Football is quite mad. Justin Osagie (now 20), signed for Celtic from West Ham United’s youth system three years ago. Two years later, he was released without making an appearance. That was followed by a similarly barren period at Peterborough United, who released him in May. The player now has a Chelsea contract.
Players develop at different stages, but at the risk of underestimating Chelsea’s player development capabilities, the chances of Justin making the grade, or even being in the senior game five years from now, are low. So what’s going on?
At many clubs, several coaches have authorisation to make contract offers to players. As well as those who recruit for the first team, others have budget to enhance youth or development squads (they are not always the same thing). I’ve known coaches down the ranks at a club to be under pressure to spend their budget. Failure to do so, is a failure (see feedback on Celtic’s failure to spend sufficiently on the first team in the summer).
This results in deals being done which don’t always pass the sniff test, like this one. Chelsea are also absolute masters at rebranding a player. Couldn’t cut it at Peterborough? What will a dozen appearances for the Chelsea development side do for his value? That kind of branding has attracted bids for more than a few players with ‘limited potential’.
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Tom
BRRB will no like ye talking of him like that :-))
HH
All this talk of chasing DD is rubbish, he owns 38% of the shares even if he is inclined to say enough he would need to sell these , so that in my opinion won’t happen. He is however detached from the club leaving it to be run by the CEO and the board very likely in a way that meets with his approval.
Celtic is stale, very conservative in its methods and on and off the pitch,needing invigorating to push the Club forward, right now we just collect money and don’t reinvest it. Do I see signs of change ,not a chance.
That awkward moment when they call it “the race”………… to become new Rainjurz manager
DESSYBHOY
Spot on.
Also, arbitrarily demanding the dismissal of the Chairman, CEO and Finance Director is the stuff of nonsense. Only the board can sack them and only the board can replace them, presumably with clones who follow the exact same guidelines. But hey, at least a few vloggers will have their egos massaged.
AN TEARMANN
Nice one :-)
And the prospect of these ways continuing is not something I want to be right about.
Neil Lennon has launched an impassioned defence of the under-fire Celtic board and claimed
Dermot Desmond is the reason why marquee managers come to Glasgow.
Don,t tell me L considers himself a marquee manager..
Or a one man tent …?😜
BSR @8.42
The race? Aye …… the sack race ._))))))
That awkward moment when Neil Lennon thinks we’ll change our minds.
GLENDALYS
They’re looking for someone to take training
Dessybhoy
Unless Celtic find new dependable income streams I doubt there will be many changes in the current living within their means policy.
Apart from that now being codified by FSR, living outside Celtic’s means is just not a good idea.
By next AGM Celtic will be closer to the FSR limit and the ” profit” that has accrued as a result of not spending closer to the limit will drop.
That does not mean there will be a FSR breach. Think of FSR as a road sign saying 70mph and the Celtic fuel tank is not as full as it was and to keep going the speed has to drop.
This means either less spend on players or higher player churn to compensate for loss of income elsewhere like attendance at UEFA games or a drop in merchandising.
Its not all gloom and doom however.
A strategy needs a mechanism and personell to execute it and the lack of a fit for purpose mechanism with required skills is a major factor in the current dissatisfaction.
I expect that to be corrected. The latest advert for a person of many skills (suggesting more than one is needed btw) suggests moves in a capacity building direction.
The other is the impact of FSR on player wages. Now it is at 70% clubs with UEFA ambitions will have an incentive to pay less to players
In England which is now subject to a Regulator by law, as well as the FA having its own FSR version, the likes of Bournemouth with a wage bill way above their football earnings capacity will gradually be brought into line.
One good thing from my perspective is that words like Vision, Strategy Policy and even Dialogue are now emerging from a support who previously paid little attention to governance.
That has to be a good thing not because Ive long advocated it, but because it makes better sense than Pedrophobia.
WEEBOBBYCOLLINS
They live in a small strip of land that is mostly desert. Few on here have a scooby what that means.” 60% desert.
And you do? Yes. I lived on kibbutz and moshav on and off between travelling around the Middle East for three years. In the Arava, Arabian mountains area.
” They don’t need you putting fuel on the fire.”
Who is the ‘you’ you refer to? Selfie takers and intellectuals who haven’t out boots on the ground. So perhaps not yourself.
The reality is that ten million Jews Arabs druize and Christian’s live in that densely populated strip and going to war with them every generation is never going to end well. How do the intellectuals on here think this ends. In 2006 Israel gave the Palestinians the basis of the two state solution. It is still possible but it must include security for all.
“Not easy to put your head above the parapet.”
I’m sure it is from the couch. You said it.
Plus, I have seen no support for Hamas on these pages…maybe I inferred it from the complete lack of seeing the war from the Israeli side fighting Hamas to get there dead and alive hostages back…and yes I know about Israel’s tactic of holding their own hostages to bargain with. This is why they have war not peace right.
I have read your stories about your time in Gaza and I have no doubt they strongly form your views. I went to Gaza with my PLO keffiyeh, encouraged by the kibbutzniks who I’d known for just weeks. What I experienced changed my world view. I am not going into that here. I still have the scarf. Sad that it turned out so badly but not surprised.
I am a centrist and not ashamed of wanting a normal life for Palestinians and Israelis. That can never happen unless people forgive and put their energy into a future for their kids that doesn’t involve guns or unrealistic claims on each other. I hope your friends are safe and have the strength to rebuild, and support peace not more massacres.
Good morning CQN
Auldheid a few minutes ago
… well said
I am going to stop posting anything about Israel here now. I’ll find another way to be astounded of forehead. We will never change each others mind and I think most people on here, myself included, would rather see CQN filled with football not politics. I’m going back to lurking, or just take a holiday for a while. Hail Hail
Interesting read back. Was particularly drawn to chat about Neil Lennon.
IMHO, Neil is a good guy and a smart guy.
And a guy who, tangibly, suffered for the cause.
An elite manager?
Probably not but his experience surely makes him worth listening to?
(Or at least be heard?)
Speculating on his motives because his views don’t align to yours?
It’s playing the man.
Apologies – I can’t recall who posted this a few days back ….
https://www.irishnews.com/sport/soccer/our-whole-irish-identity-was-expressed-through-our-love-of-celtic-hoops-veteran-tony-mcshane-recalls-that-night-in-lisbon-57AG5BKTBVAUTL7HYXJN3YU7XM/
Brilliant stuff.
I loved this bit.
“A FEW years ago Tony made the trip back to the Estadio Nacional with some friends to relive that glorious night.
“We took a ball with us and we replicated the Tommy Gemmill goal,” he says.
Tommy was up and down the wing that night… He was super-charged and we replicated the Steve Chalmers goal, we found the spot where he’d shot from and we took turns scoring from there”
—–
Go on, admit it. Who else did this?
I’ll raise my hand.
I actually injured myself reenacting the equaliser !
🤣🤣🤣
Taurangabhoy @ 11:04am.
An alternative suggestion … if I may?
Keep … posting.
AULDHEID on 16TH OCTOBER 2025 10:55 AM
Thanks for the explanation.
We need to move away from the mindset that a highly profitable player trading model is doom and gloom. It’s a necessity for a club like ours, we need to embrace the idea and all pull in the same direction or all we’ll get is years of infighting and unhappiness.
NEIL LENNON has warned Celtic supporters they will find it difficult to find better men than under-fire Dermot Desmond and Peter Lawwell.
Wow what a shocker….
Re the COVID loans isnt this just another one of those things that was a good thing at the time but now we’re a bit away from it and memories fade we’ll take another look at it and try and turn it into a bad thing the board did? Not much hard evidence to disprove it if you cant be arsed to waste your time searching for it, no context of the time
I remember it being a good thing. It was a really diffetent time, lots of finger pointing going on at the time about people grifting from the crisis, people being shamed for breaking lockdown, a lot of very angry people.
The loans were for distressed businesses, the concept of them being “free money” that we could have given to the fans would have been extremely unpopular at the time. We didnt have to take from the government who weren’t exactly our friends, we aren’t in hock to them, unlike other clubs who still are.
For the sake of a couple of million pounds that we didn’t need letting the government decide on our executive renumeration would go against a billionaire businessman’s instincts, keep control over everything you can . Not good for attracting the best executives, either the new Hun owner will have paid off the loan or will have poked at a way to pay their prospective executives bonuses. It might not be right but it’s the way the world works
C40me
Your correct bout covid loans in the past etc,I am just interested from Gp point of the conditionally of covid loan impacting dividend policy,I didnt know that.
Hail hail
Auldheid @ ages ago
discombobulated 👏
AN TEARMANN on 16TH OCTOBER 2025 11:40
Without looking into it I couldnt say for sure (which is probably what he’s banking on) but I can’t imagine that any business taking out the loan would be stopped grom paying out dividends on preference shares. It wouldn’t make sense as the dividends are fixed and have to be paid regardless of profits.
We don’t pay dividends on ordinary shares so it wouldn’t affect that
We’ll revisit something else soon enough with the same lack of attention to detail and completely ignoring any context of what was going on at the time
new article posted.
BACK TO BASICS
In June 1969, as a 15 year-old, I sailed on the SS Nevassa with Our Lady’s HS in Motherwell, and quite a few other Scottish schools, to Vigo, Gibraltar, Madeira and Lisbon.
In preparation for Lisbon, the 20 or so boys were given two excursion options — Fatima or Estadio Nacional. Only two elected to visit the Catholic shrine. The rest of us headed to the scene of Celtic’s triumph two short years previously.
I was one of a few who re-enacted Tam Gemmell’s thunderbolt and Stevie Chalmers’s pass into goal.
We also climbed the steps to Caesar’s podium. This was a truly magical moment. The stadium was unchanged from that glorious day and I wasn’t alone in shedding a tear or two.
I still have the photographs.
PS. Our Catholic brownie points were restored when we spent a day at St James’ Cathedral in Santiago de Compestella, near Vigo.
PPS. A young Dundee schoolboy named Derek Johnstone was also on that cruise. I often wonder what happened to him.