Last month I wrote about the highly-effective transfer windows culminating with the capture of Mikael Lustig in January 2012. The list of those who arrived over the next 18 months, culminating in the signature of Teemu Pukki on 31 August 2013, is largely a catalogue of expensive mishap. If only one of of the strikers signed during that period: Miku, Lassad, Balde or Pukki had made the grade, we would have been in better shape for the Champions League qualifiers.
Those mishaps sowed the seeds of where things went wrong recently but we brought in six players this summer, and in order to compete in the Europa League, we pretty much need five of them to command a regular starting place.
Craig Gordon is an excellent piece of business. Fraser Forster overcame almost all those doubters who would rather we bought Stipe Pletikosa in 2012 instead, but we have replaced Fraser with an equivalent, and banked the lion’s share of £10m in the process.
This alchemy is only possible due to doubts over Gordon’s fitness. We’ll find out how well-established his recovery is in the months ahead but the signs are good on this front.
Jo Inge Berget was signed on loan, like Amido Balde a year ago, he early in the transfer window. There is a great misunderstanding that there’s a shortage of players available early in the window. There are lots of players available the moment the window opens. For a reason. Jo wasn’t wanted by Cardiff City, who he made only two appearances for since joining in January.
He was given an unfair burden on his debut, in a highly-dysfunctional performance by Celtic in Warsaw, and, a solid performance against Dundee United apart, has been one of a number of players who have appeared lost in our game-plan since then. He has until Christmas to make his mark before he is due to return to Cardiff, but his chances will be limited by the subsequent signing on Wakaso Mubarak.
Wakaso is here on a year’s loan, with Celtic having an option to make the deal permanent, if he proves his worth. I hear good things about him; he has pace, strength, skill but his most prominent attribute is attitude, which he has in spades. This didn’t sit will in Kazan, where he was somewhat isolated.
Bulgarian midfielder, Aleks Tonev, bounced straight from medical couch to treatment table after his loan move from Aston Villa. He’s now fit and will be available for selection when play resumes after the international break and I hear Ronny Deila is keen on the player.
We now know that Manchester City teenage central defender, Jason Denayer, was brought in to play first team football. The player is highly thought of by City and Ronny, but I wouldn’t expect too much from him in what is his inaugural season of first team football.
Stefan Scepovic has the distinction of contributing 100% of the money spent on players signed by Scottish clubs this summer. He was Celtic’s first choice striker, and, as we discovered late in the day, was wanted by scouts in Spain, so the indicators are reassuring. His experiences over the past week have not without trauma for the player, but he kept focus and his word to join Celtic.
The overwhelming observation from our activity this year is the predominance of loan signings, which is a strategy I suspect was hatched after the ‘No refunds’ deals for Pukki, Balde and Boerrigter last season. We will get more from some of them than others.
Taking Berget for six months was clearly a short-term fix to an immediate gap in the squad. I don’t think we’ll see too much of him from now on. Despite the fact that Jo didn’t make a perceivable difference during our European qualifiers, I don’t have a problem with short-term deals in principle. We could have benefited from one for a target man.
Denayer will almost certainly return to Manchester next year, a more mature player, having pushed Efe and Virgil for a year.
Aleks Tonev and Wakaso Mubarak are here to impress, both are working for a permanent deal. I expect Mubarak to play in his favoured position on the left, with Tonev behind him in a more central role alongside Brown and Johansen.
Ronny has been putting apples in orange crates so far this season but with a central three of Tonev, Johansen and Brown, behind Mubarak, Scepovic and Forrest (or McGregor), he’ll have the personnel to play his favoured 4-3-3.
Two first team regulars left the club, the thoroughly professional Fraser Forster and Georgios Samaras. It was time for both to move on. Fraser, as Southampton was the right club for him, and £10m was the right price for us, Georgios, as he had become increasingly peripheral to team plans under Neil Lennon and would have been even more out of the picture under Ronny. Would Georgios have made a difference in our Champions League qualifiers? There’s a good chance he would have against Maribor but the gap against Legia was bigger than 6’3”.
Pukki and Balde were sent on loan, in the hope they impress and move on. Bon chance. Tony Watt was sold for £1.2m to Standard Liege, who will fancy they can take Tony’s undeniable potential and turn it into an asset their manager wants to work with. It’s been years since we’ve produced as exciting a young player as Tony but he’s now been shipped on or out by three managers.
I would still like to see John Guidette added to this list, even without European football – especially if he is prepared to stay beyond the end of the season. The incumbent strikers, Stokes and Griffiths, will continue to get game-time, but neither is suited to the lone-striker role.
I’m not going to sell a Europa League campaign as anything like the Champions League, but it is very important this squad is ready for Europe. Without much domestic competition (I’m ignoring Inverness and Dundee for a moment) we need to be competitive in the group stage and aim to progress to the latter stages of the competition.
Thumping Dundee United 6-1 taught us nothing, we need to mature as a team against European competition and exorcise the ghosts of Legia and Maribor. No matter how good the new arrivals are, there’s no way they would gel well enough to allow us to do anything more than endure >80 minutes of defending our 18 yard line in Champions League football this season.
We’ll miss the money, prestige and Zadok the Priest, but the Europa League is a better level for us right now.
My thanks to Canajunbhoy, who retires after running the Quick News section for the best part of a decade. Quick News will be back in a different format in the future.
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The UEFA decision makers will be away giving it large on various international junkets
I see the csc on London road has been vandalised….. Moronsl
Pukki didn’t do the business with us fair enough that happens awe the time, he’s gone awe the best to him, we move on as he has done, I wish him no harm, he wore the hoops.
quonno
My reason for asking is that it is not so many moons ago, nobody in football seemed in the least bit fazed when Harry Rednapp stood in a court of law and expressed disappointment that he had only received 5% instead of 10% of the fee, when he was involved in the sale or purchase of player.
——————————————————–
He was more annoyed that his dog was getting the full 10% :-)
Another serious question…are there websites like Match.com available to fitba teams these days where you can identify certain characteristics and up pops a few possibles?
And if so, what search criteria do you enter to find Mo “the bounce” Bangura?
We’ll miss the money, prestige and Zadok the Priest, but the Europa League is a better level for us right now.
Sad, sad day when second best is good enough for Celtic.
The spirit of the transfer rules suggest that if a transfer was clearly timeous ly ongoing before the deadline, then it should go ahead.
Pukki And his pals
http://youtu.be/AVso9I9Gdos
HH
I heard he is our player, but can’t play in the Europa cup, not 100% sure if it’s real.
Pukki away to resurrect his career as a Hollywood child star
PF
Very odd to fail, and complain of a weak league.
“Sad, sad day when second best is good enough for Celtic.”
A bit melodramatic is it not Quonno!?
Being second best in the second best tournament in Seville musta killed you.
It’s all academic anyway because Guidetti will be given the go-ahead to play for Celtic.
As long as the SFA can confirm to FIFA that the registration was commenced before the deadline. The rules are there to stop clubs coming in hours later or even the next day and trying to sign someone.
Also, if and when FIFA ratify his signing, Guidetti will be able to play in the Europa League, because I believe Celtic registered him in the squad on the basis that the SFA had registered him.
In the unlikely event that FIFA veto his signing, all it means is that Celtic will go into the Europa League with a squad of 24 instead of 25.
BSR
Quite …I was crap but the league was too easy …counter intuitive
Bsr,
Pukki said there was only one good team and that was celtic.
This is maybe what some find offensive ;)
geordie munro
16:54 on 3 September, 2014
Bsr,
Pukki said there was only one good team and that was celtic.
This is maybe what some find offensive ;)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Well! Maybe a wee GIRFUYs would help it along to the lurking Huns who are among us tonight.
While Celtic are in transition, Zadok the Altar Boy will be more appropriate.
Pukki scored a few for us but from day one he looked like a little boy lost. Everyone I speak to thinks the same. He has some nice touches, can shoot (eventually), has a weebit of pace and sometimes threads through nice passes. If he ever can join up those attributes he’ll be a player.
But he can’t and never will. It still surprises me how some folk manage to become professional football players and even more so how coaches etc let them through the net!
I was useless but was fast and could cross. I should have stuck with it. What is it they say…’you can fool some of the people all of the time’.
No harm to Temu, not his fault, should never have been at CP, possibly should never have been a full time professional!
syd n…
LOL
Wakaso wull Dae Fine..
That is whit Ah hear oan the Line.
but..
Tonev,wull Dae GREAT..
Why?
Well.. Fur starters..
He is A TWO Fitted Player.. which is alwiz… The Necessary Difference … Between.. being…a COMPLETE FITBA’ PLAYER.. n…a
Half.. Fitted Wan. ( Ah nearly said…”Half Assed”.. but.. Though Bettah!)
n.. that..named Difference … Believe it or No.. Virginia,gal..
Is a Friggin’ BIG DEAL!.. ( Don’t Believe Me?… well.. Remember a Guy
Named Lubo?)
if ..only.. McGregor, could Learn tae Become A Two -Fitted Guy..
Then ..The Young McGregor ,wid really become Wan o’ The Best o The Best.
But..Na.. He is A One- Fitted Guy…n ..a One-Fitted Guy,he shall Remain.. Too Bad..
Och..he is a Good Yin..but..
Being a Wan-Fitted Trick Pony,,Like maist of oor Ither Players..
n…
Being forced,therefore…in Relying oan the Ba’.. Falling Jist Right fur the Boot oan his Good Pin.. tae get a Whack at it..
Is The Difference between..McGregor..( or.. ANYBUDDY ELSE..) ..Becoming a GREAT PLAYER..or… instead, Remaining …. a..
well.. Merely…A .. Bettah than Most… Good Yin.
Many an Easy Chance tae Wrack up a Presented Goal-Scoring Opertunity..is
Missed.. Simply, because ..the Ba’ Happens tae Land at the Wrang Toe ,of The Wan -Fitted Player!
N ..that is No Hearsay..
THAT’S,,a Bloody Fact!
Anyway..
Tonev,is Ma Tip ..tae Turn oot. tae be.. well..
Wan o’ the Great Yins.
Noo ye Know.
Kojo
Still,Laugin
tom mc…
My thoughts as well.
HH
Geordie Munro
16:52 on
3 September, 2014
“Sad, sad day when second best is good enough for Celtic.”
A bit melodramatic is it not Quonno!?
Being second best in the second best tournament in Seville musta killed you.
As was pointed out by some one on here the other day.
Seville was the UEFA Cup.
If football wasent a contact sport, Pukki would have been the Messi of that world, good luck to him.
The issue with Pukki is his demeaning of a league in which he failed in
Strange comment to make
Kojo…
One of my pet subjects…two footers.
Can somebody confirm if it is possible or impossible to train/coach a young boy to kick well with either foot?
How long has Lennoxtown been open? 7 years? All our youth able to control and pass on either side?
Are all our U19s, U16s, U12s comfortable kicking with both feet?
Just asking!
If not why not
Natknow, 16.19
We’ve had this a number of times. In some issues the UK Parliament the SNP voted with :
BNP
National Front
DUP
Assorted other loonies and psychos
—
I’m no particular friend of the SNP (although I would vote Yes), but I don’t see how they can have voted in the UK parliament with the BNP and the National Front, when neither of these parties have ever had an MP or seat in the Lords?
Shome mishtake, surely?
The issue with Pukki is his demeaning of a league in which he failed in
Strange comment to make
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
True, but that is IF he said that.
Anyone else think that the lowering of the voting age for the Referendum to 16 is morally indefensible?
In doing this the SNP are simply hoping to garner the support of a great many naive children. Too blatant an appeal to the heart at the expense of the head.
After all, it is much easier to hold lofty high-principled ideals when you are still living with your parents and have never been exposed to the harsh realities of balancing budgets and making stark choices.
Difficult choices that an Independent Scotland may have to face really soon.
Salmond is in a win-win situation here. If there is a NO vote it will probably still amount to him having additional powers. A YES vote and he gets given the reins completely.
And whatever the outcome, you can bet the house on the fact that HE will never have to feel the financial pinch.
I no longer live in Scotland I should mention, but I still hope for the best for those that do.
However, it is one thing to be charged with the responsibility of divvying out funding that has been passed to you by Central Government (it should be remembered that due to the Barnett Formula, the amounts per head are disproportionately higher than for elsewhere on the island too) than it is to also be charged with the responsibility of ensuring that this level of revenue stream continues to be a staple when it has to be sought from some other source.
I remain to be convinced that Salmond and his cohorts really have all the answers to that pivotal question.
For me, the only way to maintain current funding when the Barnett rug gets pulled out from under him is to rely on considerably more Oil & Gas Revenue, higher taxation, cuts in public spending,or higher borrowing.
If he doesn’t have the answers to that then I would imagine that Tuition Fees and Prescription Charges will be the least of Scotland’s worries.
I really hope that the most optimistic figures for North Sea revenue come to fruition or there could be hard times ahead.
Those that are in danger of being hit hardest are most likely those that may have worked longest and hardest to gain some wealth. They will also be the ones least likely to wish to be sucked into this vortex of delusional optimism being spun by Eck. Doesn’t make them cowardly, it just makes them more circumspect.
When the dust settles, the have-nots will still have not, and those with most to lose will undoubtedly lose most.
I feel that both sides are dragging the populace into a vital vote either not really knowing all the figures well enough, or possibly, which is worse, refusing to disclose them.
As they say, whatever way you vote, the Government still gets in.
:-(
HH
“As was pointed out by some one on here the other day.
Seville was the UEFA Cup.”
Quonno,
Agree 100%
The qualifier versus Basel wasn’t.
quonno –
The Europa League is a reincarnation of the UEFA Cup, just as the Champions League is a reincarnation of the European Cup.
The UEFA Cup, just like the Europa League, was the second tier tournament.
justafan
17:09 on
3 September, 2014
I was two footed, useless with both of them :0)
BIG DAFT HEADER LETTERS.
big letter headers are rubbidge.
however they can cure a severe lurking
condition. id rather be a severe condition
lurker than a HUN…..yes i would
tj
:-D
Kojo
My lad plays amateur football but played at Junior too.
He is very two footed and can do stuff that makes his pals on the sideline laugh (but would make a coach wince.)
Point is at any level a two footed player is a diamond in the dust.
Justafan,
Mr Stein made his players wear a sandy on their good foot and a boot on their standing foot and gave them a medicine ball to kick
Sannie even
geordie
Wonder what the Dons or Inverness think of that?
Justafan, you can train your weaker foot to be better with practice, but it wont ever be even nearly as good as the other. Some will be better at that than others. Some very gifted players are naturally able to use both feet. Tonev and Lubo have that gift as Kojo says.