The most striking aspect of our preseason games is just how synchronised everyone is. We look like a team in every sense of the word. Contrast that with the disjointed look we had at the start of last season, with then new manager Brendan Rodgers changing things around. Or worse, those early days of Ange Postecoglou, when we fielded a defence of Ralston, Welsh, Murray and Taylor in a Champions League qualifier.
Celtic will start the season on Sunday with a settled team and manager, and should make good headway early in the season as a result. There will no doubt be disruption before the end of August, though. Players will arrive into the first team, while none of us will be confident of keeping Matt O’Riley until the window closes. Stability never lasts long in football.
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Buzzing for Sunday.
Huge challenge against a team who will have played 2 tough competitive games before we have kicked a ball in earnest.
We need to be right on it from the first whistle.
All aligned. Fans and team. We don’t want to give the other lot a chink of light.
Once the barrage of negative vibes subsides they will have a real seige mentality with so much against them and such low expectations….. that can help them.
Hubris on our part is our biggest enemy. 58000 turning up on Sunday thinking that’s all we need to do to win is the biggest threat.
We have the players and manager to get us off to the start we need.
TURKEYBHOY on 31ST JULY 2024 10:10 AM
We’re talking about millions of pounds. Sentiment doesn’t come into it for the clubs.
James Forrest doesn’t have to balance the books .
It’s easy to have no care for the fiscal matters of the club,when that is the case .
He is giving advice without being responsible for short and longer term results .
TT
Shankland would sign for us in a minute.His father in law and family ,great family friends of ours,he was with me in Seville.Raging Tim.Shanklands wife the same.He is o bigot.Total family man looking for a last good contract to set them up.
Would not suit out style,but don’t want him going there.
TURKEYBHOY on 31ST JULY 2024 10:18 AM
Given how skint they are is it more likely he signs a pre contract in January and they eventually get him for a small fee then
Celtic40me
Good explanation re value of spl players.
I think similar re any Hatate interest, added to the fact he is too lightweight for epl.
Turkeybhoy
You seem a bit too obsessed with this guy James Forrest blog. He has a man and his dog interested in anything he says. He has no real insight and no life outside of that blog. Not worth commenting and encouraging others to click in the poor sad fellows direction.
He also talks absolute rubbish. As you do point out every day.
Tiny Tim
Spot on.
.Celtic 40 me,
I agree,but Norwich have never mentioned a price.We have put 4.5 on the table,and a Celtic Blog is reging at us.This is what Agendas do to you.
The chap Bennett at Sevco is taking the bull by the horn .
They are cutting costs and moving in the right direction towards living within their means and financial common sense .
We should not abandon the strategy that has put us in such a strong position .
We will lose our advantage very quickly ,if we do .
There is no need to panic .
If we can’t acquire players of the standard that we aspire to ,then we should not panic buy poorer quality .
Steady as you go ,straight ahead captain .
TT
Burnley,
Sorry if I keep mentioning Forrest.I agree with you,he is a baffoon.Sways with wind,and a shockingly bad memory,it would seem.But I don’t.
Enjoy Sunday.
Excuse my spelling today.Font is miniscule,and laptop is” AFf its heid.For some reason,changes font in mid page and will not go back,until next page.”
When JF posted on here I used to skip past his long winded guff .
In my opinion he thought he was more intelligent than others and mistakenly thought that copious amounts of prose,proved this .
In fairness to him ,he has gone and done his own thing .
I couldn’t tell you the name of his blog .
He lost all credibility with me when he admitted giving up attending Celtic matches ,when he had the time and means to go .
Celtic first ,Celtic last ,Celtic over all ,for me.
TT
Burnley78.
HATATE has expressed his ambition is to play in a higher standard of league than the SPFL.
This ambition may be as a result of a desire to prove himself at the highest level .
It may be that he wants the mega riches that accompany such leagues .
His agent may also want a share of those spoils ,and be agitating for a move .
It could be a mixture of all of the above .
On form he is my 3rd favourite player at the club ,behind Kyogo and CCV .
BUT .
He has shown a vulnerability when trying to cope with the physical side of the game .
There is now a question mark over his ability to stay free of injury for me .
He has not proven himself at CL level ,and was out of his depth in the recent SCF.
This may have been due to his lack of competitive match play .
So I now find myself being more open minded to his sale .
I believe a move to Leicester in the EPL will be a step too far for him .
He is better suited to Spanish football,but the riches don’t equal the EPL.
Either way .
He is unsettled ,his ambitions lye elsewhere .
So I would cash in if a big offer arrives .
TT
TINYTIM on 31ST JULY 2024 10:29 AM
It looks that way to me. We made the difficult decisions a long time ago, it made the board very unpopular, and it seems like it still does. They seem to be at that stage now, let’s see if they can hold their nerve
Just when you thought transfer rumours couldn’t get any more ridiculous , we are now supposedly in a bidding war with Sevco for some Man U youngster with bids starting at £7m –and , wait for it — they are leading the ‘race’ !
How these people can put such crap in the public domain is mind blowing .
Good morning all from the Crystal Palace. The small doll gone birthday shopping and then luncheon. Penury!!!! But not to the hun. 🙄
Tiny Tim
Fair re Reo
I also put O’Riley ahead of him on my list.
Tiny Tim / Celtoc40me
I doubt they will hold their nerve if they do slip to 5 points behind us and out of the CL by 2nd September. Especially by October if they are staying at Hampden until Xmas. It’s easy to accept life in the slower lane if, like with Fergus, we saw tangibles, like a new stadium or, like with WGS, we got to CL last 16 twice.
No one seemed to appreciate what WGS did back then. We adjusted our cloth and he made it fit against a rangers club which could not accept its reality.
We need to keep the steady course and get even better at doing what we already are good at. Evolution in leadership from PL to the current team is good. If Brendan was fully engaged and ‘all in’ as Phillipe apparently is then even better.
I watched the games against City and Chelsea. Despite results and playing well we were repeatedly carved open. Chelsea had some comical misses.
As usual, Taylor and Scales were just Taylor and Scales. We know their strengths and weaknesses. As do our opponents. Both positions need addressed and have done so for a while.
However more concerning was the ease of playing through the middle. Mark my words- unless we get some sort of proper holding midfielder/wrecking ball type to help Calmac (whether that’s Iwata stepping up to the plate or a new player) we will get annihilated down the middle in Europe. Simple balls to pacy forwards and we are wide open.
Celtic are not linked with Man U’s Hannibal. Looked a bit of a player to me when he first broke through. However it may just be click bait.
What isn’t click bait is the Idah situation.
Calmac saying he’s still on team WhatsApp
Calmac saying he thinks Brendan will get support-
Meaning GIVE BRENDAN SUPPORT.
Who the feck is out there for anywhere near £6m guaranteed to get Idah’s goals/contribution????
Henrik Larsson was possibly the worst signing for the PLC! Such a bargain they spend their lives subsequently trying to unearth a gem like him.
PLC are a joke- they are damaging club’s reputation. If you are Benfica or the like, would you do a loan with option to buy at certain price but then Celtic seek to renegotiate price even when player has done well??
Clubs must dread Celtic in negotiations- not that Celtic get great results each time, rather there must be quite a few that don’t get over the line after much back and forth- see John McGinn.
3 days from start of season and no outfield players signed. Even if get anyone in, no opportunity to bed in before the season begins. Lost opportunity for gelling with the team. It really is astonishing given the bank balance and fact have some players off the books with a very healthy £4m for Oh.
The board have a brilliant knack of never ceasing to underwhelm.
Burnley78
Brendan is fully engaged with Brendan .
He is the charming narcissist.
That can work for us if channelled correctly.
As he did in the final run in to the season.
TT
I’ll be glad just to see the Celtic 4.30pm on Sunday. Nothing else matters c. Metallica.
Greenpinata
“Talking conspiracy theories,that have been proven true.
The Zinoview letter .”
———————————-
You’re gonna have to enlighten me. I am entirely unaware that the conventional view of the Zinoviev letter had been overturned?
Was it written by a group of childless cat ladies who actually rule the world?
DEXTER P. BAMPOT on 31ST JULY 2024 11:28 AM
John McGinn was 6 years ago, lots of successful negociations, and a fair few trophies since then.
“Who the feck is out there for anywhere near £6m guaranteed to get Idah’s goals/contribution????”
Adam Idah at £4.5m?
It’s funny you bring up Benfica, we pulled their pants down with Jota, yet they still came back for another deal for Bernardo. It’s just business, nobody cares about reputations when the difference in negotiations in every deal runs into millions. It all adds up over time, that cash pile disappears quickly if you pay over the odds on every deal.
Interestingly Benfica don’t seem to be that good at this sort of thing. They have the sort of European success we are looking to emulate but their fans still aren’t happy at their trading model, they have won 1 league in 5, they are €250m in debt and don’t own their own ground
The grass isn’t always greener
Celtic40
“John McGinn was 6 years ago, lots of successful negociations, and a fair few trophies since then.
“Who the feck is out there for anywhere near £6m guaranteed to get Idah’s goals/contribution????”
Adam Idah at £4.5m?”
———-
We have won lots of domestic trophies, yes. Against a shambles of an opposition.
We have been absolutely annihilated in Europe with by far the worst CL record. I’ve been there for the embarrassments and it’s not enough for me to be viewed as the good natured overly optimistic fans just there for the booze.
As regards Idah, haggling over the apparent difference does no favour to the player. Does it not send a statement of faith to the player to meet Norwich’s valuation? To say- you are the man, now prove us right? A point or three extra in CL with a goal or contribution from him will pay back the relatively small difference in short order.
If you think that the pace of player recruitment by the PLC (in view of the widely publicised comments of BR last season and over the summer), even if players come in now, then you are entitled to that view. For me, there has been a wasted month which may come back to bite us in Europe (again). The squad is currently weaker than in May despite a very healthy bank balance. I am not advocating any reckless spending however the benefits of squeezing of every penny are outweighed by the impact upon team development by delay.
DEXTER P. BAMPOT on 31ST JULY 2024 11:55 AM
“Does it not send a statement of faith to the player to meet Norwich’s valuation?”
No. It won’t make any difference at all to how he performs for Celtic. You could argue that a bigger fee would put more pressure on him, making him our most expensive signing, which is what Norwich are runoured to be asking for would be a big deal for any player, never mind a backup striker
It does suggest your negotiating team are a bunch of imbeciles though
We have 7 weeks until the start of the CL. Plenty of time
new article posted.
Dexter P Bampot
Henrik Larsson was possibly the worst signing for the PLC! Such a bargain they spend their lives subsequently trying to unearth a gem like him.
it wasn’t just Henrik. We picked up Lubo, Dembele, and Matt O’ Riley for bargain prices.
In contrast we got quality out of big money buys like Sutton, Lennon and Hartson.
We can point to numerous buys in the 500k to £2m mark that were failures for us AND
we can point to plenty in the £3m- £5m+ range who also failed- Abet, Barkas, Scheidt & Boerigter.
Of course a bigger spend generally gets you better players but bigger transfer fees often require bigger wages too so you have to be smart, and it’s that definition of smart that divides us. You need a team of big buys, moderate buys and bargain buys- all teams need their equivalent of Scales and Taylor etc; Water carriers for your stars. If I thought that buying Dara O’Shea was a definite upgrade on Scales, I think it should be sanctioned but I’m not sure it is “guaranteed” to be. What matters more than my opinion, is that Brendan wants him. But even Brendan will have a ceiling on what he’s worth and what he’ll bid- same with Idah. He might be willing to sanction say £6m tops for O’Shea and £5m tops for Idah but, if it goes above that price – it’s too rich for what he’s worth to us.
PLC are a joke- they are damaging club’s reputation. If you are Benfica or the like, would you do a loan with option to buy at certain price but then Celtic seek to renegotiate price even when player has done well??
It’s done a lot more often than you think. We do it to other clubs and they do it to us. We get the Scottish cringe when we think we’re too cheap to compete. But we don’t go calling out all the clubs who take our players on loans to buy but then try to get the player at a cheaper price. It really is quite common and it seems to have worked with Benfica this time. My simple view is we got Jota for £6m and that was a bargain Benfica regretted making. We get Paolo Bernardo for less than £6m and Benfica will share the risk with us that he will fetch more than what we paid on his next transfer which they will have a percentage of.
I think Paolo is a very decent player but he’s not Jota level and the price should reflect that. I doubt we’ll ever get half of the £25m we got for Jota.
Hav we signed anyone new yet?
Paulo was a loan to buy….so we take how long to get it done :-((