News that the sun is setting on Amido Balde’s Celtic career will be welcomed far and wide. His arrival on the back of a few YouTube clips and what now appears to have been a Portuguese marketing scam is a salutary lesson on how easy it is to expire transfer and wage budget, while incurring the even greater cost of poor recruits – Champions League failure.
We will never get them all right, but the processes Celtic went through to recruit a striker in the summers of 2012 (Lassad, Miku), 2013 (Balde, Pukki) and 2014 (Guidetti, Scepovic) are worth some urgent revision. None were able to hold down a regular place in the team.
In mitigation, it’s easier to recruit a keeper or a defender (which we’ve done very well at recently) than a striker, but there will be lessons to learn from those six signings. Quickly, I hope.
On the positive side, all of the aforementioned arrived with a degree of realism attached. I noticed this morning: “Wabara really is in the mould of Barcelona great Dani Alves”. This isn’t fun anymore. Honest football fans (many are) are being treated like simpletons.
It’s like that Steve Carell movie, Dinner for Schmucks, where Paul Rudd doesn’t have the stomach to laugh at absurdly unfortunate guests. Better they are put out of their misery than dragged through an ignominious humiliation before inevitably emptying their pockets at the alter of a Sports Direct retail contract.
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The Green Man
10:36 on
30 June, 2015
Maribor beat us at Celtic Park.
The Green Man said:
” if you want to get the big prize money, id suggest the board get their fingers out.”
Simple, really. Just a few questions:
1) Who would you suggest ?
2) How much would he cost?
3) What will his wages be?
4) Will he come to us ?
5) How confident are you that he will succeed?
JJ
Gary67
Think Aiden might just be up for that since there is no Artur Boruc at the club anymore to chase him into the Lennoxtown changing rooms and clock him.
Gary67
I think you missed my point.
Who is responsible for failure last season?
Was it the supporters?
Did we have any say in it.
Did we sign all the dross.
No, we did not.
It is the sainted board, who take no responsibility for failure.
That’s the problem.
Jungle Jim hot smoked
Normally I like what you write.
Your last post is worryingly like a lot of Celtic supporters.
We have been brow beaten .
We have dumbed down our expectations to a despairingly low level.
Signing both Hoops and Aiden would be affordable.
Would also be a sign of intent and ambition.
Will we do it?
Jungle Jim Hot Smoked
Well said.
Commons a doubt for the Stjarnan games due to fracturing a toe when a cupboard door fell on his foot
Wtf
Is he living in a squat ;(
HH
Aiden wasn’t the answer first time round and has done nothing of note since he left, so is unlikely to be the Messiah second time round.
Or do ye’s want him because he’s oirish?
JJHS
Its the same old nonsense every time….blah blah blah
We couldnt do this or that…..blah blah blah
We tried.
You cannot get by on excuses forever.
When he left us , Aiden was our best player.
Burghbhoy
Neither Aiden nor Hoops are as good as when they left. IMO, they would not add to the side.
The Green Man
10:42 on
30 June, 2015
I would say winning the league, league cup and still being in Europe after Xmas is a success, maybe I’m just easily pleased! ;-)
If you specifically mean qualifying for the CL, I didn’t expect us to, new manager takes time to settle and get his ideas across, CL qualifiers come too early in the season to allow this to happen. This season we are far better equipped and ready to qualify.
If he were to return, Aiden would be our best player
JJHS
I would like to see us go for Chris Martin at Derby. Do not know what he would cost but think he would be the ideal big target man. Also being a Scottish international may help us.
The Green Man
10:42 on
30 June, 2015
Our signing record with strikers in recent years has been abysmal and someone should have been held responsible.
My friends in Celtic,
The Celtic Jersey should not shrink to suit any ex player who is struggling to get a game at his current club.
Nostalgia is good but I would hope that our management team and scouts can be more imaginative.
HH.
When Lionel Messi was praising Celtic, do you really think he was referring to Peter Lawell.
No, I don’t think so.
So, if you ignore the wishes of the people who have made Celtic legendary…..the supporters…..how does that work then?
Or maybe Messi was referring to the transfer policy of the current board.
No, i wouldnt think so.
Is it Peter Lawell who has made Celtic great.
No, certainly not.
So please, less of this hero worship of businessmen, who take no responsibility for their failures.
burghbhoy
10:45 on 30 June, 2015
Think you’re in the wrong Burgh
Burghbhoy
I agree Aiden was our best player when he left. It doesn’t bother me he can’t get a game at Everton as that’s the market we are in. He is a talent and would enhance our team. Nothing to do with him being Irish, always a talent.
Kikinthenakas
green man
10:55 on 30 June, 2015
He has certainly contributed greatly, in difficult times…..
Aiden has picked know-how from playing at a high level football in Russia and England.
I think there could be a role for him .
He’s still picked for the Republic …..bring him back home!
So Ciftci has rejected our offer? I would have thought he’d have bitten our hand off.
Hat, coat.
Thanks for the replies ( but I don`t think anyone answered the questions!).
I liked Aiden because he was wonderful to watch at times but I don`t think a team with GMS and Forrest needs Aiden. Likewise, I was a fan of Hooper but I am happier with LG.
Burghbhoy
Surely there are other possibilities than `brow beaten`?
Have to go. If necessary, I will respond later,
Cheerio and all the best,
JJ
67Heaven
Id have to disagree with you there.
You know my views on the board.
HH
Would not like to be on this board if we were in the same position as the Hun! Just remind me are we the Champions of Scotland!
sign him.. that’s who we need (choose any of 20 names)..ad nauseam!!
you’re all missing the point….
RD says we’ve got more than enuff to get there!!
KTF
Cifti for £900k. Why not, we can always add him to Awe Naw’s list next summer and have the same debate we have every summer about how we have wasted millions on dross and why the board hate us so much in failing to meet our ambitions.
I cannot offer any solutions. I’m as frustrated as everyone else that we don’t have a world class striker, or at least a 30 goal a season striker. Our transfer model seems to be buy young or cheap and hope we get lucky.
Wether that is the right model in the long term is still to be seen.
Oh, I forgot to mention: I think the new third kit is hideous.
Imo, of course.
HH!!
Dubaibhoy-Ur they still deid?
10:47 on
30 June, 2015
Aiden wasn’t the answer first time round and has done nothing of note since he left, so is unlikely to be the Messiah second time round.
Or do ye’s want him because he’s oirish?
_____________________________________________
The Hun board is on the other side, now gtf.
desertbhoy
Forgive me if I disagree.
I don’t believe we do have more than enough.
We will see.
HH
So Celtic interest will have added 4 extra games to Cifti potential ban :-))
Having watched both Rooney and Cifti last season, I would comfortably suggest Cifti is far more mobile, and has more pace than Adam Rooney
Yes a bit of a loose cannon, but no doubt he is talented
Could Ronny calm him and improve, would suggest Yes
Is it not big Pierre Van H who is his agent as well ?
Again can’t remember the ex hearts mans name who was to scout for us in the UK, but possibly his recommendation ? Along with what Ronny has viewed
Definite improvement on Balde and Pukki in my view if it happens
Hail Hail
KEVJ
Guide stuff there,no doubt about it.
Just a minor point-PL hasn’t taken £20m in his ten or so years. About £7-8m is nearer the mark. Still way too much,of course.
Now,a wee question for you. Are you any nearer to returning to your spiritual home? The board are not who you grew up supporting. Get back to your first love,mate.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YYooJOWH_60
Aiden received some perverse abuse from some of our own. He is far superior to GMS and JF. Hooper is superior to any of our current strikers.
Are some of you overly turned on by the thrashings given out to mediocre domestic opponents? SPL sadists?
All of a sudden….Aiden is a World Superstar again.
I don’t think so.
We reportedly fail in a bid for Ciftci, but are going to sign Aiden.
Doesn’t seem logical to me.
And anyway….I had more than enough of Aiden flattering to deceive the first time.
Move on.
HH
I’ve spoken about this many times. The risk / reward on the kind if striker that ‘guarantees’ CL is too high for this board.
I think they’ve looked at the percentages and see that operating at the level we do if we make the CL 1/3 of the time the profit mitigates the losses from the other two years. If we ‘push the boat out’ the potential losses from 1 year of not being in Europe take two CL qualifications to be negated. With seedings the way they are it’s too much of a risk for them.
Finbogasson may have had the same trouble settling with us as he seems to have had in Spain. £5M is never a ‘guarantee’ of CL qualification, £10M might be closer but who knows. If it’s not though you end up in a position of the worst case loss in a season of over £20M (no European football at all).
South Of Tunis
10:18 on
30 June, 2015
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yes, another few months and they’ll be heading south again!
67 Heaven
I just believe we are being sold short by our current custodians.
I simply cannot understand why we would not give Norwich £3-£4 m to bring Hooper back home.
We would only be giving them some of their money back and using the surplus on his wages.
Same with Aiden, we got £9m for him and could probably get him for £2-3m.
Both players are currently better than we have and would improve our chances of ECL qualification.
It annoys me that the summit of our ambition appears to always be projects.
When did we last sign a proven player?
I guess it was in WGS era , when even in the midst of massive downsizing he managed to secure Nakamura & JVOH.
If we keep scaling down at this rate of knots we will cannot improve .
I’m just worried mate .
I’m also worried that some of us are happy to accept it.
HH
The only player from recent times I would welcome back is Wanyama.