Retaining Scott Sinclair for next season was always going to be a big decision for Celtic. He is the top earner at the club and will therefore consume a significant portion of the next permanent manager’s wage budget. Neil Lennon and Brendan Rodgers both dropped the player at various stages over the last 18 months. We all wondered, would Scott be retained, or would the cash be freed up for a fresh start?
The problem is the size of the fresh start required. The squad needs a significant overhaul. A right back (even if Lustig is retained), replacements for Boyata and Benkovic. Up front we need to – at least – replace Dembele, and we have yet to learn how the latest chapter in the Leigh Griffiths story ends.
My expectation is that the new manager, Neil or other, will also look long and hard at central mid. A Petrov-type player is required. Then there is the possibility that another want-away, like Dembele or Boyata, may occur in August.
While an overhaul is badly needed, some experience, continuity and winning attitude will also come in handy. Scotts Brown and Sinclair have bucket loads of all three.
164 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- »
Bluegrass Celt
Please accept my condolences.
“To live in hearts we leave behind, is not to die.”
Eternal thanks for the kindest thoughts and written words from you all. I know this site has been a place of mourning the last week or so. My folks got a right good kick of the baw so for that , I will be truly thankful.
On that note I’d like to get us back to focusing on football so for what it’s worth,
# Sinclair, no for me
# New strip looks like Yeovil Town trying to look like CFC…….. no for me lol!
Thanks again everyone
Hail hail
BLUEGRASS CELT and NEUSTADT BRAW, condolences to both of you on your losses this week. RIP.
what sectarian singing?
Fined £7.5k as well what a feckin farce.
Hunbelievable
D. :)
SFTB @ 6.26
Question for you regarding Ajax TV money — just how much did you think they got if EUR 10mill was so hard to believe?
They are a better run club run with much larger horizons than ourselves and they seem to have a better understanding of the financial flows within the modern game — a spend of 20mill can deliver value to the club both on the park and in the future.
I wonder how much they pay their CEO?
Maybe he could be our next transfer target?
Consequently interesting to see what lessons we can learn from the way this season has developed?
Hopefully we learn the lesson that selling for £12mill and replacing for £2mill has its own challenges and might not be the best way forward.
Hopefully we learn the lesson that investment in the coaching staff is money well spent.
Hopefully we learn the lesson that we still have some way to go to fulfill our potential.
Consequently no more excuses.
So sorry ti hear more bad news on CQN. Sincere condolences to Neustadt-Braw / Bluegrass Celt and to both families.
BLUEGRASS CELT on 2ND MAY 2019 5:01 PM
I am sorry for your loss, It has been a tough time recently for a few on here and in Paradise
You are more than welcome to join us at various nights or at the CQN corner. You would be more than welcome to join the clique :-)
HH
CRC
Neustadt-Braw,
I am also sorry for your loss. Please take care and the days ahead will be Braw when the pain of your loss slowly turn to fond memories
HH
CRC
Good luck to all the young kids and young adults as we enter exam time. Looking forward to some decent weather which naturally follows and an 8IAR league victory this weekend
HH
CRC
Neustast-Braw,
Sorry to hear about the loss of your brother.
YNWA
Bluegrass Celt,
Just reading back sorry for your loss.
YNWA
Condolences to Neustatd Braw and Bluegrass Celt on their loss.
What a bloody week.
Will say a prayer tomorrow at MAH’s funeral.
What a sad couple weeks for the Celtic family. Yes, the legends that are the Lisbon Lions rightfully get the column inches.
However, the grieving of their nearest and dearest is the same as that which is being experienced most recently by Neustadt-Braw and Bluegrass Celt.
May you all find comfort in your memories and with the loved ones you still have.
Ajax have out preformed celtic for 30 years and in relative terms just about every other club on the planet. using them as an example is fair enough, but its unfair to use them as an example to beat us with.
Celtic could do better and i am sure every effort is made by everyone to achieve that objective. Here is the thing, if celtic tell supporters that daniel church is going to be back up left back next year this place goes into meltdown with folk saying we need better without giving the bhoy a chance.
ajax seem to have greater trust in their kids. We got gamboa and toljan while ralston was overlooked, yet i have saw nothing that tells me they are better.
Trusting the youths would allow the first team budget to be spread a little thicker across a smaller group of senior players of a higher quality which would increase our chance of doing better in europe. We might just fine a few gems whilest we are at it.
HH
My erchie ‘the squad needs a significant overhaul’. We need, again, one – maybe two – top level key players.
We have young guys that need coached, developed or cajoled; Perez, Gutman, Hendry (yes him), Ralston, Arzani, Morgan, Bayo. Release the deadwood that can’t make the jersey their own; Compper, Allan, Benyu et al.
The main signing we need is at managerial level; someone who can really get the country’s best pool firing on all cylinders. JF talks about Cocu, and I like that profile a lot. Tony Popovic – great coach – also failed in Turkey.
Seems churlish to talk football in the face of grief; a time of deep loss for the whole Celtic family. But to Neustadt Braw & Bluegrass Celt; deepest sympathies.
Late home tonight
Neustadt Braw & Bluegrass Celt
Sincere sympathies to you and your families
May Gerald & Jean Rest In Peace
And Let Perpetual Light Shine Upon them
Will also be saying our goodbyes tomorrow to both
MAH ( Stephen Houston) & the one and only King
William McNeill,
None of them Will ever Walk Alone
Hail Hail
NEUSTADT-BRAW
Sincere condolences on the loss of your brother Gerald, may he rest in peace.
BGC,
Condolences on the loss of your dear mum, may she Rest in Peace.
It has been a pretty sad fortnight with many good people departing this mortal coil.
Re Sinclair I’m in the camp who thinks we retained him in the hope to sell him on. Maybe ole snake eyes down in Leicester will be willing to take a punt ?
Madmitch
Stephbhoy has answered some of the points you raised.
As I said before you once quoted Qarabag as a team doing better than us. This year it’s Ajax but last year when they lost to Rosenborg, you did not hold them up as an example. If you are going to do that kind of selecting out who is currently hot and dropping mention of who is now cold then you can make yourself sound visionary. However…. some of your audience have a memory. Ajax are not the best example of a “speculate to accumulate” club- they sometimes lose good players for a pittance- and like us sell young players for a fraction of what they might earn if they stayed to mature. They are not happy with their place in the pecking order and, while they have sympathy for Celtic’s plight, they see us as a lesser seeding than they are. They are from a country of 17m- we are 5. They have 4 European titles to our 1. They have been relevant in Europe between 1970 and 1995, we were relevant only between 66 and 74 (80 at a stretch). They only have 6 Dutch titles this millennium because they face serious competition from PSV and Feyenoord. If they manage to win their neck and neck battle with PSV level on points with 2 games to go), they will win their first title in 5 seasons this year. Do you think Celtic fans will all welcome that level of success?
As for your questions which were specific to me :
Question for you regarding Ajax TV money — just how much did you think they got if EUR 10mill was so hard to believe?
I told you the reason, Dutch clubs get £70m, compared to our £18m. I explained that I had not known about their more equitable distribution of monies they earned going to the other 17 Dutch clubs. Are you an advocate of us giving more to Hamilton?
They are a better run club run with much larger horizons than ourselves and they seem to have a better understanding of the financial flows within the modern game — a spend of 20mill can deliver value to the club both on the park and in the future.
I have no idea if they are better run. Basing that evaluation just on size of transfer spend does not seem to be a wide enough basis to judge. As a Dutch club do they bring in more sponsorship money relative to other Dutch clubs than we do relative to other Scottish ones? Do they get more support from their FA in allowing more commercial exploitation of their B teams than we are allowed in Scotland and does that make them a better run club or is it just that the Dutch FA are better than ours?
I wonder how much they pay their CEO?
Maybe he could be our next transfer target?
Talking to the wrong guy here. All CEO’s are overpaid in a mutual back scratching exercise involving fellow execs and Board members marking each others cards. You and I have never seen Peter Lawwell or Edwin Van de Saar operating in the football finance arena so we are not in a great position to judge on relevant factors.
I’d happily halve their respective remunerations but it really would not alter our stars one bit.
Consequently interesting to see what lessons we can learn from the way this season has developed?
Hopefully we learn the lesson that selling for £12mill and replacing for £2mill has its own challenges and might not be the best way forward.
Hopefully we learn the lesson that investment in the coaching staff is money well spent.
Hopefully we learn the lesson that we still have some way to go to fulfil our potential.
This season has not taught us much different than others. We actually paid a larger transfer fee than we have paid since 2002- surely, if your hypothesis was foolproof, this would have been our best season since then.
The large investment in BR proved successful. The large investment in Tony Mowbray & Kenny Dalglish( plus JB) did not. There are many managers who are or were on big wages but would you want Moyes or Pulis, Mowbray or Warnock? Would you complain if we got a lean hungry Eastern European if his wages were merely reasonable?
Me? I judge the guy by his results not the bulge in his wage packet.
Of course we can do better. Basel and Red Bull Salzburg have both managed more consistent Euro performances over the past decade than your current favourites, Ajax have managed. And they are only slightly more advantage than us, so, of course we can do better, But neither of these teams (and I include Ajax) are going to gatecrash the CL Q-final elite consistently for 3 out of 5 years or 7 out of 10. We placed ourselves 3 times this millennium, under WGS and NFL, to get there. We fell short every time but those 3 last 16 achievements are our high water mark for which we must constantly aim (though we will not constantly achieve). These past 18 seasons have been far superior to the previous 20 in the last millenium.
When hoping for better, we should still leave room to feel more pleased about our recent past.
Consequently no more excuses.
I will continue to offer my reasons and my evidence. You can continue to call it what you like. But if Ajax revert to type next year, I am sure you can unearth another flash-pan success team with which to beat us up.
Bludgrass Celt
May your mum rest io peace
NeustadtBraw
May your brother Gerald rest in peace
HH
Bluegrass Celt- sorry for your loss HH
Braw and Bluegrass,
Condolences with your families and you both.
Good morning CQN from a dry but chilly Garngad
So, nothing from our glorious custodians on the cheating regarding selection of referees in fair Caledonia ???
Well Lenny, I hope you get the fire in the Belly’s of the squad mañana.
Best wishes to the McNeill family for today, which will be tough.?
Hail Hail
D. :)
BGC and NEUSTADT BRAW, condolences to both of you on your sad losses. Mother and brother, always remembered and always in your life. Take care of yersels and your families.
Where you went , others followed
One more lunchtime soup ;-)
8 years after Hurricane Bawbag hit Scotland, Cyclone Fani has made landfall in the Indian subcontinent at 8 am, local time. ??
NEUSTADT Braw and Bluegrass Celt – Condolences from Beal Feirste.
A wee candle lit now for our own MA&H – an absolute credit to the green and white also the legendary Billy McNeill.
Glory O, Glory O, to the bold Fenian men.
HH. ?
NEUSTADT BRAW and BLUEGRASS-CELT, sorry for your loss
I’m looking for some information.
What time does Billy McNei’sl Cortege pass through George Square today, I think someone on the blog said it would go through G Square on the way to Celtic Park. If true I will get an earlier train and watch the Cortege pass the Square before heading to the B/V to meet some of the bhoys.
Just laying in bed it’s 12:30 am here in Vancouver. I have thought a lot about the 1967 team this week and all the people going up to Celtic Park to pay respects to Big Billy and Steve.
In Yankee Stadium in the outfield they have bronze plaques and statues of their greatest heroes. I would love to see a bronze plaque of our 1967 heroes who won everything they played for that year. It should include playing and back room staff. I don’t bet but I bet we will never see their likes again. It will also show respect for the still living Lions and their team mates who helped get us there but did not get onto play in Lisbon
Oldtim67 The funeral service starts at 11:30 and arrives at Celtic Park at 13:30. So if you are in George Sq between 12:15 and 12:30 you should catch it. H H Hebcelt How you doing?
new article posted.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1123470373645844481
he lead, others followed.
at celtic park for one last time today.
Shine So Bright 3.35 Newmarket
Hope wee De Sousa can get me a big price winner since I have been hopeless all season :-)
Best of luck to all
Cheers GFTB
Morning all, EL ASTRONAUTE 2.20 Newmarket good luck.hh