The Celtic soap opera season continued through the weekend. We were taken to the school of St Mirren on Saturday, then watched incredulously as a central defender we knew little about but who Sky incorrectly reported had signed a pre-contract, was instead heading for Liverpool.
Vasilis Barkas was dropped after the 2-2 draw with Livingston, he would be forgiven for being grateful as Scott Bain was given the unenviable burden of coping with a level of defending unseen at Celtic in decades. For the good of the player as well as the team, Neil Lennon has to accept Shane Duffy does not have what it takes at this level. A midweek pantomime against Hamilton went unpunished, while St Mirren fully exploited his meanderings.
In early December, I was assured Neil Lennon had the full support of the dressing room. Speaking in the heat after Saturday’s defeat, he questioned the players’ attitude and behaviour. There was no containment of the problem, no deflection of pressure off the squad and onto his more capable shoulders. Whatever goodwill exists must be under strain.
It must be difficult to find the words for so many post-match failures but throwing players under the bus is not the received wisdom. You and I are left to ponder what direction our season will plunge towards next.
Deadline Day in the ‘January’ transfer window leaves us with little to get excited about. We can hope for a central defender to fill the gap left by Christopher Jullien and a right back to allow Kristofer Ajer to move back into the middle. We cannot, though, buy confidence.
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GLENDALYSTONSILS on 1ST FEBRUARY 2021 12:33 PM
It’s difficult to comprehend.
But it becomes easier when you consider what likely fate awaited the huns if they failed to win the league this season.
An what that would have meant for Celtic.
We are not good at getting things done quickly i.e. signing new players and even more so when a bit of urgency was required rapidly when Julien smashed his knee of the post 5 weeks ago and still no cover brought in during the window.
Also this is not an open secret we are simply not easy to deal with when it comes to signing players.
So,let me see,”We should be signing nobody until a new manager is in.What would be the point”.
“WTF,only signing guys on loan,stinks of PL”
“Celtic in for Spurs CH on loan until Summer”
A Spurs reserve CH,never heard of him.Not for me”
“Why did we not agree a deal with Davies earlier,the Papers (which I don’t read )said it was a done deal.PL at it again,penny pinching”
Yep,that about sums up CQN today.
Neil Lennon has to accept Shane Duffy does not have what it takes at this level
dear god have been saying that since he arrived yet he was a first pick , his dog has better positional sense .
PETERLATCHFORDSBELLY on 1ST FEBRUARY 2021 12:34 PM
I think we would be well advised to be mindful of Hibs and Aberdeen , both of whom made up ground on us at the weekend .
oh has he left the building yet, naw didn’t think so , we are all getting taken for as mugs.
Ernie, It could be buying a House or buying land. for example.
What the feck does it matter to you.
The point I was trying to make is, it takes 2 to Tango.
I have been involved in a lot of purchases & sales throughout my life.
Got some Bargains got gazumped as well.
Sometimes I held the aces sometimes I didn’t.
In the case I was discussing Davies held all the aces,
Just going back to Friday’s article for a second, Paul. You wrote this:
“Brendan was sacked by Liverpool, Neil ‘mutual-ed’ by Hibs, by any measure, a downgrade. ”
——————
Would be interesting to know who decided on a downgrade, why and what the expected/intended outcome was?
Also this is not an open secret we are simply not easy to deal with when it comes to signing players.
think West Ham would think differently when they offloaded that imposter ajeti.
ERNIE LYNCH
You certainly can’t fault Peter’s logic , or the way he has gone about achieving his aims . It’s clever ….. almost sophisticatedly so .
Was going to comment on Ben Davies but Celtic40me (12:17) and CorkCelt (12:23) nailed it.
Respect gents.
Unless Celtic put out one of those standard Comms beginning “Celtic are delighted to announce” BLAH BLAH
….. I don’t believe it.
In this instance, add to the mix Ridsdale (wide boy) and Sly Sports (excrement stirrers) and the plot inevitably thickens.
PS – absolutely no sour grapes at all. I know nothing about this young man but he is clearly going to be used as a short term “warm body” for centre back drills at Melwood.
When the stardust settles – this is a terrible career move.
Hail hail
Keep The Faith
“What could Celtic have done to secure the signature of Ben Davies”?……………………..Erm ….offer Preston £2m for him ….
I’ve just had a look at ‘ the book of revelations’
Not winning the 10, Lenny not resigning and not signing Davies is not part of the apocalypse vision although reading some posts you might think so.
Been a beautiful morning in the garden which is calling.
CORKCELT,
Ernie being his obtuse self again.Dealing with Prima Donna’s disguised as footballers,and worse still their agents,with a raft of clubs out there interested,a good few a bigger club than your own.Dont even go down the “How much are they offering path,or the ridiculous “Transfer deadlines that these players and agents can,and will take down to the wire.
Yes ,it must be a dawdle doing these kind of”Business deals”.Ernie will have been involved in many ,I would suspect.
CORKCELT – If it was a one off, I’d see your point. But missing out on Davies is due to PL not closing on deals because he thinks he’s brilliant at waiting for the other guy to blink first.
Preston would have sold Davies to us on January the 2nd. We wanted a pre-contract agreement as it was cheaper. Preston manager was convinced the agreement had been signed. Liverpool only got in touch with them a couple of days ago and concluded the deal in two hours when they found out that we hadn’t actually concluded the deal.
Davies wasn’t waiting on Liverpool or any other top club to come in for him. He is not that good. That it happened is just down to pure luck for the lad. Liverpool are scrambling for defensive cover. They are also getting in a guy from Schalke who is valued at 20 million. He’ll be in the team ahead of Davies.
Lawwell gets a perverse pleasure on dragging out seemingly straightforward transfer deals ref Davies, McGinn etc
The entire club is bereft of any leadership from Board, Lawwell etc and DD.
We have to achieve the CL qual spot and plan, build for next season.
The entire collapse is what happens when a control freak steps out of a business or dept. The people don’t know what to do they are stuck in the headlights,
Worrying times
DENIABHOY
How do you know all this? Whats your source?
ERATIC,
Err,you have not done your homework.Read back.We should not be signing anyone permanently in this window.According to those who know these things,that is.Keep up man,for Gods sake.
Lawwell gets a perverse pleasure on dragging out seemingly straightforward transfer deals ref Davies, McGinn etc
Ivan Toney
Another loss this week and i think we,’l go into full freefall.Somethings gotta change ASAP.
CORKCELT on 1ST FEBRUARY 2021 12:41 PM
Ernie, It could be buying a House or buying land. for example.
What the feck does it matter to you.
##
So any commercial transaction involving some negotiation and for reasonable amounts of money?
So pretty much normal day to day business life for a lot of people.
Many of whom will have been taking far greater personal risk than PL ever has in signing players.
In business terms PL is nothing special, and he has a track record of clutching defeat from the jaws of victory in doing player deals.
Notthebus
Read page one
TURKEYBHOY on 1ST FEBRUARY 2021 12:48 PM
You stick to what you know, selling bananas.
LUCKY CODY,
Again with the Mc Ginn shit.There was a post earlier about the meaning of “Ad Nauseum”.
You have just gave us all a wonderful example.You could also have thrown in”Heated driveway”,but that would really have been pushing it.
😁😁
CORKCELT on 1ST FEBRUARY 2021 12:23
Totally agree .
If CELTIC want a player they need to go in early on in the window and heavy (casH)
if they are serious , wouldn’t guarantee his signature , because he could take less of an offer to play in a better league , unfortunately PL wants his cake and eat it , some you win..
Meanwhile in the real world, football teams buy and sell players, this club is absolutely paralysed from top to bottom, Desmond, Lawwell, Lennon, hang your heads in shame,who would actually want to come to Celtic right now?
CORKCELT on 1ST FEBRUARY 2021 12:41 PM
Ernie, It could be buying a House or buying land. for example.
What the feck does it matter to you.
The point I was trying to make is, it takes 2 to Tango.
I have been involved in a lot of purchases & sales throughout my life.
Got some Bargains got gazumped as well.
Sometimes I held the aces sometimes I didn’t.
In the case I was discussing Davies held all the aces,
CorkCelt, it’s like that old song as far as our Board are concerned.
We operate like we do, we held some aces, but are now left with
douces, by not playing our hand properly, in fact we are no good
@ reading cards, or other players, nor taking chances, or speculating
to accumulate, no we will not throw cuation to the wind, instead we
will just take the money & count the money, & leave everything to
chance, & hope nothing changes, yeah that’s our mindset, if it
becomes broke, then why fix it? & if it becomes broke, we will blame
everyone else, & treat our money suppliers with contempt, & bite the
hands that feed us, what you could not make this crap up.
We will have to refer back too, “All Way Look On The Bright Side of
Life” yeah things can only get better, however I’m not holding my
breath with that cliche. Cesar once said, following our Club is like
being on a roll-a-coaster, yeah that is for sure, however we need to
get the mechanic/fixer out, as far as we are concerned, cause our
ride has broken down, & is in stuck mode, @ the bottom of the ride.
The capture of 25-year-old Davies is expected to be completed following a medical and Liverpool are delighted to add him to their resources after Celtic were convinced they had secured him on a pre-contract agreement.
Burnley were also interested but it is understood Preston were not keen to a local rival while Sheffield United were also in the mix – but Davies jumped at the chance to move to the Premier League champions.
Davies is regarded as one of the best left-sided defenders in the Championship and Liverpool will pay £500,000 up front with add-ons worth up to £1.1m relating to first team appearances and any other achievements he contributes to, as well as any England honours he may win.
TB
😂👍
no point playing young players as they all seem be leaving at end of season. Harper Dembele Okoflex ralston
JF – kudos to your RumourGuy for an informed and bitter piece – nicely juggled.
So often, we’re the artichokes of wur own demise – build transfer expectations that end in tearful resentment.
VideoCelts say Ntcham is off to Marseille on a loan mibby leading to a E10m summer deal. Will he prove his worth at another club in crisis? FFS Porto offered E17M for him last year allegedly.
But he was worth the E7M to do that great job of keeping Eddy’s spirits up, right??
@NOTTHEBUS on 1ST FEBRUARY 2021 12:51 PM
Where is the source that claims evidencing he has been holding out for a better deal?
It’s just speculation.
What do we know from the quotes from the Preston employee.
Preston hasn’t been involved in matters due to it being pre contract negotiations.
They found out a week ago (out of courtesy) that we were in talks.
Liverpool came in and did deal in 2 hour window.
It seems somewhat typical of us to drag on negotiations.
ERATIC on 1ST FEBRUARY 2021 12:46 PM
“What could Celtic have done to secure the signature of Ben Davies”?……………………..Erm ….offer Preston £2m for him ….
That secures the transfer of his registration from Preston
It doesn’t do anything to secure his signature on a contract.
MARADOMINIC on 1ST FEBRUARY 2021 1:06 PM
no point playing young players as they all seem be leaving at end of season. Harper Dembele Okoflex ralston.
Lets be honest here, Lenny has his favourites, & sticks by them, he does not give the youngsters a fair
chance/run in the team. What happend to Luca Connell? Yeah & also what happend to those two
mystery American Defenders, we signed not so long ago?
ROLLING_STONE on 1ST FEBRUARY 2021 1:10 PM
Liverpool came in and did deal in 2 hour window.
Because they had to. We were negotiating a precontract with him not a transfer. Once that was signed then we could think about a transfer in what little was left of the window.
Is that what big teams do, need a CB, go get one?
It’s difficult to know as I often here we’re a big club.
Big support, yes, big club mentality – nowhere near it, corner shop mentality pervades, parsimony being the modus operandi
Before we get Peters pals on (level of players we can go for are relative) Ben Davies is not out of our range, we just tried to do it as cheaply as possible, thing in all this is that we need a CB now, not in the summer, still need at least one
TURKEYBHOY on 1ST FEBRUARY 2021 12:52 PM
ERATIC,
Err,you have not done your homework.Read back.We should not be signing anyone permanently in this window.According to those who know these things,that is.Keep up man,for Gods sake.
—————————————
Someone posted a while back the list of players signed and hardly any and some no return at all in the last 3 years….
I certainly don’t want transfer budget / fees wasted on players who the next manager wont play.
I would hope there’s a new approach to buying players.
I’ll take 3rd in the league if it means a complete clear out and a fresh start / new ideas from the new manager/backroom staff and CEO .
I think it’ll be 2 seasons before we see the benefit .