If you know your Greek mythology, you will know that Vasilis Barkas (28) joined Celtic as a goalkeeper two years ago.
During last season’s league campaign, he made it onto the bench for the opening game against Hearts and played the Boxing Day fixture at St Johnstone. In the cups, he was a Scottish Cup fifth round substitute against Raith Rovers. It was the Champions League qualification that made Ange Postecoglou’s mind up about him.
Midtjylland earned a first leg draw at Celtic Park with a goal that Vasilis carried the can for. Ange had seen enough. The Boxing Day appearance was a result of significant illness in the squad, it is telling that Vasilis was unaffected.
Yesterday, he travelled to Utrecht in the Netherlands, the land of his birth, where he will spend next season trying to get his career back on track.
Barkas is the most expensive goalkeeper signing in our history and was a significant deviation from plan. International travel was banned in the spring of 2020 and scouts were not permitted to attend games until late in the summer.
Fraser Forster, who performed superbly for Celtic the previous season, had permission from parent club, Southampton, to train with us pending completion of an anticipated new loan deal. The south coast club had some details to take care of first but terms were agreed.
Craig Gordon had been backup to Fraser and had an offer on the table from Celtic to remain at the club another season. Craig, however, was at the stage of his career where he wanted to play and left to join Hearts on a significantly lower wage than was on the table at Celtic.
When Southampton gave Celtic the green light, Peter Lawwell called Fraser at Lennoxtown to confirm the deal was done, only to be told, “Actually, I’m not sure.” I understand there was a possibility of some goalkeeper movement at Chelsea and they were looking at backup options. Fraser was invited to empty his locker.
Had he revealed his hesitation a week earlier, Craig Gordon would have accepted the higher-paid contract at Celtic and stayed as first choice. He didn’t just let the club down, his ‘keeper pal was denied money and potentially medals.
Unable to scout, Celtic were left in a position of recruiting from the teams they play against, or relying on external scouts in Europe. This latter route brought Barkas to Glasgow. He successfully played against Celtic in Champions League qualification two years earlier, was a full Greek international with experience at the top table of European football.
We will hopefully never had to sign a player without going through proper scouting processes again, alas, a repeat of the behaviour of Fraser Forster is something we are likely to see at some point.
Good luck, Vasilis.
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Watching Barkas Youtube Highlights before we signed him (don’t trust Youtube) he never struck me as being a Shot-stopper so did we sign him because of his Kickoots?
‘………alas, a repeat of the behaviour of Fraser Forster is something we are likely to see at some point.’
Is this more than a hint at the current situation with Jota and CCV?
Today’s lesson is a reading from the Gospel of St Peter.
Paul67 et al
The Fraser Forster who has has only today signed for Tottenham Hotspur? That Fraser Forster Paul?
Good luck to the Big Mhan! One of our greatest ever goalkeepers.
Paul67
How on earth do we replace a player like ole Barkers ?
Well that clears up some of the nonsense that was spouted by the MSMs about Gordon. Namely, he was given a poor contact offer from Celtic and Hearts bettered it. Strange goalkeeper situation hopefully we are never in that situation again and lessons are learned.
The Gordon/Forster f#$@ up,was a monumental failure from Lawwell, offered Gordon a much lower contract,before Forster was in the door, end of.
Lacazette to Lyon,Dembele sell on soon
You would have hoped that a manager who was hired specifically for having an “eye for a player” (along with the vital skill of ‘knowing the city’ of course) might have had a better, err, eye for a player!
I never understood the need to change things in 2019. We had two good keepers in Gordon and Bain. Certainly in relation to other areas of the team it wasn’t something that needed attention.
Rumour, de Chambeau,Reed,Fowler joining LIV Tour,this is going to get messy
Bada
If all the TV networks boycott the tour due to the human rights abuses of the Saudis – it will wither on the vine.
Of course it won’t happen.
If Jota and/or CCV haven’t signed by end of next week then I don’t think they will – we’ve had plenty of time for the deals to be done.
ERNIE LYNCH on 8TH JUNE 2022 12:28 PM
Today’s lesson is a reading from the Gospel of St Peter.
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Couldn’t have put it better myself, Ernie.
So, Peter Lawwell can now take his seat beside David Murray down in Cafe Duped. Who would have thunk it.
And, how does PL/P67 know for sure that Craig Gordon would have accepted the higher paid contract ? Has Craig ever mentioned this ?
Fraser Forster hedged his bets, that was his perogative as a loan player, just like Jota and CCV are doing at the moment.
Professional football is a ruthless business, some you win, some you lose. Peter Lawwell took £1m in salary during empty stadium season 2020/21. He could have read the room and cut this by at least 50%. He chose not to.
Lawwell will be the next Club Chairman in my opinion, due to his links at UEFA the ECA and within Scottish Football, also knowing what happened with the EBT situation over the river and with the 5 way agreement is also helpful to the club to keep all this in house, he is also presently a member of the Football Club Board.
If the above does not happen I will of course hold my hands up and say I got it totally wrong.
Gene on 8th June 2022 1:27 pm
Bada
If all the TV networks boycott the tour due to the human rights abuses of the Saudis – it will wither on the vine.
Of course it won’t happen.
Some satellite channel will pick it up, and probably broadcast it free of charge
I possibly expect too much from Celtic after reading this piece today.
Because I’d hope that we have database of possible recruits for every position, recruits that have been identified and scouted at some point. Scouted and constantly updated.
To think we spent that money on Barkas without any previous scouting besides two games against AEK Athens is a worry.
Unable to scout, Celtic were left in a position of recruiting from the teams they play against, or relying on external scouts in Europe.
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I don’t understand this. Football was stopped in March 2020 – why was no scouting done prior to this just in case our on loan goalie didn’t sign up that summer ?
In my opinion Ajeti was a worse signing than Barkas. Ajeti had hardly played for
2 seasons before we signed him. He was the kind of player who you would get
for a nominal fee to try to ressurect his career. At least Barkas was playing when
we bought him.
Our we to believe that if Jota or CCV don’t sign up this month, we’ve no scouting done on possible alternatives? That the process of finding replacements will only start once we’ve received confirmation from the loanees that they aren’t signing up ?!
Also- An Dun – agree with every word – reeks of a lack of professionalism
Nothing wrong with Barkers profile when we signed him, won his league with AEK, played in the CL and had made it to the full international level with Greece. Possibly £2M up front with add ons, under contract with Celtic until 2024 currently starring on Utrecht Quick news, no doubt.
Not the best judge of a player Brendan Rodgers especially keepers (see DDV) had began to phase Craig Gordon out, and eventually dropped him after high profile errors in Europe.
The signing of Fraser Forster was a revelation and ‘the wall’ had an outstanding season, all went pear shaped when he decided head back to S’hampton. The occasional game for the development team didn’t appeal to Craig Gordon, who could blame him, in his position. Fact is he was to be ‘back up’ we move them on, or they accept lesser terms whilst sitting on the bench, that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
Bain, Hazard, Doohan or whomsever are paid a fraction of present incumbent Joe Hart’s salary.
Good afternoon all from Ruglen.
Very glad Paul that Barkas is willing to try pastures new to get his career back on track.
I was just gutted that we couldn’t keep Forster at the time, I was less bothered about Gordon. Craig is a great goalie for sure but he always seemed a bit aloof to me. You can take the boy out of Edinburgh but you can’t take the Edinburgh out of the boy. He needn´t worry about his financial future however, he’s a shoe in to be the next bbc shortbread football pundit when he hangs up his gloves, joining the other gleaming doowallies from Shetland, Crieff, Stornoway and other football hotspots in Scotland.
https://twitter.com/swedleypops/status/1534507447779528704?s=24&t=WR9zBXeMe3AdwUOPqJYidg
New banner looks great
RIMTIMTIM
“the other gleaming doowallies from Shetland, Crieff, Stornoway and other football hotspots in Scotland.”
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I can’t speak for Shetland or Crieff, but I would be extremely hesitant to dismiss Stornoway as the home of ‘gleaming doowallies’, whatever that means.
Take in the Stornoway Celtic Supporters Club HQ below, a magnificent venue to watch the Hoops in, while enjoying a first class meal and a pint ( or in BBRB’s case, several pints.😊 )
Stornoway has recently produced 2 lads playing in the SPL for Ross County ( one of them scored the equalizer against Sevco earlier this year ), and the Celtic Women now have their own Rachael Johnstone.
If HEBCELT is reading this, you will probably get a far more stinging retort than this. Has anyone heard from him recently?
https://www.facebook.com/Stornoway-Saltire-Celtic-Supporters-Club-118568991514209/videos/the-club-ready-for-the-game-across-the-river-stare-your-day-with-an-early-mornin/1485679184803176/
So none of the scouts managed to see David Marshal then
Aye Paul, you really treat us as if we are thick at times, it was a major eff up, end of.
Tenable on STV just now. It’s 5 members of Rangers Women’s team playing for charity.
First question: What are the first 10 words of 3 letters made up from the word PENALTY?
Tomás Belmonte is 1.78 M
Tom
Tavanier surely
How many times? Celtic won’t announce Jota or CCV until Friday at the earliest BECAUSE OF LESSONS LEARNED AFTER THE FORSTER DEBACLE.
Signings can’t be completed until the transfer window opens on Friday and Celtic won’t announce anything until contracts signed and registered.
PantyWettersCSC
Re Tenable.
One of the Rangers ladies got a question wrong and big Warwick said – Sorry but that answer is huntenable.
Tom, you may be correct in your timing, however that is only when it is deemed official
Celtic like other clubs could be announcing signings just now
How do we know that Barkas is signing for Utrecht for example
” unable to scout”
That sums up the way our club is run, that we didn’t have any back up ,or even a list of keepers that would were available
I’d hate to think where we would be without Ange.
I’m sure son of Lawwell will sort it all out.
AN DÚN on 8TH JUNE 2022 1:49 PM
Unable to scout, Celtic were left in a position of recruiting from the teams they play against, or relying on external scouts in Europe.
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I don’t understand this. Football was stopped in March 2020 – why was no scouting done prior to this just in case our on loan goalie didn’t sign up that summer ?
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That’s an easy one to answer.
It’s just one of P67’s regular puff pieces to back up his man Lawwell.
Afternoon all
I trust you are all well.
I was out and about early this morning (not in a BRRB sort of way 🙂 ) unfortunately I was caught in absolute downpour of rain, As a consequence I’ve a wee rattly cough,
Mrs BB has just presented me with a, whisky. fresh ginger and honey hot toddy.
What a wummin’
Brian