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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Seems the Ayrshire Police dont follow the same rules as Glasgows Finest.Kettling and searching for Pyros.I am sure the Hun Board will ban them for 6 games for constantly using them.
Welll,if they dont the H & S will threaten to shut them Down !!!!,won’t they?.Our Board used that to ban the GB,so it must be true.
Aye and if the guy had made a better attempt the goal would have stood. His touch and shot was really poor.
I think if the goalkeeper is captain then a designated outfield player can speak to the ref.
Might he wrong though.
Killie have been worse than I thought.
Terrible pitch
Terrible stadium
Terrible teams
Chairbhoy on 6th December 2025 2:19 pm
Think Emery would have been a good shout for Manager…
Hail Hail
==========
Dick ?
OohYouAreAwful CSC
Who’s our ref tomorrow?
Brother Wilfried about to get a “welcome to Scotland “?
Timmy7,if the whole scum team had been standing at Glasgow Cross,he would have been onside in his own half.The behaviour of this mob at set pieces is disgraceful.
Diomande pulls killie player back on edge on box goes to var, play on.
disgraceful refereeing
Was on the edge of the box and carried on into it, penalty
These var call are an absolute disgrace to the football profession. There is blatant and there is subjective. These are on the blatant – easy decision area. Time for Celtic to get a fkn grip on Willie column. Beaton should have been sacked for his cheating g howler and that would have sent a message. Column is weak!!
And then they go upfield and get another goal.
VAR hasnt fixed the problem; it just creates controversy to keep fans engaged in controversy between games.
QuadsABrokenRecord CSC
I suffered through kramer v kramer. This is shite v keech.
Kettlewell red card.
When we play them we need to get Djiga on the ball then press he’s murder.
Hun Manager sent off. No not Rohl. Kettlewell. Looks good on the telly.
Prick, we know what you are 😀
fuksake butland cleans out killie striker
Another dreadful var review, guess who gets the benefit?
i said when they were introducing VAR to the game back in the day…
all it would do was create a different set of refereeing issues from the ones that existed pre-VAR.
and thats what has happened.
at a lot of expense
A ‘natural coming together’.
Yer Havin A Larf Guv !
Nite y’all
A wee choon if the blog does not mind.
John Barry – Midnight Cowboy (1981) • TopPop
https://youtu.be/xgb52U7bJg0?si=WtREQNEJZoioIZwA
HH
I wouldn’t get too worked up about tonight, Killie are awful. It’s really embarrassing when Conor Barron is your best player!
Could this set a new record for var apologies in one game? William will be busy.
diomonde is the great refereeing untouchable in scotland.
even though he is the leagues biggest thug.
yet has been sent off at least twice in europe.
incredible
Gavin Duncan
Gavin Duncan clear as bell we know what his.
Brazil kick off time? Shockingly, Miami is west of the entire country of Brazil, it’s almost west of the entire South American continent!
Oh well.
Control the controllable and we’re top of the league tomorrow 👍
celt55 on 6th December 2025 9:44 pm
I wouldn’t get too worked up about tonight, Killie are awful. It’s really embarrassing when Conor Barron is your best player!
Agree
Var intervene when the damage is already done. You’re not fooling anyone cheating soulless barstewards
Two blatant fouls ….then they score…chalked off.
VAR disallow goal to deflect from penalties Killie should have had and the red card Butland should have had. Men of the match Clancy and Duncan.
I hope that, among other things, our new head coach (is that right?) will get our team to take shys. Young Donavon looks like he might be able to do so.
https://x.com/i/status/1997421585519509660
https://x.com/i/status/1997414138625065352
We win fairly and play the Celtic Way the others don’t that’s the main difference.
Oh FFS. they’re coming. Be afraid, be very afraid. 😀😀😀
Motherwell Quick News is in meltdown because the Hun are now only 1 goal behind them in 4th place 😄
Wow. We really do have a fight for the League.
Massive assistance unchecked from officials.
VAR to another level.
They have brought in a dead ball coach who really is doing his job already. Very evident.
I have disagreed with Paul since the first kick this season. Rangers are our biggest threat.
We may win or lose tomorrow but I will stand by that.
Now that MON has put us back on track from the earlier fiasco hopefully the new guy gets a sense of backing from those in the stadium who really do want us to succeed as a club.
The biggest domestic game so far this season. One where we really could make a statement. A new management team in place and we have these attention seeking clowns taking of demonstrations to what end exactly ? Seriously. Can any actually remember what it is like to be in a stadium when we lose the league ……
Tonight showed me we are in battle. Like Walter Smith (note he has a surname) and Jock Wallace eras.