We had a very real problem this transfer window – our chief scout walked out the door 20 days before it opened. Think what you like about Lee Congerton, but when Brendan Rodgers took him to Leicester, the apex of our recruitment structure left a significant hole in a club that knew it needed to significantly replenish its squad.
The top priority was to appoint a manager, which happened within minutes after the Scottish Cup Final. It would be Neil’s job to identify where we needed to strengthen and the type of player he wanted, but we also had to find a chief scout of the calibre required. There is not a fluid market for such people.
Nicky Hammond had worked at Reading and West Brom and got the gig on a ‘show us what you can do’ basis. He, Neil and Peter Lawwell needed to quickly get on the same wavelength and work with some targets. He was appointed on 20 June, four weeks before Champions League qualification began, with precious little opportunity to scout players. Even when he did scouting, most were preseason, playing friendlies, when it is impossible to measure true capabilities.
When Brendan left six months ago I was not unduly worried. He had clearly been working his ticket since August, allowing no one with clarity on the future, but taking Congerton in May was a low blow. He must have known the carnage this would cause.
11 weeks on from Nicky Hammond’s appointment and we have signed Moritz Bauer (loan with option to buy) and Hatem Elhamid for the right back role, Greg Taylor and Boli Bolingoli at left back and Christopher Jullien in central defence.
Southampton’s current top earner, but third choice keeper, Fraser Forster made a surprise loan return after Scott Bain was injured, while left-winger Mohamed Elyounoussi also arrived on a season loan from Southampton.
A significant volume of our work this window was done on the youth market. Luca Connell (18), a defensive mid, arrived from Bolton, striker Jonathan Afolabi (18), means the headcount from Southampton reached three. Then last night, we saw right back Jeremie Frimpong (18) come from Manchester City and central defender, Lee O’Connor (18) appear from Manchester United, both on four-year deals.
Out went Kieran Tierney (sigh), Mikael Lustig (again, sigh), Dedryck Boyatak, Marvin Compper, Cristian Gamboa, Scott Allan, Emilio Izaguirre, Doris de Vries and Youssouf Mulumbu, while loaners Toljan, Burke, Weah and Benkovic returned to their parent clubs.
The time to judge a transfer window is at the end of the season, but right now, considering the unprecedented challenges we faced this summer, it appears to have gone better than I expected. We brought in a completely new defence and goalkeeper, lost only two players who would still get into the team (KT and Dedryck), strengthened an already strong forward line with Elyounoussi and bought four teenagers.
Ahead of the visit to Ibrox, it was clear so some of us that despite the Clujbacle, we had navigated a path through some choppy waters. Sunday’s win, and our subsequent transfer dealings, seem to have convinced the more sceptical that this will be our second nine-in-a-row season. A few panicked over-reactions out there? Sudocrem is available from all good supermarkets.
We will know soon if Nicky Hammond will be retained, but in his short tenure, he has worked well with the manager and chief executive. I am sure those inside the club are still too stressed to agree, but maybe we will look back and consider it a good thing that both Brendan and Lee Congerton left when they did. After eight-in-a-row and a treble-treble, you might expect some staleness at the lack of genuine challengers, but there is a fresh feel about Celtic this morning. We are in a good place.
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DUMBHOY on 3RD SEPTEMBER 2019 3:54 PM
We haven’t lost £30 million because we do actually get money for the Europa League.
Probably more like £20 million.
Well done to Peter Lawwell and our board for the signings last night. 👏👏👏
A message to the Sevco fans below.
You wonder why you are hated well this is just one of the reasons you sick f**ks
https://twitter.com/DRkalishnikova/status/1168902015298297859/video/1
The concept of the single market in the EU requires a border around the EU. Ireland and the UK both signed up for that.
The UK is leaving so they knew that this would mean a border or a mechanism of some kind to facilitate the single market.
UK and EU negotiated the backstop to avoid chaos until a proper trade deal and no hard border permanent solution is agreed.
All made perfect sense to me until the DUP went against the will of the NI electorate and demanded no backstop or they would pull down the Tory government.
So , we need a customs solution but we do not automatically need a border.
There have been 3 years to sort out technical solutions and run a trade deal in parallel with the Brexit deal.
i believe there were trade rules that said we could not run in parallel but were they challenged by anyone?
May and Foster caused this with May putting her career ahead of her country and Foster abusing her position
PS Ireland did not cause this, hence the EU have to back Ireland all the way
The best transfer window in ages ………………………………………
Happy with the signings…………………..
Obviously not reaching the CL is a bummer, but it was the team on the night that let us down
Bigjoebobbingabooooooooooot
“There better be some sort of buy-back clause involved.”
Manchester United fans furious as club sell top prospect Lee O’Connor to Celtic
https://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport/17878233.manchester-utd-fans-furious-club-selling-top-prospect-lee-oconnor-celtic/ https://twitter.com/TheEveningTimes/status/1168910665102299142/photo/1
Brexit is most definitely a conundrum
In the words of the Brilliant guys at “The Rumour Mill” we have no idea what’s going on we are just making this up (or words to that effect) – well me too
3 Things to consider
1) Corbyn says he wants a deal – any deal – just not a deal proposed by the Tories
2) Corbyn says he wants a better deal than the one that’s on the table at the moment, but he wants to take away the only negotiation card that’s left – we walk with no deal – making it impossible to improve the current deal so contradicting his position
3) Corbyn wants a general Election
So every position Corby takes has nothing to do with Brexit or the democratic process or the benefit of the UK
By ensuring Parliament votes to remove a No Deal posabillity Corby knows Boris cannot improve the deal
The EU are loving Corby as he is making their job so much easier
Then the DUP who want to remain but have taken the Tory Gold and sided with them against the will of their voters will have to make a decision – do we campaign to leave – suicide – or do they dump the Tories and stand on a remain card
If Boris calls an election Corby will need to get off the fence and pick a side because Boris is going all in on getting the UK out
A huge amount of Labour seats voted to leave So we could see Northern working class towns who have voted Labour all their life having to decide if they want Torie Brexit or Labour remain
Then we have our beloved Scotland who will probably vote SNP on the remain ticket but voting SNP means Labour do not get the number of seats they need to win a majority Propelling the Tories to a Brexit Victory
oh this is going to be brilliant
For what it’s worth – I voted to remain and if I was to vote tomorrow I would vote remain
In a general Election I have no clue who I would vote for – they are all pathetic
My prediction Hung Parliament no majority back to the drawing board
67ECW
Henrik 1967 @4:19
Police done well there nottttt HH
67ECW
Nice summary.
got to say, I agree with Lenny when he said after Ayebrokes, we had one half of bad game thiis season , the other results have been very good. The signings have also very good although somewhat protracted.
So, wee me is a very happy Bhoy.
Off oot tonight as QueenLubo is taking me out for my birthday.
Let’s all be nice to each other
KINGLubO
`67ECW
Aye.
Ok
Strangely no mention of Farage and his party.
How did the recent elections work for them ?
Rather well , I gather.
KINGLUBO
Best wishes!
Enjoy your night!
ERNIE LYNCH on 3RD SEPTEMBER 2019 3:06 PM
Ernie obviously we have no idea how the 2 million souls who have gone voted
What if most of the 2 million voted to Remain ?????
In reality it’s not them that are influencing the living
On the other hand those that have left us and voted leave have indeed left us with a bit of a mess to clear up
I bet they are having a wee giggle at their exploits !!!
67ECW
67ECW
I think many good points have already been made about increasing the capacity.
Not sure it is viable.
However we need to bring the stadium in to the 21st century.
The main stand has to be redeveloped sooner than later.
The media facilities are tiny
The dressing rooms are tiny.
The stadium needs team coach access.
The whole thing needs to be upgraded.The sight of temporary tents up on champions league nights is embarrasing.
They have done a superb job on the outside areas of Celtic park and the celtic way.
Absolutely first class by the club.
You feel proud being a celtic supporter just standing there.
European football has evolved and we want to be part of it.
Just watching the ‘access all areas ‘ video from the Stockholm match last week showed what even they have is light years ahead of us never mind the likes of spurs [not even going to into that state of art spaceship].
Some sensible money should be spent to bring the main stand up to date and I am not even concerned if it would increase the capacity by much…preferably only a few thousand because of the reasons already stated.
It is something we are going to have to do if we want to play in with the big boys on euro nights in the future or indeed host european finals.[which we WOULD get because of the reputation we have]
MACJAY1 FOR NEIL LENNON on 3RD SEPTEMBER 2019 4:58 PM
Blimey I forgot about him but you are right – he and his are just another ingredient into the mix
67ECW
Henrik1967 @ 4:19.
In fairness, the other Sevco fans showed themselves in a decent light.
Every club in the world will have a number of real horrors in their support. Sevco may have more than most but it would be wrong to judge them on the action of that despicable person.
JJ
Is this clear enough ?
https://www.france24.com/en/20190730-uks-johnson-promises-irish-pm-no-physical-border-checks-0
I am strongly against increasing the capacity of our stadium.
Currently, we are near enough full for most games. This ensures a reasonable atmosphere. 10,000- 15,000 empty seats ( assuming 67k suggestion) would lessen that atmosphere.
Vote No !!!!
JJ
!!BADA BING!! on 3RD SEPTEMBER 2019 2:39 PM
Can’t wait for the cricket to start again tomorrow……..
LOL
The DUP have no chance of taking the Brit government down now the Brit government have lost its majority..
The DUP will no doubt lose a seat or two in a general election .. think it’s the alliance party in NI who are projected to take one of their seats.
Gladly. The DUP are now irrelevant!
Are these latest ongoings from UK Parliament another sneaky distraction from our victory on Sunday?
Internationals; Brexit; Kent signing….anything to stop them talking about us :-))))
Cheerio.
JJ
JJ
MWD = Moonbeams Wet Dream (ref to Moonbeams under David Murray back in 2007\2008 ish re floating footbball fields.
Changed to MWD after someone (I can’t remember who) said he had CQn up on TV or other public viewed apparatus in his home and his wee girl was asking what my moniker meant. :)
MWD
Unfortunately didn’t improve my splleling or gramar.
utterly astonishin that some on here still dont rate Jamesie.
then again with some of the chat and opinions on here, this is not yer average celtic site.
Macjay1
Aidan O’Neil QC today – ‘Boris Johnson’s entire career has been marked by incontinent mendacity…’
That might suggest his promises are not to be trusted…
HH
HOT SMOKED on 3RD SEPTEMBER 2019 2:22 PM
Macjay1/Anyone else, really,
For a society to be truly democratic, would everyone need to be sufficiently well informed to make a valid assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the various policies being offered?
————————————————-
The obvious answer is NAW! See EU and Scottish Independence referendums as reference. I think this is why we elect corrupt MP’s & MSP’s to represent their business interests.
MWD
Dateline: May 2050
Location: A high school gym hall
Scene: Higher History
Topic: Evolution of the relationships between the EU and the nations of the former United Kingdom
Question 1
In the UK in 2016, during the campaign of the first EU Referendum, the official public information website – EUReferendum.gov.uk – described to voters four likely alternative relationships with the EU in the event the the UK voted to Leave. These were:
The Norway Model
The Swiss Model
The Canada Model
The WTO Model
52% of those voting in the referendum voted to Leave. What proportion of the electorate voted for each alternative model, and how did this information become known?
67 European, After Referendum the pollsters etc were in General Agreement that Brexit was more heavily supported by the older voters and remain had more support amongst the younger members of electorate. I have no idea how accurate these surveys are but they seem to be generally accepted in Political circles;
Accordingly if 2 million have passed away the likelihood is that they would have been in the main older people therefore more Brexit Supporters likely to have died than Remainers.
However it is a theory that will never be tested so is really irrelevant.
Interesting times I see one Tory has defected to Lib Dens today so Boris plus DUP have lost their majority,
However normal Parliamentary arithmetic has gone out the window with some Rebel Tories likely to vote against Boris whilst some Labour MPs could support him.
Very interesting times I must admit even I have got caught up in the drama, it’s a bit ghoulish like watching a car crash, but with Celtic on International break it passes the time.
MWD
I knew that but I thought you had another name altogether.
Re Democracy. That was my point. An effetively ignorant voting public does not a Democracy make.
TBB`s post above shows that perfectly well.
JJ
DUMBHOY on 3RD SEPTEMBER 2019 5:23 PM
Macjay
Aidan O’Neil QC today – ‘Boris Johnson’s entire career has been marked by incontinent mendacity…’
=======================================================
Not unreasonable to lie about your incontinence.
On an issue which we are told is of massive importance to our lives ( I don`t agree) , I just loved this conclusion from Corkcelt:
`but with Celtic on International break it passes the time.`
MyoldmansadustmanCSC
That was vaguely amusing Macjay but does not change the fact that Boris is a Liar, just like Trump & King.
https://thecelticstar.com/give-celtic-a-director-of-football-mr-lawwell-and-neil-lennon-will-deliver-niall-j/2/
CORKCELT on 3RD SEPTEMBER 2019 5:31 PM
Yep I agree
I think if we all start with the position “I have no idea what’s going on ” then at least we will not be dissapointed
67ECW
Slabhoy- if you read the previous couple of pages,you will get why i posted….:)
“Then the DUP who want to remain but have taken the Tory Gold and sided with them against the will of their voters will have to make a decision – do we campaign to leave – suicide – or do they dump the Tories and stand on a remain card”
I just read this absolute nonsense on an earlier post. Please get up to speed on who supports what before commentating. Otherwise we end up debating “fake news”.
The DUP have been to the forefront of Brexit, indeed they are under scutiny for secretly supplying the NO campaign with hundreds of thousands of pounds. Money they never had in the first place.
They see Brexit as a way of re-introducing the border. They despise and constantly work, to destroy the GFA. Have no doubts, they.will see the economy of the UK go down the tubes, as long as it means a border in Ireland. Remember a stable Ireland, North and South means less emmigration of Nationalists. The demographics have already swung to a Catholic (Not a Nationalist) majority under the age of 21.
The vast majority of native Gaels and a small minority of Planter stock voted to remain. The vast majority of DUP supporters voted to leave.
Also, it may help to understand that the democratically elected government of the UK , under Teresa May, have already accepted the Backstop. Johnson and his ilk are only following that great British tradition of renaging on international deals.
Mackay:is this clear enough!
“We have technology to do it but it we will sort it out after leaving (or something similar) ” I have got my best man Baldrick working on that plan right now. Utter!
Celtic board get hammered for not getting it right on a 5 weeks window but the UK cannot get a plan in 3 yes 3 feqqing years. And you expect them to lead us into the promised land?
PS. Dave King Never ever told a either
Good night
Video online with Brown is an absolute disgrace. That little poisonous individual deserves to live a very sad life.
Absolutely disgusting.
Not buying the narrative that because Congerton left in May everything fell backwards. The minute Rodgers left we should have known Congerton would go with him, we probably did but held out for a fee in true Celtic fashion. This Champions League failure wasn’t a one off, time and time again we have left ourselves short and unprepared. It is rather convenient therefore to lay the blame at the departure of Congerton. Regardless, we appear to have done some decent business in the period since. As the season develops only time will tell if good is in fact reality. The same will apply in the close season next year. Lets hope lessons have been learned.