Let’s get the result out of the way first. We went out to a weaker team who were nonetheless very well-drilled in defence. AEK scored with their only two attempts on goal last night and with one of their two at Celtic Park. This contrasts greatly with our chance conversation rate. It hurts and is money left on the table.
Recruitment is correctly at the heart of the inquest. Not only did nine of last night’s starters play under Ronny Deila, seven of them were once the heart of Neil Lennon’s team. Only Olivier Ntcham and Jack Hendry were brought to the club by Brendan Rodgers. One of Moussa Dembele or Odsonne Eduard, both Brendan signings, would have started if fully fit, while the Belgian, a Ronny signing, would have started in other circumstances.
This is Brendan’s fifth transfer window, so why do so many remain from the Ronny/Neil eras? There are good reason and bad reasons. McGregor, Rogic and Forrest have improved significantly under Brendan. We want more like this.
We only have accounts for Brendan’s first year, which show a £13.8m spent on player registrations. Since then we have bought big ticket players like Ntcham and Edouard, and more. Total spend will not be a whisker below £30m. Profit for Brendan’s first year was £6.9m. We could spend more (always), but we are still in an expenditure territory that AEK could not dream about.
I wanted John McGinn, but he is irrelevant to last night. He would not have displaced Ntcham or Brown. Not only was John not a solution, he was yet another squad player!
I’m not saying it’s easy, in fact, it’s difficult. We did not fall to a team who necessarily had a better plan for their recruitment budget, every season there is an AEK who hit the right numbers and over perform, before reverting to the mean. These are the perils of qualification.
We do not have a viable plan to continually qualify for the Champions League, and failures like this hurt. But we have been here before.
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‘I wanted John McGinn, but he is irrelevant to last night.’
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The shambolic failure to sign McGinn will have adversely affected the morale of the players.
Because it’s symptomatic of a deeper malaise.
bigbhoy on 15th August 2018 2:46 pm
‘would we have signed McGinn as it was reported in error that he was desperate to sign. His statements since signing for Villa indicate that this was not true.’
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Newly signed player says complimentary things about club he’s just signed for.
I wouldn’t read too much into it, or set much store by it.
How come when we win its expected nothing to see hear move right along no need for discussion, but when we lose OMFG everybody and anybody who has an opinion will get air time, press time, on line time, as much time as you need to pump up the volume. and we’ve lost two in a row…….this could go on for weeks and weeks, ah well, small consolation, we’ve made everybody (accepts us) very very happy.
My wee late mum, bless her, was a sucker for BOGOF deals.
Perhaps PL was similarly chastened by childhood experiences, hence his adoption of the polar opposite, BNGFA approach to recruitment in pursuit of CL revenues.
HH jg
I’m thinking of dropping the Dill from my name. ;[)
As regards Boyata, he better hope and pray that Celtic put him on the transfer list, and we’ll just need to hope for some interest.
Why?
Come January when it is pre-contract time the WC will be a distant memory and no one will remember some no mark defender who was lucky enough to play in 3 games thanks to his Club giving him a chance to star in their team.
WITS out (may be a spelling mistake) ?
Boyata out (although he could head a ball goalwards)
Kriss Commons’ article on the BBC website: soup taker or telling it how it is?
The rightly much-maligned defence limited AEK to 2 attempts at goal.
Unfortunately for us, they were both on target and with big £1m a year Craigy in goals that is 2 too many.
Aye we need a CH but we really need a goalie that is good at making saves.
The EL will be another failure if we don’t get this guy out the team.
@ THE BLOGGER FORMERLY KNOWN AS GM on 15TH AUGUST 2018 3:08 PM
The figures used are from transfermarket which is unreliable. Accounts will be out soon and we can truly see how much was spent.
As stated in a previous comment, Rodgers spent half of what Paul claimed on players in his first season.
JAMESGANG on 15TH AUGUST 2018 3:03 PM
BNGFA – is that an anagram of Bangura ?
Ps, very funny post – made me laugh
Any chance we could tempt one of AEK’s Centre Halfs to Glasgow. We’ve got a nice pitch and Disco lights.! And its a lot cooler.
Maybe not.
ROGUELEADER
When you consider the amount of games that Celtic play in a season then McGinn would have had a big part to play.
Also take into account how disappointed Brendan was doesn’t suggest that McGinn would have been a bit part player, Scott Brown well into his thirties and playing through an achillies injury, Kouassi not looking to be rated by Brendan considering he has started just 11 games in all the time he has been here,
it makes Paul67s/Peter Lawwells header look like something from Level 5.
I spent yesterday cleaning the living room carpet to keep the wife happy. Feck knows why, she’s in Brunei.
What about the Pyro’s before the game? (Which we always get fined for), I’m sure our players still had smoke in their eyes at the 1st goal.
strawscluching.com
Pog
I’m waiting to let davidO Wouk our what it means!
He likes these little victories!
???
NALLY81 on 15TH AUGUST 2018 3:09 PM
———————————————————
Re Craig Gordon – are you my son? ???
Good to see P67 doing the PLC work for them.
” You’ve spent £30m, not our faul we don’t have a team, Brendan”.
Yours, The Board.
You’re fooling no one sunshine.
PHILBHOY on 15TH AUGUST 2018 1:41 PM
!!BADA BING!! on 15TH AUGUST 2018 1:06 PM
The plan ing for this season’s squad, should have included getting guys out the door,
Comperr
De Vries
Gamboa
Allan
Christie
Miller
Jozo
Boyata
Guys who make zero contribution, or not good enough, could have bought 2 CBs with that lot punted……
……………………………………………..
Apart from Boyata, have we received any offers or has there been any interest in any of these players?
Make it public players are for sale, tell their agents to get them new clubs, agents like moving players on.
At least with new lights and sound system, we could get some gigs at CP, to fill the odd Tuesday or Wednesday
Seems to be a lot of selective memory loss over the attempts to sign McGinn.
It was widely reported, and accepted, that Hibs asking price for McGinn was £4m. It was widely reported, and accepted, that we made 3 bids, final one being £2m, which was rejected by Hibs.
I have no information that these figures are verifiable, but, they were assumed to be so on these pages. At the time, I don’t recall anyone ( could be wrong ) making a case for paying the asking price, or making a higher bid than our 3rd bid for a player “we would get for nothing on a pre-contract in January” or for a much reduced fee. Everyone seemed content with how we approached the process.
I’m as unhappy as anyone with the mess we’ve been left in due to failing to sign adequate replacements and additions, but let’s stop trying to re-write History. Much better left to the other lot. We were all in support of the approach to signing McGinn until Villa made their offer.
Celtic sign new CH to star under those Euro Night lights:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LnqWQnbvjuQ
Nally
For me the differences are in the quality of chances, and how the chances are created.
for both goals, their players found space, and then were found by a pass.
on the first goal, when they got possession, the winger bombed down and then cut a nice cross back …. to a striker who was moving into space in the box… movement and like they all knew what they were supposed to be doing!
for their second, a good corner finds the head of a forward who knocks it across the box to another player who moves into space … again ….
if I didn’t know better, I would almost think that they had practiced that …
bloody cheating, I call it.
it seemed like our latest strategy is give it to Rogic and let him do his magic. That may work in the SPL, but it doesn’t work often enough at the CL level. and the drastic drop off in the number of goals we scored last season suggests other teams have sussed it out as well ….
Sky laying it on thick, Celtic having difficulties Rogers this and that, contrast with Sevco full title for their rookie boss everything in the garden is rosy, many references to OF ,presented in the tones of the Irish Girl Orla who seems quite pleased at these events, I am so glad that my package ends permanently at the end of September, never to return, what you don’t hear can’t annoy you.
Paul the Tim claiming Pedro being parsimonious cost us a new right back. I find that very hard to believe ? aye right!
Read down the comments section (a Club divided ?)
https://twitter.com/paulthetim/status/1029459033168592897?s=21
Bateen Bhoy
The wee dig ref McGinn on the article was no considered discussion of his market value. Rather it was a supercilious, squirrel-seeking jibe.
What is a squad player anyway?
With the exceptions of brown, Gordon and KT fee if anyone seem guaranteed a starting spot. Surely then, pretty much everyone is a squad player? And hasn’t P67 often gone about about the importance of strength in depth in the squad.
I see it as a cheap dig.
And in this scenario, it’s the opposite of the ‘new Car out the showroom’ effect. Rather then instantly losing c.20% of value upon crossing the threshold, McGinn became (likely forever) out of our reach the moment he crossed the border. At £4m he would have been in the OllyN price range. He would likely have settled sooner and stayed longer.
HH jg
BMCUW @ 1:13 pm,
”I think the PL/BR relationship is FUBAR’d. That’s a huge worry.
PL won’t leave,he has huge bonuses accruing,and BR might not mind a pissing competition but he won’t put up with being the target for one.”
Yes, that is a huge worry, I believe we have here, two people who feel a great connection for Celtic and also a great affection for their careers. Are these egos too big for a reconciliation let’s hope not.
We can all see what BR brings to the Club, I know you and many others are deeply sceptical about what PL brings. I tend to differ, it’s far from easy being a CEO of a PLC even a relatively small one like Celtic. He’s managed to climb the greasy pole that is football administration and has significant influence on the SPFL and is on the Board of the ECA
The problem as I see it, his role as defacto “Director of Football”. This area has been a vacuum at Celtic and where football matters are concerned the Celtic Park, Lennoxtown, Boardroom strategies in this regard have been disjointed.
Now before he announced it in at a presser a week ago I did not know that Brendan was head of football operations. Is he? When did it happen, from his appointment as Manager or the departure of Mr Park or when?
Now you may think I owe you an apology, a few weeks ago I commented that we shouldn’t be obsessed by bringing in new players, you disagreed… well of course the undercurrents running through Celtic Park had not yet spiked as lightening bolts.
Still, my thoughts remain the same, we should have looked at what we had and got on with it, we were where we were. We should have taken the money for Boyata and tried to secure or procure quality players where we all know we need them.
Yet of course what was unbeknown was, Brendan asked for certain players in early so he could work with them and have time to get them qualifier ready. Considering the excellent and professional way we went about our preparations and conditioning pre-season this makes perfect sense.
Why wasn’t Brendan backed?
Well it could have something to do with what Paul67 alludes to in his leader. Too many Rodger’s signings are not first team starters. The Board doesn’t trust Brendan’s judgement in the player recruitment market.
Now for me this would constitute a huge problem.
Whose the judge?
Lets face it, everyone who has been at the Club long term and has had anything to do with player recruitment can’t criticize anybody. We may have nine players playing from the Lenny/RD era playing starting yesterday but the Club brought well over fifty players during that time.
Here’s how I would characterize them…
i) The players who shone and excelled – half a dozen all sold off for profit
ii) The (veteran) players who undermined RD and Celtic who thought they were bigger than the Club – gone
iii) Crocks – still happening btw
iv) The players who were never good enough (the vast, vast majority) – many were gone by the time BR got here, many he had to ship (not an easy job)
v) The players with potential, half had real potential that have flourished under BR, half were very good professionals but not of the highest quality – moved on or still here as a work in progress.
Now I don’t know whose giving Brendan lectures in player recruitment and if we ignore the players mentioned in the leader, the likes of Scott Sinclair who for one reason or another didn’t start the game and the likes of Hayes who was brought in as a proven squad player or the likes of Lewis Morgan, who are prospects. If, and I’ve no reason to doubt it we have spent circa £30M during BR’s tenure well one thing’s for sure… we could sell them tomorrow for £40M without blinking an eye…
Now to the cruix of the matter…
If Brendan Rodgers is head of football operations and has never failed in a single competition (either to qualify for it or to win it) until last evening, why wasn’t he backed?
Let’s play devils advocate…
Let’s say for arguments sake BR has screwed up in the transfer market according to his KPIs. Lets say he screwed up the preparations for the UCL in the January window by bringing Compper in and being overly zealous to bring Musonda in and develop a relationship with Chelsea.
Those transfers back fired spectacularly. Now we know Musonda was a BR deal. Are we really being told Brendan went to the Board at the end of last season and asked for reinforcements early doors in the window to bolster the team and our chances of UCL qualification and someone looked at his track record and decided our football operations Manager wouldn’t be supported?
No wonder he put his foot down… I strongly believe if Brendan doesn’t hold his ground the Board will take a Lenny of him. Sell all his best players and leave him high and dry…
Hail Hail
Am i right in thinking the whole of the Scottish Premiership benefited to the tune of around £200.000 each through our CL qualification last year? I’m sure I read that somewhere.
Jamesgang
BNGFA?
Basically No Good Fullbacks Available
Which I think is pretty harsh, mate…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40964760
Found it, see if they’re gloating just show them that.
DavidO
?Try again young mhan. With your usual acerbicity please!
????
Dessybhoy
Everyone’s laying it on thick. The BBC have had a succession of negative articles running all day.
We all know how it works and the SMSM don’t need an invitation to be negative on Celtic. It’s their default setting.
The fact this is self inflicted and should have been avoided is so, so galling.
BATEEN BHOY on 15TH AUGUST 2018 3:28 PM
Seems to be a lot of selective memory loss over the attempts to sign McGinn.
It was widely reported, and accepted, that Hibs asking price for McGinn was £4m. It was widely reported, and accepted, that we made 3 bids, final one being £2m, which was rejected by Hibs.
I have no information that these figures are verifiable, but, they were assumed to be so on these pages. At the time, I don’t recall anyone ( could be wrong ) making a case for paying the asking price, or making a higher bid than our 3rd bid for a player “we would get for nothing on a pre-contract in January” or for a much reduced fee. Everyone seemed content with how we approached the process.
I’m as unhappy as anyone with the mess we’ve been left in due to failing to sign adequate replacements and additions, but let’s stop trying to re-write History. Much better left to the other lot. We were all in support of the approach to signing McGinn until Villa made their offer.
———-
At the time many of us supported the principle of the McGinn negotiations on the basis of how it was reported on this site. However, as new credible information has come to light from McGinn’s family which aligns with what Brendan has said, it now looks very bad for PL. It was a botched, arrogant pursuit of a player that Brendan wanted, over £1m. Brendan has spoken out and the whole thing has blown up.
DILLIGAFBHOY
Good!
Is Lawwell?
Disappointed to see the u21s gubbed by the journeymen of Annan last night.
Not sure if we have ever won a match in the Petrofac, another of UEFA’s prestigious tournaments.
Buy No-one Get Fek All
VALE BHOY on 15TH AUGUST 2018 4:03 PM
Doubt it mate. Trouble is..
Ones an immovable object and ones an irresistible force. Probably wont end well.
Jamesgang
:)
GM
It is but I have seen it many many times, we never make the most of our opportunities, and that leaves us open to criticism, and, for those who hate us they have the chance to dance on our heads which they dont miss.