Celtic Park and Lennoxtown will be tense places to work today, after notes on recruitment and player sale considerations, dating from April, were photographed and distributed online. Information like this is incredibly sensitive, will expose player recruitment to competitive pressures and can undermine confidence in the current squad. If the leak is identified and found to be an act of carelessness, or worse, someone is likely to lose their job.
I get that information on Celtic’s recruitment plans are of interest to all of us. It is also true that exchanging valuable information confers authority on the source. But this is commercially sensitive information, which once public, undermines Celtic’s attempt to strengthen the team. It is inexplicable that it was left unattended, leaked or publicised by anyone with Celtic’s interests at heart.
The scale of the potential damage of this is significant, not only for those involved.
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Celtic become the first Scottish Club in history to enter Euro’s elite financial top 30,
Celtic target players from abroad:
“They’re sh@te, never heard of them.
Lawwell’s a disgrace.
Celtic target players in UK
“They’re sh@te, where’s our scouting?”
Lawwell’s a charlatan.
Celtic break transfer record to sign Odsonne Edouard
“Naw we didnae “
Lawwell’s a liar
Celtic buy LED light show
“ Pure waste of money they don’t work in day time games “
Lawwell’s a bean counter
Celtic remain silent on referee storm
“ Sh@te statement “
Lawwell’s out of his depth
Celtic release healthy annual accounts
“Pulling the wool over our eyes “
Lawwell’s a banker
Celtic sign new steaming pile of dung at centre back
“ He’s a Lawwell signing “
Lawwell’s a failed accountant
“ Celtic sign Olivier Ntcham from Man City for £4.5M “
Lawwell’s boys fault
Lawwell’s a Celtic Da
Why would you split up tasks to different individuals if the task is the same?
I.e. John Kennedy to speak to whoever about McTominay but Lee Congerton was to do same with another player at another club? PL to speak to agents but Lee Congerton was to speak to other agents. Don’t get the separation of duties?
Bournes – our scouting is rank. How come Ajax are able to find and pay for players when they earn less than us? They don’t scout in the English Championship.
Ntcham isn’t a first team regular.
THE HANDS CANT HIT WHAT THE EYES CANT SEE on 4TH JUNE 2019 1:37 PM
As to the form of the document and the names that appear on it, well, the “well run club” mantra takes another blow. You cannot discern a signing policy from the names mentioned- given their pedigree, where they ply their trade and their age.
___
Are you sure about that?
Sign young hungry players from the English lower leagues or EPL reserve sides seems to be the profile. Almost all the targets are under 25.
Guys who fitted the above profile: Ntcham, Dembele, Ledley, Hooper, Matthews, Forster, Boyata, Arzani, Roberts, Musonda, Benyu, Janko, Blackett, Denayer, Guidetti, Blackman
Some hits and some misses but there is definitely a profile Celtic rely on heavily. Neil Lennon seems to have a habit of going into that type of market regardless of what club he’s at.
Tommy Smith & Zanka are the outliers at 27 & 29 respectively. This is most likely because RB and CB are the two positions that Celtic are looking to bring in a ready made first team player. Not development prospects.
None of the names excite me but I’ve barely seen any of them play. I’d expect the list has changed a bit since 2 months ago.
WBC, ah that explains it all: it wiz a “leaky ” umbrella! ??
HH
@ BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 4TH JUNE 2019 1:47 PM
Are you PL writing under an alias?
To be fair, some folk wouldn’t be happy unless the document alluded to us breaking our transfer record about 5 times over the course of the summer. Not many were that excited about Hooper, Wanyama or Ledley either when we were linked with them before eventually signing them.
The biggest concern imo is the source of the leak and do they have anything else.
HH
I wonder how happy the supporters of any successful teams are?
I can imagine it must be a so pleasant to go on to any of their Blogs and bask in their joyfully expressed happiness as they try to outdo each other in expressing their admiration for those who made that success possible.
JJ
Truth is a wonderful thing. A near sacred thing.
But in commerce and sport, truth can be hugely damaging in many contexts.
This would be one of them. If I was CFC I’d be doing all in my power to get the line out that this is ?% fake……such is damaging exposure of our amateurism.
HH jg
Mullet
Our ‘scouting’ has gone to join his master in Leicester, and good luck to them with that.
How come we’re no Ajax? – I blame Peter Lawwell.
Ntcham is signing for Marseilles any minute, for double what we paid for him, and there are Celtic fans happy to drive him to the airport themselves.
THCH
Just a Celtic supporter still basking in the unique times we live, and content for our club dominate as we do ad infinitum.
@ JAMESGANG on 4TH JUNE 2019 2:07 PM
I do wonder if the person leaking (they aren’t a whistleblower) has the best interests of Celtic in mind. On one hand, it is damaging to the directors and Celtic more generally, as the document does not cover them in glory.
On the other, it gives our support an insight into how player recruitment is run at the club and it doesn’t seem to be the sleek corporate enterprise that some believe it to be which puts pressure on the powers that be to up their game.
IF the document is genuine…so much follows…
Well Paul’s leader makes it very clear that it is genuine.
The dysfunction within the management structure was evident before BR & his team left.
Lee Congerton who left Celtic around May 9, has most of the action points from the leaked agenda items allocated to him.
Clearly, someone with ill-intent towards Celtic & perhaps towards some individuals at the club was/is a double agent.
That it’s taken this time from the date of the meeting for this document to surface is also significant.
I cannot imagine that the Sun have had this document for 6 weeks and only chose to use it now. The way that industry works is if YOU don’t use what you have asap then your rivals will certainly do so.
The document I’v’e seen has scribbles all over it, the way it would be if someone who was at the meeting had marked his/her copy as updates & actions were discussed as they went through the agenda.
Lennoxtown & Celtic Park will indeed be tense places this morning, but the leaker may not even be there today or ever again.
This mess needs a firm hand to resolve for the benefit of the club, and it may be that identifying the leaker is impossible. The damage is done & how Celtic deal with it is vital. Our systems are not secure. That should be the focus rather than a forensic search for a leaker who might not even be there anymore. Such a search is unlikely to uncover the double agaent but will more likely sow resentment amongst loyal staff.
Onwards Celtic – win 9 in a row & stick to them all.
HH
@ BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 4TH JUNE 2019 2:13 PM
Do you believe we will dominate ad infinitum given the way we are running things?
Rangers died. The phoneix club was not in the top league for 4 of our 8 in a row- we had an easier run at it, hence why we elected to get someone like Ronny in.
We then got a top manager in Brendan when they reached the top tier and he achieved unprecedented success. However, the last couple of years have shown cracks in our squad.
Most believe (backed up by the football market) that NL is an inferior manager to BR. That taken in combination with a squad losing key players and others waning due to age, means that it’s fair to assume they will be closer this year unless we decide to do something about it (which I doubt we will). That taken in combination with Clarke leaving Kilmarnock and Aberdeen being weakened suggests a weaker league which favours them and not us.
8 in a row won’t earn us any points this year nor will it act as a tonic if we blow the next couple of titles.
Leaked document — why no discussion regarding the No.10 position?
Does that mean that TR / RC / AN Other are what we have and what we need?
TR has been rank / unfit / lacking in focus for 15/18 months.
I think the run-up to the WC and his performances have caused him issues.
Big expectations + fitness issues + 33% hit rate = Confidence takes a knock.
Plus playing the same MF as an unfit SB and CMcG with ScS and JF is not the support or platform he needs.
Huge fan of the guy but he needs to get with the programme and we need to provide him with a supporting cast worthy of the name.
Who would win in a fight between a football agent and a football double agent?
THE HANDS CANT HIT WHAT THE EYES CANT SEE on 4TH JUNE 2019 2:00 PM
@ BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 4TH JUNE 2019 1:47 PM
Are you PL writing under an alias?
Lol Bsr types his own post.Peter dictates his to a secretary
They are each Celtic men,in their way
By verifying they are different Celtic men the answer to your next question is no am not lol
Hope your good :-)
Enjoy your posts
HH
FOOL TIME WHISTLE on 4TH JUNE 2019 2:21 PM
“IF the document is genuine…so much follows…”
Stephen McGowan has said it’s genuine. He’s the most reliable Scottish Journo when it comes to Celtic.
“Lee Congerton who left Celtic around May 9, has most of the action points from the leaked agenda items allocated to him.”
Yes somebody else will be looking at identifying players. Possibly the coaching team.
“Clearly, someone with ill-intent towards Celtic & perhaps towards some individuals at the club was/is a double agent.”
Could be Congerton. Maybe he feels he was forced out.
Honestly, I see that this has been found in a drawer or paper recycling drawer by a member of staff. It’s been passed to a mate who’s uploaded it to twitter.
“That it’s taken this time from the date of the meeting for this document to surface is also significant.”
I think it shows that a rogue copy of minutes has been found.
“I cannot imagine that the Sun have had this document for 6 weeks and only chose to use it now. The way that industry works is if YOU don’t use what you have asap then your rivals will certainly do so.”
The Sun didn’t reveal anything. A Celtic fan revealed on twitter.
This is most likely a case of a guy leaving a copy of the minutes around and a member of staff putting it on social media,. Why? People like to gossip. People want to be the center of attention.
It was an ill advised decision for whoever did it.
MADMITCH on 4TH JUNE 2019 2:27 PM
It could be that NL is completely happy with our options at number 10.
More interestingly I think it shows that NL is wanting to play 4-4-2. That’s the rumour.
No number 10 on that list would lend weight to that.
THE HANDS CANT HIT WHAT THE EYES CANT SEE on 4TH JUNE 2019 2:00 PM
@ BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 4TH JUNE 2019 1:47 PM
Are you PL writing under an alias?
*naw he’s me
Lots of hunterlopers on this morning
Well, I in all seriousness finding it very hard go view this document as genuine.
A Coorporation the size of Celtic PLC, who prides itself on professionalism would not produce a document like that, recruitment is, as acknowledged by our CEO crucial to our Club.
Also where’s the structure and the process in our recruitment planning and squad management.
O, I’ve often said there’s systemic failing in our player recruitment.
If that’s how we would tackle it, it’s more akin to a flock of clusterducks.
No, I’ve no great respect for our player recruitment but I’d need a wee bit more convincing this is real.
On this basis I’d be glad we got as far as putting any sort of bid in for John McGinn and were lucky to get 2/3rds of his value for M. Dembele not to mention only losing £9mIllion on Boyata.
Hail Hail
My bet is a newly/hastily promoted new member of staff hadnt received his training yet on data management/sensitivity and chucked his copy in the bin or left it lying on his desk, which an opportunist took a photo of and passed it on to a mate who may have done the same, and it was eventually uploaded to social media by someone unaware of the potential consequences.
HH
The leaked document is comedy gold as it shows how professional our operation really is — it smacks of wanna-be execs trying to professionalise an organisation with the use of a Word template and a very basic / thin Word template at that.
Butcher / Baker / Candlestickmaker getting to grips with MS Office — we really are that poor.
Backs up the way that most football teams are run.
Fly on the wall documentary — STID / SAFC 2017/18 — starring a former catalogue model looking like David Brent in speedos was supposed to show a well regarded football CEO trying to resuscitate a fallen giant when in fact it was just another amateur hour production starring the lost, the lonely and the bewildered.
As noted above MB is seemingly highly regarded as a football CEO — so well regarded that an agent offered him some digs in France — and yet his performance was tow curlingly awful full of airport book wisdom and tick box leadership.
MB vs PL = They are both out of their depth — each in their own special way.
The leaked document shows how limited our planning is and highlights if their is real money involved PL has to be involved.
CEO / COO / DoF all in the one package — no wonder our performance is so poor.
TRADITIONALIST88 on 4TH JUNE 2019 2:43 PM
My bet is a newly/hastily promoted new member of staff hadnt received his training yet on data management/sensitivity and chucked his copy in the bin or left it lying on his desk, which an opportunist took a photo of and passed it on to a mate who may have done the same, and it was eventually uploaded to social media by someone unaware of the potential consequences.
___
The picture has been taken in somebody’s house. You can see clothes hung on a door and a radiator.
I agree that this has probably been taken out of the paper recycling by a member of staff and passed to a mate.
The person who nabbed it won’t have uploaded it to twitter themselves.
BSR is just a happy-clapper, from happy clapland…. or lower East Kilbride as I seen it put.
He’s happy not to be East Kilbride…merely lower East Kilbride
TIMALOY29 on 4TH JUNE 2019 2:45 PM
Didnt notice that looking on my phone, just seen a thumb!
On its own, concerning but lessons learnt you’d hope. But.. combined with several leaked team sheets during the season…how serious are we talking?
HH
One thing about the document — and it now appears to be the genuine article — is that it does not tell the whole story. Specifically the comments about OE — he is in play whether by way of his agent or PL putting out some feelers to the interested.
And he will not be the only one — ON / JF / KT / TR / CMcG will all have been part of PL’s beauty parade to find out where they are in the marketplace. I’m sure this happened last year and that is one of the reasob’s for last summer’s car crash.
I think the leak is embarrassing in itself.
I don’t find the list of players particularly exciting or worrying. I don’t think I have seen any of them play. (who has time to watch English lower leagues?) I am assuming the CQN scouting network has watched them all several times.
I don’t see what’s so terrible about the document. It’s nothing more than actions from a meeting. It’s just to keep a simple record of things agreed in a meeting.
Anybody who works in an office environment tends to have some sort of todo list. Every meeting has minutes. Action lists like this are common. I’m not being funny but what do people really expect?
T88 @ 2.51
The two leaks you mention are totally different.
Team sheet = lots of people would have knowledge in the 24 hours before a game.
Transfer sheet = very tightly controlled with a list of all the attendees in the document itself.
Big issue was the leak direct — from one of the participants — or was it indirect with another party getting access to it later?
One other issue is that some of the names on the sheet were very well know.
The two MF’s mentioned have been discussed at length over the past couple of weeks.
That info might have been leaked verbally as always seems to be the case in these situations.
However the full document with comments on actual squad players is much more dangerous.
MADMITCH on 4TH JUNE 2019 2:52 PM
Once again, a simple comment like “likely to be interest in the summer” becomes a conspiracy where PL is trying to shop six different players.
Broken record.
T29 @ 2.52
I would be looking for a bit more depth and sophistication.
We seem to be scouting with a rail rover ticket.
‘Most believe’ that everybody and anybody is an inferior manager to Brendan Rodgers, ( unless you live on Merseyside ) it would have been the same were Celtic under with Moyes Benitez or whom so ever. If you think that Celtic are ‘a badly run’ club having just completed Euro football apres Xmas and nine trophies on the hop, you have my sympathy.
The cynics at present can’t get out of the Joyless Division in time to celebrate and bask in eight, or a treble treble for worrying about ‘the Rainjurz’ coming.
As for St.Brendan IMHO he left when the going got tough, and his European record was lamentable we are told, and so were the larger proportion of his signings. No club wins the league every year, not even when they are using every nefarious means, in the book, if Sevco and their allies are coming, the statistics don’t show it.
Brendan Rodgers’s was going backwards by the time Neil Lennon completed the tasks given, him, first season awesome, second season hard to beat, third season EPL calling.
The board have put themselves back in the signings and chequebook debate, new manager, new players but I’m confident given, that especially since according to some Bloggers we haven’t even spent last years budget, that this window will see us strengthen the squad, all the while buying players we can afford, and not ‘ otherwise couldn’t have afforded © Moonbeams ’
FOOL TIME WHISTLE @ 2:21 PM,
“Clearly, someone with ill-intent towards Celtic & perhaps towards some individuals at the club was/is a double agent.
Well maybe it was oor very own Malcolm Tucker, the “Senior Celtic Source” that put the Fraudgers stuff out there…
It’s got his thumb prints all over it;)
MADMITCH @ 2:44 PM,
“CEO / COO / DoF all in the one package — no wonder our performance is so poor.
You forgot defect Club Chairman. Maybee has spreading himself too thickly.
Yet it’s all a bit irrelevant as he was obviously wearing his “Agent Liaison Officer” hat that day.
Hail Hail
Document is the real deal. Celtic are undertaking an internal investigation. Just on BBC shortbread. It is official we are a joke. Secco still laughing after seeing who is on our shopping list.
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 4TH JUNE 2019 1:47 PM
That just about sums up our support right now and do you know what, if we win THE TEN it will be the exact same, some of our bhoys just can’t help themselves, they just have to have a right good moan regradless of circumstance.
Paul67 et al
When Neil got the job the first time round, it was a known fact that he looked in on here on CQN for advice on signings, transfers, team tactics and formations. I was not alone in giving that advice freely, for the cause, and for the brotherhood. That offer still stands Neil. Then again you may prefer to sit in on a meeting with the team squad on the agenda and play the role of the school monitor, and given the responsibility for hiring the new lollypopman outside the Drookit Dug along the road in Campsie. Or you can play to your strengths, tell Celtic FC that you will decide the key decisions re the first team squad, and when.
T29 @ 2.52
Likely to be interest in the summer — loaded statement by someone not showing their full hand.
Football at the moment is currently horse trading for beginners — why do so many chancers pitch up with no visible means of support apart from a brass neck and a talent for developing greed in others.
These people couldn’t flog double glazing or solar panels –as that would require some product knowledge and a bit of organisational skill — but they can become very rich in and around the world of professional football.
MADMITCH on 4TH JUNE 2019 2:58 PM
Of course very different, but privileged information getting out into the public domain earlier than intended all the same, and a cause for concern.
We are no different to other clubs in that lots of people may know starting 11 details (players, coaches, potentially their families, friends etc) but not many other clubs have had theirs leaked to the same extent we have recently.
That it has pen marks on it suggests it was mistakenly left lying around carelessly, rather than a hack, a document saved in the wrong drive, incorrect access permissions granted etc. etc.
We can only hope it doesnt hinder us during the summer.
HH