Success in football is determined by a number of matters: the ability of the manager, players performing at the right level, injuries and sheer luck, and in Scotland, a club’s determination to influence officials with an exaggerated sense of grievance. Apparently.
But transfer business has an even greater impact than dodgy penalties. This is one area Celtic need to get right over the next two windows. Our performance, not just in the summer window, but across our last three transfer windows has been poor. There is often a lag in outcomes before the impact of a window is felt. The £32m spent in the summer of 2024 failed to see many minutes on the pitch a year later, during Champions League qualification, for example.
The CIES Football Observatory published their survey of the “world’s smartest clubs on the transfer market since January 2021”. Tony Bloom has two clubs in the top 10: Brighton (2nd) and Union SG (8th); I’m sure he didn’t bet on that outcome (my Tony Bloom man-crush has faded a little this week).
The top 20 has some lessons for us: Atalanta, Napoli, Bologna, Udinese and Lecce, demonstrate how well the medium-to-small Italian clubs have figured out how to progress. Is it surprising so many young Scottish players have bounced after moving there?
Benfica are there, as are Feyenoord, but not Ajax. The Amsterdamers beat Celtic to the signing of €12m striker Kasper Dolberg in the summer, which traumatised many of us. Dolberg has returned one goal in all competitions since, a consolation in a defeat to Excelsior. Not that the lad’s had much of a chance, his only appearances have been off the bench.
The Ajax-Dolberg-Celtic tale says so much about where we were in the summer. Unable to attract a player who cannot get a game at a team woefully underperforming this season. There are so many reasons why we should not have wasted time on this exercise, it scarcely needs explaining.
Celtic are 19th in the table, between Manchester City and Leipzig. How can that be? I hear you ask. The lag works both ways. Analysis of Celtic still benefits from earlier signings, up until that of Nicolas Kuhn in January 2024, who left the premises this summer. The full impact of the subsequent windows has not shown up yet.
Being “smartest” in the transfer window does not guarantee success, but it’ll outperform being thick, no matter how good your ‘exaggerated sense of grievance’ game is.
Looking in from the outside, it’s easy to say, ‘be more like Bloom’ (although not with that other stuff), but as many observers will note, getting this right is not easy. What is easy, is to stick to the data. Recognise what succeeds and what fails and always back your winning hand. A lack of observance of this principle in football is quite astonishing.
Postscript: I looked down the list and eventually found Aberdeen, but after continuous scrolling I ran out of patience trying to find another Scottish club. Looks like Bloom’s magic touch has yet to hit Hearts.
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I’m pretty sure Dolberg has been out injured since he signed for Ajax
BARRACH OBAMPOT on 5TH DECEMBER 2025 1:21 PM
Andrew Bridgen MP has raised concerns about the covid jabs in Parliament
As political bampots and bambottery go Andrew Bridgen is top of the Pile, indeed KevBungle doesn’t even come close to Andrew Bridget
Andrew Bridgend is in a running legal battle with his family over the family business
My MP husband Andrew Bridgen was captured by antivax ‘cult’
The opera singer Nevena Bridgen lived a glamorous life attending high-profile events and rubbing shoulders with prime ministers. But then, she says, her husband became ‘radicalised’
Andrew Bridgen: MP expelled by Tories after Covid …
BBC
https://www.bbc.co.uk › news › uk-england-leicestershi…
26 Apr 2023 — The Conservative Party has expelled MP Andrew Bridgen after he compared Covid-19 vaccines to the Holocaust and was found to have breached lobbying rules.
Failure to Declare Loans: In 2025, Parliament’s Standards Committee concluded that Bridgen (then an MP) was wrong not to have registered £4.47 million in loans from businessman Jeremy Hosking within the required 28-day timeframe. The first payment was registered 1,135 days late. Bridgen argued the loans were for a “strictly private” legal matter (a dispute with his family business) and not for political purposes, but the committee found they were a registrable interest due to his political connections with the donor.
Lobbying Breaches: In 2023, Bridgen was suspended from the House of Commons for five sitting days after an investigation found he had breached rules on lobbying (“paid advocacy”), failing to properly declare interests related to an advisory role with a company called Mere Plantations while approaching ministers on its behalf.
Attempt to Influence Commissioner: The Standards Committee also found that Bridgen had attempted to improperly influence the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, an “unacceptable attack upon the integrity” of the commissioner.
The case is lost due to citing bampots
Well, we’re in good hands if Brother Wilfried’s team plays half as well as he comes across.
Dolberg was never that good anyway, a 1 in 3er in better leagues, worse than 1 in 2 in Belgium. And it looks like his signing wasnt exactly universally welcomed at Ajax – Danny Blind resigned not long after the window with the KD transfer being seen as the final straw for him.
Hopefully it’s the end of those drawn out and ultimately fruitless sagas that always seem to end in disappointment. No more chasing unicorns.
lets all do the huddle re: Subaru
All I have driven since I moved here for the most part. Sold my WRX during covid but Looval lover and I have an Impreza. Goes back to the old Colin McRae rally days.
KINGLUBO on 5th December 2025 12:59 pm
KEVJ
I know I’m in the minority, but I do really enjoy your posts, keep up the good work and do not be deterred, ok
………………
” DETERRED”….From what exactly ?…..LYING about the passing of a great family man and great Celtic man who was a close friend of some on here ?
Whatever floats yer boat KINGLUBO….
KINGLUBO…Do NOT EVER comment on me on here, I wash my hands of you…CHUMP !
See the man with the stage fright
Just standing up there to give it all his might
And he got caught in the spotlight
But when we get to the end
He wants to start all over again
J.R.Robertson 1969.
Lions roar at 1:24
I saw all the body language tells on Tounekti too.
I’m not where you are yet on him, but his trajectory is heading downward currently – let’s hope we are both wrong.
On the Kevj discussion: I often start to read posts without noting the poster until after. About half a sentence into his I usually think “oh….” and scroll on by. I’ll leave the looney tunes BS to the looneys.
This feels like a managerial appt where we would benefit from retaining some of the previous backroom.
That corporate memory could be very useful
I’m unsure what the position is with Maloney et al
Taurangabhoy @ 8:09 am,
Yes, while leeway must be given to the new management team and no doubt the honeymoon period has already started.
I’m not sure it will last until next season, a Championship, Cups and a showing in Europe will set the expectations.
The Battered Bunnet @ 9:26 am,
“Put simply, if BR&Co 2024/25 wasn’t good enough – Wilfried Nancy must be expected to hit above that.”
“Absolutely!
Purely in terms of the league – which is all we have as an apples:apples comparator – we should benchmark 2.5 points per match average to win a competitive league: 95 points. There’s a small margin of error.
BR was running at 1.88 points per match this season after 25% of the matches played. Extrapolated, that’s 72 points for the season – a distant 2nd place most seasons.
We’re currently sitting at 2.28 points per match after MON’s intervention: extrapolated, 86 points. Probably good enough this season, but outside the margin of error.
Nancy’s target is plainly to improve that number.
Regression to BR’s performance level would yield 77 points for the season – not good enough.
Can’t admit there’s much of value in the above, but hey, I’m agreeing with you”
Thanks for the reply and putting meat on the bones – plenty value there, it gives a very clear indication of what’s required.
Hail Hail
TT – hope I’m very wrong, but he looks like Palma Mk2 to me.
Celtic Mac @ 11:02 am,
Don’t agree with the “excuse” thing, could you give an example of what you mean?
There is cause & effect ☯️ yet that is very different thing from an excuse…
We needed to get quality players in, and in a timely manner during the summer transfer window.
Cause – It didn’t happen
Effect – Our performance levels dropped
Excuse – We couldn’t quality players early during the summer transfer window – because of tax considerations and FSR rules.
Hail Hail
I’m amazed that FC Midtjylland are not top of the “smartest clubs” table.
Their transfer history, training techniques, analytics and above all, current standing domestically and in the Europa cup, leave them head and shoulders above the rest.
Palma scored some good goals.
I think Pfizer are way up there in the bampottery stakes. We could argue all day over the covid vaccines but as I posted before, why is nobody raising questions about the gain-of-function research done on the coronavirus in bats by EcoHealth Alliance via the Wuhan Lab as admitted by their president Peter Daszak in 2016. This is the real question everyone should be asking, not arguing over the efficacy of vaccines or how governments responded to the outbreak from their research at a lab with safety issues. Also as I said before, it is each individuals right to take the jab or not.
HH
It’s not Christmas properly until you told a roll Sellotape to f..k off
Tounekti showing similar body language to KÜhn in the latter stages of his time with us.
Am confident that WN will have sussed him PDQ.
He`ll be offski in January.
Madra Rua @ 2:36 pm,
Now I haven’t studied the link but it seems to me the piece doesn’t analyse the smartest football clubs.
It is based on the financials.
I’ll read it in a bit – see if ot makes any sense to me:))
Hail Hail
BSR 2.45
Aye 😂😂
Nobody told me there would be days like these.
lionroars67 on 5th December 2025 12:55 pm
Wilfried Nancy First Training Session As Celtic Manager
https://youtu.be/Q5kRMIeJdlo?si=NTf6DxG-DKmj0oTQ
Lionsroars67 – ta, impressive first session in a new country. Good communication skills in a ‘foreign’ language (which I know he has been speaking for years). Pity the commentator voicing over his first training session at Lennoxtown could not bring himself to pronounce his French name properly.
Ave Ave
Apols ghuys, mixing up my training sessions and media interviews.
Must do better.
Ave Ave
Maolmuire O Muirgheasa on 5th December 2025 1:29 pm
We live in the shade of a big BlackRock whose shadow is so pervasive that most think it’s just cloudy out.
Away out, be nice to each other.
HH
Regarding Tounekti, maybe he’s not expecting much game time once Nancy gets a chance to put his preferred style into practice?
Nancy’s MO, according to Columbus Crew info,. did not favour traditional wingers who hug the touchline. It is to use players in wide attacking roles, but they function more dynamically as wing-backs or inside forwards within a flexible, possession-based structure rather than just sticking to traditional, out-and-out winger roles.
In the short term, that could mean players like Luke continuing to do what MoN had him doing?
Team sheet latest……………………….Yang
TEXASTIM on 5TH DECEMBER 2025 2:21 PM
Late on in the game on Wednesday he lost possession, Dundee played a long ball over Scales who lost a foot race, Schmeichel great positioning made the save
One goal zero assists says it all for me
Ive met Kev at a Blantyre venue during a meeting discussing the spiralling finical implosion of the Rangers
I can confirm he is real lol
aff oot
Overview of Meeting on Fairhurst Inquiry and Policing Operation 02 December 2025.
Attendees:
Celtic FC: Michael Nicholson (CEO), Mark Hargreaves (Head of Security), George Campbell (Head of Legal & Governance)
Police Scotland: Chief Superintendent Emma Croft, Superintendent Derrick Johnston, Stevie (Commander on Matchday, surname not gathered).
Supporters: Paul Quigley (Celtic Fans Collective)
Disclaimer: Given that the Celtic Fans Collective were notified the night before the meeting that only one fan representative would be allowed, it meant that our representative had to engage in discussion whilst taking notes as accurately as possible. The following is a fully accurate reflection of the discussions that took place, however at some points, the order of discussion may be slightly out of sync, as the meeting verged away from the intended format at points, making it difficult to provide an overview that completely reflects the chronological order of the full meeting.
Opening: The meeting was convened to discuss the Fairhurst Independent Review into the policing of supporters on London Road on 16 March 2025 and to address ongoing concerns about the use of Section 60 powers, supporter treatment, and club–police engagement.
Michael Nicholson opened by acknowledging complaints raised by supporters and the volume of feedback received, which led the club to commission the Fairhurst Inquiry. He stressed:
• Celtic ‘had some concerns’ and wanted to understand what happened.
• They wished to address key questions arising from the Fairhurst report.
• The club was keen to explore how processes could be improved, stating that “supporters need to feel that they are being treated fairly.”
Mark Hargreaves summarised the report and outlined 10 key questions, focusing discussion around four key themes:
1. The use of containment (kettling)
2. Differentiation – particularly the treatment of women, children and vulnerable supporters.
3. Welfare provision during the operation.
4. Wider community impact, including disruption to supporters travelling to the match.
MN asked if the fan representative had anything to add at this stage. PQ noted his disappointment that Celtic Football Club had refused to allow the Celtic Fans Collective to have two representatives present. He added that the fact that the club had received a request for two representatives on the 17th of November, but rejected it the night before the meeting, was reflective of the wider bad faith demonstrated by the club towards its own supporters of late, however, the Collective still wished to have someone attend to represent supporter views.
BSR @ 3:09 pm,
Team sheet latest…………Peak Yang
Sorted that for you:))
Hail Hail
Chairbhoy on 5th December 2025 2:46 pm
Madra Rua @ 2:36 pm,
Now I haven’t studied the link but it seems to me the piece doesn’t analyse the smartest football clubs.
It is based on the financials.
I’ll read it in a bit – see if ot makes any sense to me:))
Hail Hail
Cheers.
Glad of something to read. After 45 years of marriage I still find myself sitting forlornly in a souless shopping “mall” while the lady of the house recklessly flashes the magical credit card around various multi national shops in that strange custom of honouring the birth of her saviour by buying as much brightly coloured items as possible.
A marriage that can overcome Christmas shopping, can overcome anything.
Send help CFC.
Wilfried Nancy: Live media conference
Celtic FC
265K subscribers
https://www.youtube.com/live/iIOcmyv9mTw?si=-KPpRWVR5hOWeizu
Madra Rua @ 3:50 pm,
Well good luck with that…
Hopefully they’re playing Christmas tunes at high volume to cheer you up:)
The 523rd CIES Football Observatory…
…Weekly Post presents the world’s smartest clubs on the transfer market since January 2021 in terms of the financial balance sheets of players recruited as professionals (i.e. excluding youth academy signings) and already permanently transferred to other teams.
So basically who made the most money out of player transfers…
Since the Jeremie Frimpong window – Celtic are in the top twenty of money made in the player transfer market.
No surprise there then…
Who said the Board were uncompetent…
…Ka-Ching
Hail Hail
Our captain’s presser:
https://youtu.be/krXigm3Z0bY?si=8HdLPa0XaLHdn8tA
Good that WN has arrived and we can look forward rather than backwards. Having said that I’m still somewhat perplexed that BR walked out on a job paying £3.5 Million /annum , it was very magnanimous of him , in an industry notorious for naked self interest and nepotism.
HH
Celtic buy wingers for lots of money.
Opposition defenders double up on these wingers making wingers have to constantly turn back the way, meaning that the winger has failed in his objective to cross the ball into the box.
Then what?
Buy more expensive wingers?
How about:
Wingers flourish when they are part of a team which plays on the break.
With wingers feeding off of quick balls over the top to utilize the wingers pace.
Wingers suffer when waiting for the tippy tappy process to be completed, and by that time, all of the wingers options to get the cross in have been blocked, making the winger look like an erchie.
Celtic centrebacks on the halfway line trying to thread passes through the eye of a needle is bad management.
The ball has to be played out from the back via a blooter up to the forward players to take it from there.
A lone striker standing in the box watching the wingers head go down as every option is closed off before he gets the ball, MEANS THAT, the striker gets little service then unlearning fans call the striker and the winger as “not Celtic class” ie: the winger will never be a Jinky.
That is the looney tunes fans who can’t see the shambles for looking straight at it.
How about:
Do away with wingers and get the ball blootered up the pitch?
Is it not better for the ball to get injured, than have players running hundreds of yards, hundreds of times per game, then limping off with hamstring injuries?
Celtic should be looking to utilize a Andreas Pirlo type of player, who plays round about the D at the edge of our own box, and when he receives the ball he plays straight long, or diagonal long balls forward, usually catching the opposition out of position.
Could CalMac be that type of player, no short passes, just devastating long quick balls over the oppositions head?
When wee Naisy was Hearts manager, he came to Parkhead, parked the bus, and picked us off with quick long balls over the top, 0-2 to Hearts at halftime, Santa was booed off along with the team, and we did not manage a single shot at Hearts goals all afternoon.
The team were booed off at full time as well.
McInness played that way against us at Tynecastle earlier in the season, and made the team and unlearning manager look like numpties.
Blame the trolls.
Boooooooooooo.
Hope Wilf isny a dreamer.
HH
oot.
Police Scotland’s Explanation of Section 60 and Containment: MN and MH began working through questions, firstly by asking why Section 60 powers were sought ahead of the fixture, and then why they were enacted on the day. Police Scotland stated that their priority was the “safe movement of supporters” and that they were working on the basis of “intelligence” and contingency planning.
Key points from Police Scotland representatives:
• When asked why these additional powers were sought, the police representatives said that they were acting on intelligence and had analysed ‘patterns of behaviour’. When pushed, they explicitly cited disorder in Glasgow city centre prior to the match between Celtic and Rangers on the 15th of December 2024 at Hampden as the main driver for applying for Section 60 powers.
• Security preparations for Glasgow derbies usually begin around six weeks out. Police representatives explained that evidence must be submitted for Section 60 powers to be granted, and the proposal was only granted a few days before the game.
• On the 2nd of March 2025, Section 60 powers had been granted ahead of the Edinburgh derby between Hibs and Hearts, two weeks prior to this incident. When pressed, police representatives could not recall when Section 60 had last been used in relation to football beyond these Hibs–Hearts and Celtic–Rangers fixtures.
• EC said that former Celtic security head Ronnie Hawthorne would have been informally alerted to a potential application for Section 60 ahead of the fixture. When asked by PQ, she did suggest that if Celtic had opposed the application, this would have been taken into account. It was made clear that there was no formal consultation however and this was likely mentioned to RH in passing.
• Police argued that they did not want to use the Section 60 powers but felt compelled to, based on their assessment of risk to public safety on the day.
Challenge from Celtic Fans Collective: Paul Quigley challenged the police rationale on several fronts:
• Reliance on “intelligence”: PQ argued that citing unspecified intelligence was not an adequate explanation to supporters.
• When police suggested their analysis was based on patterns of behaviour, it became clear that the decision was largely influenced by the disorder prior to the Celtic-Rangers match at Hampden in December. PQ argued that matches at Celtic Park occur in an entirely different context and asked when there had last been comparable disorder at Celtic Park. Nobody present at the meeting could recall an example in the modern era, which PQ suggested then demonstrated why the Hampden incident was not sufficient evidence to suggest additional police powers were necessary.
• PQ raised that Section 60 had also been used at Hibs v Hearts and asked what the evidence was for applying for this. Police responded that this was due to intelligence they had of an organised fight. **A member of the Celtic Fans Collective has since discussed this with the Hibs Ultras, who categorically deny that there was any organised fight planned between supporters.**
• PQ further pointed out that Section 60 powers had been in place for two games but were invoked in some capacity against three sets of fans out of four, which contradicts the idea that these powers were a last resort.
Who is this Milf Nancy i keep hearing about and is she any good!
Non-see
Just sayin’
CHAIRBHOY on 5TH DECEMBER 2025 3:27 PM
Aye , peak Yang not the one Brendan Rodgers put in the park 76 times 👍🤣