of CQN.
I think the spotlight would be better served shone the zombies way ie: WTF are THEY getting the money from ??
My regards Sir
HH
I actually prefer Bitton playing at the back. Has some issues with lack of defensive instincts (as do some of our “natural” defenders!), but he gives us the option of the longer pass out of defence. We have struggled when we have been high pressed. If you can cut out the press and get in behind the opposition you can cause them problems. Even if you just stop them pressing so aggressively you have then won back the ability to play out from the back.
Probably more suited to away games where we are pressed more. At home our defensive line plays higher up and a lack of pace could be a problem.
Rumour Kieran might be out for season.
@ MIKE IN TORONTO on 10TH JANUARY 2019 5:00 PM
I agree.
I could, however (and albeit grudgingly), live with our inability/unwillingness to force the issue of Oldco cheating and title stripping if we ensured that we pressed home our financial advantage and won 10 and beyond (the generation of domination as Paul calls it).
What is killing me is that we are not doing this. We currently sit in a half way house, whereby we have not challenged the past nor ensured (as far as possible; nothing being a guarantee) our future success. I cannot forgive that.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Just joined up with Twitter and followed Celtic FC…… – where do I sign?
The Hands
I see it somewhat differently … winning is never the priority for me …. doing the right thing is always paramount … plus, if we sort out the league/ cheating stuff, ‘their advantage will go away, and we will win anyways ….
As we all know Dermot D is an avid reader and contributor to the site (Uber happy clapper). With that in mind listen up Dermot D I have a radical idea to save even money and not spend a thin dime in real terms.
Here goes
Rather than paying board members obscene amounts of money in salaries and bonuses we should employ a head hunting company to scour the business / finance world for young up and coming talent (projects in footballing terms) to replace our tired and past it board. Once identified we could ask their current employers to ‘loan’ us their oh so talented but inexperienced financially precocious 20 somethings for a few months to run the club thereby saving us the bother of having to look for and employ hugely expensive over the hill, flat out of ideas, individuals to become board members.
Can’t be any risk attached can there? Nah basically the same as the football team isn’t it? Who needs experienced pros when a couple of unproven youngsters on loan can guarantee you win the league and qualify for the CL.
@ MIKE IN TORONTO on 10TH JANUARY 2019 5:38 PM
I agreed. I would have preferred Celtic to have gone after the trophies that were rightfully ours.
What I’m saying is that, in lieu of doing so, the people that run Celtic better damn well push our advantage home. They aren’t doing that and that’s the killer point for me.
It’s a dereliction of duty on both fronts.
‘ Celtic set to sign Seethen Gerrard’s Rainjurzzzz reject Gutman ‘
Radio Snyde CSC
BSR – if you really have just signed up to Twitter make sure you follow that @JoboBaldie guy and he might even follow you back ;-)
Why, when we were signing loans etc in the last two seasons there wasnt all the ‘buy buy buy’ when we won the dbl treble ?.
Is it because…..?
HMMMMMM
This blog has been crowing for the last few years that Celtic would continue to win consecutive titles for many years to come. Apparently we were, from top to bottom, a well run club in robust financial health that had succession planning built in for staff and players.
Many leader columns were dedicated to the dead club and their bastard child. The jist being they would not be a serious threat to us ever again. Long live the King, we shouted with glee.
Paul and most of us have mocked King and his motley crew since he took control. We have laughed loudly at each of their managerial appointments and the media’s desire to portray them all as masters of their trade. When Gerrard was appointed we continued to guffaw. A Scouser ned with a low I.Q. , no coaching badges, no experience and no know-how to challenge his previous mentor and master.
Yet here they are breathing down our necks with a genuine puncher’s chance of K.O.ing our 8-in-a-row bid.
How did it happen?
Maybe our Board shared Paul’s belief that Newco would continue to be a shambles off and on the park, stumbling from one crisis to another until they faded into obscurity. Our prophets assured us, after all, that a loss-making club with no credit line from a bank and no credit in the City was teetering on the brink of administration on a monthly basis.
I think we can take it now as a given that they are not going away. The SFA & SPFL, the refs and the media are largely supportive of them. Behind closed doors they will all be delighted to see PL’s power base being eroded and the Fenian Hand being replaced by the more familiar handshake.
We have one or two years at best, thanks to our warchest (no laughing), to pull away from them. On current form, I can’t see either of us qualifying for the CL next summer so we will probably both be back in the Europa League and the turnover differences will close considerably.
This transfer window is, therefore, not just about winning the league. It is the chance to have a far better chance at the CL in the summer than we had this year. Secure that 30-40 million in revenue and we might see them folding. If not, I don’t think there will be much between us for years to come.