There’s a familiar feel about Celtic being unable to agree a new deal with Liel Abada, very reminiscent of what we heard in the months before Giorgos Giakoumakis and Josip Juranovic left the club.
Liel is one of my favourite Celtic players. His ability to find space in the box and convert chances is the most prized in the game. At 21, he has time to mature into a striker, just as Kyogo has, just as the Great Swede did, both in their mid-20s. This could be his trajectory and I would like to see him stay at Celtic to get there.
But we have to respect the Governing Law of Celtic. If we are to reach our potential, there has to be ruthless adherence to strategy. Bring them in, scout for replacements from the moment they arrive, sell them on at a mark up which supports growth, and go again.
To really kick on, we need to increase the velocity of churn in the squad. Players all just pass through Parkhead gate, none stay forever. This is the way it has to be.
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HH
Very quiet morning guys.
So VAR not working correctly in Scotland. Why should VAR buck the trend. ?
As inflation goes up the so called experts have been proven wrong again.
In football and beyond who listens to these experts. More importantly why should we follow the advice of these ” experts ”
Great link from AT earlier about playing two games in one day. I had never seen that before. Everyday is a schoolday as they say.
Interesting post from Scullybhoy @ 10.23 hrs PM. Is this the same Packie Bonner who gets such derogatory comments from some of the Celtic” family” ?
Packie may not be well regarded by some on here, but I know many from Donegal who are proud of him and his achievements.
HH, the journey continues.
Cheers Aipple,
Partly flippant comment on my part but with serious underbelly.
The Bassey transfer is clearly an outlier.
Without being unkind to the young man, the footballing world’s perception is Ajax have bought a pup.
That individual example will cause some reputational damage to Scotland as a selling nation generally, and greater damage to Sevco particularly.
BTW – going off on a tangent slightly, it’s important that the analysis of referee favouritism in Scotland is statistic based when being shared globally.
The inference can be made more strongly over time.
“Why do Sevco players we might be interested in buying look good in Scotland?”
“Big factor. Game is rigged in their favour. They get away with stuff that would never be allowed elsewhere”
Going back to transfer markets if I may and the “Scottish strategy” ….
We rightly bemoan the EPL’s financial strength.
We’ve been moaning for two decades.
Three others of the big five (Germany, Italy and Spain) have joined the moanfest more recently.
Meanwhile Portugal, Netherlands and Balkan nations have successfully milked it.
Belgians and Scandinavians a bit behind but getting better at doing same.
Scotland is still further behind.
(Check Bert Kassies for our national ranking compared to the other small nations mentioned. We’re not the worst ! )
No detailed solutions here but consider this if you will.
For easily 60% of EPL clubs …
… £15m is now a punt !
I’d guess only 10% of genuine game changers are bought for less than £30m.
Expectations aren’t as high as some might think.
When discussing our players worth we hear how much harder it is in the big leagues and how they wouldn’t thrive in one of them.
They don’t necessarily have to thrive.
Just exist, contribute, survive.
Pure hypothetical to conclude.
Liel Abada transfers this summer for £18m to the EPL club that finished 14th last season.
Next season he contributes just FIVE goal contributions (goals and assists).
Those contributions yield just three extra points.
Instead of 36 points they finish on 39.
Team on 38 points gets relegated.
Q. Are they glad they signed Abada?
🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
BACK TO BASICS
The market is crazy as we know. We would be wrong not to capitalise on it.
I know the Abada talk is just gossip but if a player, hunskelper or not fancies more a relegation battle down south than Champions League nights under our lights…… I’d rather the kid stayed but if we get a “Bassey” we’d be silly not to.
`BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL on 21ST MARCH 2023 11:35 PM
“The boy’s got to be worth a Bassey?” `
When I read that earlier, I thought it was rhyming slang and I was scratching my head thinking of Shirley and Count !!! So thanks, Aipple, for clarifying !
Very windy in Arbroath but off to the golf anyway and see if others are willing to play.
Cheerio for now.
60 years ago an album was released that changed music with this band
https://youtu.be/czw8eqepir8
HH
AT
Nice wee song, wonder if they made it to the top of the pops?
new article posted.
In the Pot Still with An Tearmann, SFTB and Leggy.