We’ve known for a while the strategic alliance Celtic have had with Manchester City, but how we have burrowed into the France international youth setup is, frankly, highly unlikely for a Scottish club.
First came Moussa, then Olivier.
Olivier Ntcham (21) will have known Moussa Dembele (21) from the French youth setup, and Patrick Roberts from their time at Man City. How both flourished at Celtic last season was a prime motivator for the player to head north.
With Olivier and Moussa flourishing in Glasgow, Brendan Rodgers was able to convince a third French youth international, Odsonne Edouard (19), to come to Celtic. We are now an attractive destination for players graduating from one of the world’s most productive international academy environments.
Edouard is here on loan. Celtic have the option secured with both Paris Saint-Germain and the player to turn this into a permanent transfer, should he developed as hoped over the next season.
The story is a little more complicated than just this, however. Odsonne was convicted of shooting someone with an air gun in July and given a suspended sentence. This, frankly, is grossly irresponsible and a suspended sentence is one of the better outcomes for Odsonne. Whatever influences were in his life leading up to this point, a new course needs to be taken in Glasgow.
I have no doubt that this conviction thinned the heard of some potential suitors, unprepared to take the risk on him. He has a year to develop his potential and set himself a new course. If he does, Celtic will acquire a remarkable talent for what in the current market, is a snip.
Patrick Roberts back on loan means that we have retained all first team players from last season, while augmenting the squad with several others. Patrick agreed terms to join permanently, but Manchester City were not prepared to let him go. They, like many others, believe there could be enormous potential on Celtic’s right wing this season. What happens next summer is too far away to contemplate with any certainty.
Jonny Hayes now looks third choice for the right wing slot, but he’s more likely to be utilised as backup for Scott Sinclair on the left. While Patrick Roberts was pursued throughout the summer, we were always going to have to wait until City made their decisions. This left us with only James Forrest for the right wing position for the qualifiers – and James is no stranger to injury. Jonny was available early in the window, so was an appropriate acquisition.
Kundai Benyu (19) arrived from Ipswich after a season on loan at Aldershot. Like Hayes, he can cover for Sinclair in left mid.
Rivaldo Coetzee (20) is the one that got away. He would have competed with Kristofer Ajer for the fourth central defender berth. With Simunovic fit, and Boyata and Sviatchenko both back from injury this month, there was no chance of us splurging big on a central defender. A strategic purchase, like Coetzee, was another matter.
The litmus test for any transfer window is, did we come out of it better than we went into it? Such outcomes are seldom evident the day after the window closes, but having retained all, and added such potential, we have delivered.
What we need to do now is develop Ntcham, Edouard and the others, win the league, perform well in the Champions League, and solidify our position as a club where outstanding talent will flourish and succeed. This is what success looks like for an economically disenfranchised giant in a highly dysfunctional industry.
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Weebobbycollins
Or fed to the dogs. His uncle was……
HH jamesgang
16 Roads,
I hope you are well.
My wife’s father was a member of a family of 12 and was raised in a two bedroom tenement in north inner city Dublin.
There has been overcrowding and poverty in Dublin for generations.
You mentioned your fears about ‘huge and unchecked immigration.’ I have demonstrated that on a net basis that is unfounded.
Refugees,
Ireland refuses 90% of applications for asylum.
“Figures from the Department of Justice revealed that of a total of 1,552 applications for asylum to the Office of Refugee Applications Commissioner (ORAC) in 2015, only 9.8pc were granted leave to remain. The Department of Justice is also steadily closing down appeal avenues for asylum seekers, increasingly preventing them from seeking judicial reviews of their refusals, sources say.”
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/ireland-refuses-asylum-to-90pc-of-applicants-35229842.html
The housing crisis,
Last night I forgot to mention the number of vacant properties across the country,
The Census of 2016 revealed that were 198,358 vacant housing units across Ireland, a fall of 31,698 from 2011.
There is no need for Homelessness in Ireland. Immigration presents it’s challenges, the last time I looked I lived on a globe:) There are hotspots in the towns/cities. South Dublin had a vacancy rate of 5.4%. Those in private rented accommodation face huge rents.
http://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cpr/censusofpopulation2016-preliminaryresults/housing/
In summary housing has always been a problem in Ireland, ask Michael Davitt.
To blame the immigrant lets the real culprits off the hook.
Enjoy your Sunday. I’ll leave it here. Fair play for your concern for the woman from Tallaght.
HH
Hurting Hun Gordon Parks’ article should be a talking point on any phone in tomorrow. If Keevins, English, Spiers etc fail to mention it I’ll take that as their endorsement. Then again they’re all probably under Jabba’s level 5 spell anyway.
Blaming refugees for fleeing murderous wars created by the major powers is the same as blaming the migrating Irish who fled the potato famine. Or the highlanders turfed off their lands for sheep.
HH jamesgang
Hope the GB do a version of S Club7
Reach for the stars
MWD
Bamboo
Re Venuzuela
Here is a short video you may already have seen of Noam Chomsky’s view on that country under Hugo Chavez.
The president Fox news anchors were urging someone to ‘ take out ‘ .
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M6BiNppcnaI
Reach for the stars
https://youtu.be/796Sw-jCIik
MWD
JIMMYNOTPAUL,
Cheers mate.
Yes the trainer McCain has his horses in good form recently, sadly no runners yesterday or today…I’ll see what tomorrow brings /
However, I made a real schoolbhoy error yesterday as I had my mobile switched off as I was at home all day ( drying oot), and didnt expect any calls ?
Anyways, my mate phoned me at around 5.20 last night on my landline, and asked ” Did you back my tip big yin” ?
I replied, ” What tip PaddyBhoy” ?
It turned out that he had texted my mobile early doors yesterday morn with his tip for a horse called ST MARYS.
It won at 7/1…and he backed it early doors at 8/1.
Stupid me for not switching my mobile back on after charging it !
DOH !
HH
I too read Gordon Parks excuse of an “article” online.
I dont remember any of his ilk claim that Gazza, Butcher, Woods etc etc showing any lack of ambition when signing for the huns ?
Funny that init ?
I wonder if Parks wonder say to Brendan Rodgers face…” By signing that new contract in the summer Brendan, you clearly have shown that you have NO AMBITIONS by staying at Celtic” ?
This Chump Parks is just yet another hurtin hun….what if PaddyBhoy had signed for the DEID CLUB instead of Celtic last week….would he have written such an “article” ?
Of course not…whit a phanny.
HH
Got a day out in Edinburgh on the day of the Huns game,looking for a pub which is Tim friendly and fairly central?
we’re not going to hold onto kt for long – the reality has just hit me
he’s young, will get onto the radar of the bloated league’s teams this year
and possibly one of the big ones which will be very hard to resist as he goes
into his twenties
I meant to add,
These so called “journalists” for years have told us that “There is no loyalty in football these days” ?
Considering that Paddy Roberts7 has indeed shown loyalty to Celtic by insisting to Man City that he wants to go back to Celtic FC, ESPECIALLY when those other clubs ( Nice …..Southampton etc) were apparently wanting him, and that he would have probably would be on mush higher wages than Celtic could offer……then PR7 return to Paradise should be applauded…not put down to any lack of ambition.
SMSM…Hypocrites and saddo Hun Chumps.
HH
Mush ?…..MUCH !
Sorries.
HH
Parks and his ilk should be banned from celtic Park imo.
Parks…GIRUY !
Got a day out in Edinburgh on the day of the Huns game,looking for a pub which is Tim friendly and fairly central?
———-
mcsorleys
forrest road
2 minutes in a taxi from the back end of waverley
LETS ALL DO THE HUDDLE on 3RD SEPTEMBER 2017 11:04 AM
Got a day out in Edinburgh on the day of the Huns game,looking for a pub which is Tim friendly and fairly central?
———-
mcsorleys
forrest road
2 minutes in a taxi from the back end of waverley
—————————————————————-
2 minutes ? Aye the driver will be well pleased with that hire :O)
SEPTEMBER 2017 11:04 AM
Got a day out in Edinburgh on the day of the Huns game,looking for a pub which is Tim friendly and fairly central?
———-
mcsorleys
forrest road
2 minutes in a taxi from the back end of waverley
—————————————————————-
2 minutes ? Aye the driver will be well pleased with that hire :O)
——
stuff the driver
its uphill
when you are of a certain vintage, no journey is too short to hail (hail) a taxi ;-)
Number1 tampon, if he’s not he’s right up there.
https://videocelts.com/2017/09/blogs/sutton-hits-out/
The Parks article is a clear attempt to “outrage the Tims”. Indeed, if it had appeared in a Sevco fanzine it would have been dismissed as overly bitter and mean-spirited.
But I think it is noteworthy because it epitomises the complete bankruptcy of football journalism in Scotland now. And this – from such a literary nation – is a shame.
Why doesn’t Parks ask why a respected EPL manager, a brilliant young English talent and three – count ’em!- members of the best France U21 team in a generation – want to spend valuable parts of their careers in Scotland? Because doing so might lead him to an answer he doesn’t want to type: namely, that Celtic are on the up, well-managed, and ambitious.
And our rising sea is raising other boats, notably the National Team (for so long a bastion of hunnery), which now only gets results when composed of the nucleus of our first team.
Other positives abound: Hearts and Aberdeen are finally upgrading Victorian facilities, and this transfer windfall saw clubs like Motherwell rake in big money from selling players down south – a new development, and a welcome one. Aberdeen’s manager even turned down a big job offer in England, a poisoned one no doubt, but again, something which would have been unthinkable five years ago.
The one black spot of course is Sevco – limping along on fretful shareholder loans, run by a criminal, unable to raise external finance, managed by a journeyman-nobody and with a squad full of transient, undistinguished players.
This is the real reason Parks and others feel the need to constantly run down our game. They sense Sevco are being left behind, not just by us but by provincial rivals. This is intolerable to them and so they feel the need to sow salt in the soil, damaging the reputation of our game in a pitiful attempt to slow our progress away from Sevco’s orbit.
Parks’ article signifies the print media have simply given up. They now exist as wannabe shock-kocks, in a medium whose time has come and gone.
“shock-jocks”… obvs…
:(
Lads! A made a right arse of it yesterday 10 £1:00 trebles and I forgot to to the £5:00 accumulator with it as my brother in Canada face timed me when I was doing it :( look at the prices ffs, all away too.
Treble(s):
Stake: 10.00 – Returns: 114.39 …
Reference: O/18049743/0000095/F
+104.39
Bury v Scunthorpe – 90 Minutes
Scunthorpe @ 11/8 Won
Oldham v Charlton – 90 Minutes
Charlton @ 6/5 Won
Gillingham v Shrewsbury – 90 Minutes
Shrewsbury @ 7/5 Won
Port Vale v Notts County – 90 Minutes
Notts County @ 5/4 Won
Morecambe v Accrington – 90 Minutes
Accrington @ 21/20 Won
Interesting stuff in the papers.
GW in the SM really has scraped so hard at the bottom of the barrel he is mining the dross underneath.
No wonder the country is in the state it is in when you have this level of debate in a national newspaper. Funny how it was never mentioned when various over the hill desperadoes turned up at TFOD to big up their pension pots.
Re Gordon Parks.
In interests of balance and fairness, I have to say many moons ago I knew Gordon personally. At football and at school, so I can say with certainty he is no Sevconian.
Doing his master’s bidding? More likely.
Doing his master’s bidding? More likely.
Makes him an even bigger dick then.
Lisbon Lions Upper.
Interesting. In that case, he’s even worse. I could at least understand the pure hate and frustration from a genuine Sevconian, but for a neutral to pen that in order to – presumably – get a reaction, and to call the whole farrago “journalism”… well, that’s depressing in my opinion…
Obviously not reading the SM often enough.
Always thought it was the DR’s snobby Sunday cousin.
However not GW it was GP.
Not even a full on Media Ludge attendee.
Consequently even more bizarre.
Was Parks not one of the cheerleaders who were wetting their panties when Monsieur Barton headed North??
Why the change of mind old chum:))
Gooood Morning CQN
AoW, thoughts and prayers with your wife and all the family
May Peggy Rest In Peace.
My goodness I seriously dislike these international breaks, No interest in any team playing at that level
Never bought a paper in years, so again little interest in what they say
But
Is it another attempt to deflect and distract from a corrupt (in my opinion) FtSFA & FtSPFL
Dickson still in his role ? since it was flagged up by Paul and a few others of his position previously ? Has the JR been set up yet ? Has Doncaster requested this yet ? He hadn’t at the time of the meeting
Any reporter/ paper looking into this ?
Don’t expect a yes to this
Hail Hail
Dublins housing crisis
Some comments about this last night with 16 Roads suggesting that refugees were either the cause of the problem or a contributing factor.
Absolute balderdash but I suspect even he knows that.
As Clogher said in the 1930s Dublin had a serious housing crisis with people living in deplorable conditions in inner city tenement houses. The state was only 10 years old and,finacially broken and recovering from a bitter civil war and yet the government managed to build 2 vast local authority housing schemes ,crumlin on the South side and Cabra on the North side which saved the day.
The housing crisis that exists today is caused by ideology. Right wing laissez faire economic policies. A governmnent that would rather hand over millions in rent subsidies to private landlords,rather than build affordable houses for its citizens.
But of course we should blame some poor foreigners,especially if they speak a different language,practice a funny religion and are escaping war and famine
Sometimes a get lost with Phill?
https://philmacgiollabhain.ie/2017/09/03/intergalactic-ructions-and-telepathic-formation-changes/
Could I suggest that from time to time individual Scottish football writers allow commercial expediency to outweigh journalistic integrity .
Rather in the way that Celtic board members allow commercial expediency to outweigh sporting integrity.
Oooops a thought we where getting a dig at the board day off! Ah well.:))
Clogher Celt
“We can see the evidence of the effects of fear practically everywhere, I think. Sectarianism, gangs, drug culture, eating disorders. . . .”
—————————–
While I take your point about the exploitation of fear and anxiety by the unscrupulous, I find your addition of eating disorders to behaviours that often involve elements of criminality a bit puzzling. The only thing that’s criminal about Eating Disorders is, of course, the lack of provision for sufferers, and their families, in terms of appropriate treatment and care. This was evidenced by the recent Channel 4 documentary in which TV newsreader and reporter Mark Austin bravely gave us an insight to his daughter’s illness, and the effect it had on the whole family.
He got lucky in the postcode lottery of finding specialised treatment for his daughter, contrasting his 20 minute drive to the clinic she attended to the 600 mile round trip from Nottingham to Broxburn that a mother makes 3 or 4 times a week to visit her daughter, as it was the only bed that could be found for her in the UK.
By adding Eating Disorders to activities which involve making a choice, you may,inadvertently, be reinforcing the misconception that an Eating Disorder is a lifestyle choice rather than a serious mental illness. Anorexia Nervosa is the most dangerous of all psychiatric disorders, with a mortality rate of 20%. The result of ignorance surrounding the illness is often a lack of sympathy for those most in need of it, at times resulting, rather, in disdain for the sufferers, often children, being seen as “stupid wee lassies” who should stop being “attention seekers” and who should ‘just start eating properly”.
I read an article a couple of years ago, quoting a London-based psychiatrist who said he would prefer having to treat 10 patients with any condition to 1 with Anorexia Nervosa, such are the challenges it presents. Imagine then the despair of parents left to do the job with minimal support, while their loved one awaits, often for months, a place in a specialist Eating Disorders unit.
Anorexics are also unique, I believe, in being the only group of NHS patients who are told to ‘go and get worse, you’ll have a better chance of getting appropriate treatment then”. This is because their weight or BMI is not deemed low enough for treatment, and is something completely demoralising for them to hear, having plucked up the courage, or following hard persuasion from a parent, to seek help. I mean, can you imagine a cancer sufferer being told to go home and wait until their tumour gets bigger?
Just to be clear, Clogher, I don’t believe there was anything malicious in your post, I just wanted to take the opportunity to clarify some of the issues surrounding this awful illness.
Come on the Govanhill Cumbie :))
RANGERS Football Club will open their stadium to eight teams as part of a football tournament.
The UK Asian Football Championships Final will be taking place at Ibrox tomorrow.
The event which is now in its 19th year was established to promote football for all and showcase the increasing level of footballing talent within the Asian community.
Eight teams from across the UK will be taking part, including a team representing the Scottish Ethnic Minority Sports Association.
Preliminary games took place yesterday at Glasgow Green Football Centre.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b094n8nh/sunday-morning-live-series-8-episode-12
scroll past the journo trolls bhoys – they have no good stories for their market based on football/on the pitch performances so the best they can do is play down/ slate our good stories and boy is pr coming back a good story. It’s part of them realising that this is their lot. It will not get any better.
Dia daoibh uilig
Enjoyable night at the Q&A with Brendan in West Belfast last night,the Devonish was packed for the occasion.He spoke very well with a lot of humour along with the excellent Mark Sidebottom as compere.
The only blot on the night (for me personally) was his continued use of” Northern Ireland” when referring to the North when it was clear that the vast majority of the 5 hundred odd people there were uneasy with the terminology,
‘mise BB
Parks’ article signifies the print media have simply given up. They now exist as wannabe shock-kocks, in a medium whose time has come and gone.
ITALIABHOY on 3RD SEPTEMBER 2017 11:33 AM
“shock-jocks”… obvs…
I think you were correct first time…
ITALIABHOY@11-28
Good post.
The hun with a pens article merely reinforced my belief that they would rather have no football than a successful Timmy.
Their rage is such that they are trying to destroy the game.
They are lucky that their uttering’s have no effect on a terminal decline in circulation.
What i do not understand is that the SweetFA are complicit in their silence as these so called journalists constantly undermine the game.
They are a huge reason the SPL tv deal is paltry in comparison to population size based on deals in other countries.
Sky and English journos know that undermining the EPL will result in banishment as it could devalue product.
I watch EPL here in USA on NBCsport and even the worst games face no criticism as the network will not let employees undermine the product.
It’s about time the authorities showed some leadership with these journalistic hun parasites.