Paperwork for Croatian central defender, Jozo Simunovic, 21, is being drawn up and will be submitted before the European and Scottish transfer windows close tonight. This has been the most tortuous signing since, well, since Celtic signed fellow Balkan Stefan Scepovic a year ago.
Simunovic was the first choice replacement for Virgil and I hear the coaching staff are delighted to get him.
The transfer is the most expensive in Scotland in 8 years and takes Celtic’s spend this window to over £8m.
We’ll go into detail on all of this tomorrow.
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Ciftci Griffiths and eh maybe Stokes who we were trying to put all vying for the striker spot. Ho hum. The lack of quality up front is astounding. Griffiths might come good but I don’t hold out any hope for us in Europe simply because Griffiths cannot play on his own away from home in Europe.
Simunovic wasn’t first choice at Zagreb but hopefully our scouts know better. We have arguably brought in an entire back 5 including a GK, added squad changes in midfield and weakened the front line. How long will it be before we play Armstrong or Johansen up front due to injury?
Boerrigter injured in security queue at airport!
Oooooft…
I must admit to being totally underwhelmed by the 8 signings so far in this season’s transfer window:
1) unknown – and previously unheard of – Belgian goalie
2) ditto… Croatian-lad, defender
3) Man City injury-prone reject defender
4) Man Utd’s reserve/8th choice defender (on loan)
5) Man Utd’s even-further-down-the-pecking-order defender
6) SFL Division 1 standard midfielder
7) SPL Inverness CT 20 year old midfielder
8) SPL Dundee United forward
… and in the meantime, we lose our two best defenders from last year (VVD & JD)
fleagle1888
No striker, no happy..Disappointed…Bedtime…
Lots of players in this window.
Janko, Boyatta look promising. Blackett will be great I think (but as a loanee can’t really be considered part of our future yet)
The Croat? Don’t know. Big price tag for us, hopefully a worthy replacement for Virgil.
Allan and Christie are great signings for a number of reasons: talented, hungry, young, inexpensive, potential…
Cifti? So sad to see Celtic fans trashing him already, when he’s hardly played a full game. So much for the best fans in the world.
Really hoping he finds his feet and shuts these moaners up.
Michu was injury prone and Fletcher is finished as a hungry sportsman for me.
Neither were what we needed.
Someone else was.
And we wouldn’t have owned either.
That was the problem
I guess in a couple of hours from now, we will enter the debate about whether we have exited the transfer window in a stronger position than we started.
I’ ll put my marker down early, by saying, i don’t think we have.
We have lost one good centre back in Virgil and an excellent one in Jason, and whilst Jason was only ever a loan signing , we have probably known since Xmas he was offski.
The players who have come in, may well turn out to be as good or better than those who have arrived, but, the facts are that very very few players join our club and hit the ground running.
So as we enter the Europa League, we are technically worse off than we were at the end of last season, which is concerning, but, as we have recently seen, downsizing is a circus we are well used to, and is unlikely to change under current strategy.
NEGANON2 on 1ST SEPTEMBER 2015 10:43 PM
Woohoo. We have sold a proven CB and signed an unproven one.
You mean like last time we sold a proven BCB d GED an unproven one?
HH
Fascinated by the Islam Feruz signing by Hibs. For me outside of Celtic, the most interesting signing of the window in Scotland. Looking forward to seeing our all new back line, as well as Nadir gaining fitness and confidence. Welcome to the greatest club on Earth Jozo.
Stringer Bell
did you see my reply re: backpack collection on sat at st j game?
Are any in the development squad strikers prepared to step up and push for a first team place.
What a turnaround that would be.
When was the last time we reared a 20 goals a year striker?
Hi Paul67,
Good to see you up and on the ball tonight.
You are a wee bit of a whizz with figures, so I’ll not try to question yours.
However I reckon we got close to £15m in, I’m not sure how much the Croatian CH cost but I’m around £2.5M spend at the moment.
So for me that looks like we’re actually made £12.5M minus what the Croatian cost.
So unless he cost £20Mish, can’t see where the £8M nett spend comes from.
ConfusedCSC
Hail Hail
No doubt I’ll be labeled a drama queen or suchlike but as someone who rarely criticises the board on transfer dealings I’m left absolutely scunnered tonight.
Paul can dress it up as he wishes but any Celtic supporter who’s watched us in Europe this season and doesn’t think we needed a goal scoring striker hasn’t been paying attention.
Oh and of the 8 players signed this window how many will be in the starting 11 away to Aberdeen?
Thoroughly pissed off.
Paul, the Zagreb chairman is a crook.
Are you really telling us we paid more for a Zagreb fringe player than Barca paid for Halilovic?
Not a chance. An inflated fee suits both parties but it’s nonsense.
We have been short changed and I expect Ronny will go by the end of the season if not before.
Why am i suprised im disappointed about not getting a striker in :((((((
As canamalar would say EXPERIENCE :)))
Is Virgil deal 11.5 or 13.m.
MSM.paraphrasing what John Collins was saying and they were giv8ng him pelters fot. Couldnt burn their collective necks with an extra large blowtorch.
Incidentally don’t care what they say about Virgil now. He no longer wears the Hoops.
HH
“The transfer is the most expensive in Scotland in 8 years and takes Celtic’s spend this window to over £8m.”
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Woohoo… What is the NET spend, Paul? Does the sale of VVD, in fact, mean that we have a SURPLUS?
We still don’t have an additional striker. Despite that, we let Scepovic go.
No striker. Havent spent a bean.
Blog is hot tonight
I wonder if Winning Captian will produce an analytic report on hits per minute, posts per minute, views etc for today’s threads.
Is this the fourth thread today?
“Defence and attack, definitely not.”
Gary,
I don’t think we are all that weaker in attack.
HH
HT you are only a drama queen if you are having a wee go at the board.
You are not one if you fly off in a sycophantic rage……….
HAMILTONTIM on 1ST SEPTEMBER 2015 10:52 PM
Oh and of the 8 players signed this window how many will be in the starting 11 away to Aberdeen?
Boyata.
‘GG
So….
Ciftci
I theory should bang them in the SPL. Last season, biting apart he was both a thorn to us, and something different for the SPL. I think he will come good, perhaps not EL level, but he is young and has something… I think his start has been tough… and so he is yet to be at the level fitness etc, all games have been Europe so hard to say… give him time
Boyata
SHould ahve teh pedigree, has appeared nervous at times, but not Efe, neither is he VVD. but Denayer was dodgy for the first period of last season… so lets see. On the face of it a MC reserve should be good enough for SPL
Janko
See above, high pedigree, good promise… looks good going fwd…not so coming back. Good back up to Mikhal if we don’t need to use the later in CB or indeed he is injured. Again, coming from the MU ranks he must have something we can use.
Allan
Was standout in the Championship… as a punt, I am happy, played good in his first stint…again rather we have him to see what he his made of than he goes down south or indeed to the hun…
Christie
Has a load of promise, and with shinnie one we should have got and am delighted he is with us. Also gald he is going back to ICT on loan, rather than struggling to get into our team. Watch this space. As a wee aside, I like all the loan signings we have made of our young guys… lets hope they prosper…
Simunovic
Nae Idea about him. But BM were looking at him, must have something…. we spent big, and Some one somewhere had to really well to convince the spend… so case must have been compelling… time will tell
Bailey
Good back up… looks ok, and played decent level football.
Blackett
See Janko / Boayata… only difference he has some PL experience. One of my hun mates reckons he will be very good… minimum it gives izzy something to think about..
So all in all good business, not with out risk, and the most significant one being upfront we are VERY depenednt on Griff and Cifti…..
Bricking it at the prospect of a Griffiths injury or loss of form. I think Ciftci might have something but he still has a lot to prove and Stokes needs a revival like Lazarus. Besides, he’s been pushed out wide in his latest performances- which are few and far between. I might even be happier with the likes of Tony Watt or John Guidetti on the bench. Despite the positives I can’t help but think this window is a bit of a mess without the signing of a striker, especially since we sent Scepovic on loan with no apparent contingency plan.
If Aberdeen and Ajax beat us ( I personally think both will, given our defence will be at best untried and at worst a shambles) does Ronny go then?
Got to give it to Celtic though.
Consistent in every transfer window.
Cant wait for the gushing pr over the next few days.
Maybe some young reserve striker has caught the coaches attention so no need for another signing?
Must say I feel very disappointed myself. We probably have enough to do the business with a certain degree of comfort on a domestic basis but we look woefully short of power for the Europa games. Also Blackett and Jozo will need to bed themselves in and we have a raft of big games coming up in their first month at the Club.
GEORDIE MUNRO on 1ST SEPTEMBER 2015 10:57 PM
Last season Griffiths, Guidetti and Scepovic
This season Griffiths and Ciftci
Even if you ignore Scepovic who never contributed much, Guidetti is a better player than Ciftci ( who I think will come good eventually once he gets more game so)
Why do we need paperwork in this day and age?
This is how transfers should be done.
https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video/CN2VOB4UwAEmsxO.mp4
Wohoo the adverts have gone thanks Paul.HH
Crap.
Seriously…the spin on CQN is pathetic, its almost as if some of you want to see Celtic go backwards.
The PLC are treating the support with contempt….its all take, take, take….with substandard pish in return.
Spin away…you are fooling nobody.
The only reason that people are terrified of change, is usually when they have something to lose….in this case, we have nothing to lose.
Now we are counting the likes of Ciftci, Allen, and the loan signings, as though they were major singings.
The PLC, hell bent on selling all our best players, and replacing them with a mixture of SPL and loan players, and still determined to charge top dollar.
You are fooling nobody.
HH
13.5 in
Simunovic ?
Ciftci 1.5
Christie 0.5
Bailie?
Janko?
Boyata?
Allan 0.3
Blacket 0
If we have spent more on Simunovic than Fortune then that makes him over 4m
How much did we spend on the others?
We now have a back four consisting of largely untried prospects.
Alternatively we could field Mulgrew and Ambrose as our central defence….with Lustig and Izaguirre.
Almost certain Aberdeen will face a new central defensive partnership.
We must have at least 10 midfielders?
And with the exception of Leigh and Kris few capable of scoring goals regularly.
Anyone else bemused?
I’m not even convinced that qualifying for the CL would have made any difference to this transfer window.
I’ll happily give all of the new bhoys a chance, including Ciftci, but If the CEO’s stated aim is to improve the team with every transfer window ,this one has failed.
I wonder if PL even believes it himself?
Gary,
Guidetti was out the picture and never staying.
The question was are we stronger at the end of window than we were at the start.
It basically comes down to cifci and scep.
Which one will be the better in the hoops?
Gary67
I’d expect Simunovic to be in the team as well. It’s either that or Mulgrew or Ambrose at centre half.
Shocked we let Scep go with no one else in
LEFTCLICKTIC on 1ST SEPTEMBER 2015 10:51 PM
Stringer Bell
did you see my reply re: backpack collection on sat at st j game?
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I didn’t mate, sorry. Been on and off the blog…