Sinclair really wanted Celtic, overinvestment… now January

Scoring minutes after making your debut doesn’t guarantee a great career at a club, but Scott Sinclair gave himself an excellent start with his winning goal at Tynecastle. Leigh Griffiths lead-up work was magnificent. The Hearts defence had no answer.

Scott’s transfer took weeks (and a lot of money) to complete but it was the player’s tenacity to come to Celtic which decided the matter.  I hear Celtic met Aston Villa’s initial target price early in the negotiations, but Villa decided to hold their cards for a few weeks in an attempt to induce other bidders.  Scott was clear from the off that there was only one place he was going, but while Villa sat tight, there was a worry that another club would come in with a seriously large wage offer.  The deal happened when the player continued with the mantra, “I’m going to Celtic or nowhere”.  This is a guy who really wants to play for Celtic.

Apart from Tony Watt’s excellent chance yesterday, which should have brought Hearts level, the home side didn’t have a chance worthy of the name. A policy of throwing yourself to the ground inside the box doesn’t count, so we can be happy with how our defence is performing with Kolo Toure in the team.  There’s still a long way to go, but the direction of travel is clear.  Watt and Conon Sammon will cause a lot of damage in the Premiership this season, but on the evidence so far, Celtic should outperform their 15 point winning margin last term.

So disappointed to hear Dave King’s £30m – £50m overinvestment isn’t going to happen until January. This guy has been so transparent. Honestly, they get what they deserve, there’s no helping or telling them.  They backed a hostile takeover with a fantasy manifesto, while putting the thumbscrews on their club, to the extent it had to go cap in hand to its only source of funding, and hawk their commercial rights in the process.

As we’ve said here for years, the only people who can really damage a football club are its own supporters, in this case, with their inability to consider the consequences of the next action.

Running a football club is hard (serious understatement alert).  You’re going to enjoy how Dave King finds this out.