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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ray singh-carr
17:11 on 3 September, 2014
Anyone else think that the lowering of the voting age for the Referendum to 16 is morally indefensible?
———————–
That’s an interesting question and probably requires beer for a successful resolution. The starting point would be whether your argument was based on a deontological or consequentialist approach. However I note that, under the new rules in Scotland (introduced specifically in time for this referendum) it is possible to vote at 16, but you have to be 18 before you can stand for election.
Hmmmmm….as we often say in CQN.
sandman
18:25 on 3 September, 2014
RWE
18:23 on 3 September, 2014
– self-serving, attention seeking, pedantic, duffers, bigoted, faux jobsworths, sad, controlling, petty, not very bright, juvenile, dissembling, dishonest, corrupt, incompetent, …
Just some of the words some might use to describe the registration officers at the SFA/SPFL.
================
You missed out ######…. And so should you have.
Right you need to treat one another better, so here’s a link to the site for your T shirts.
No apologies for the colours chosen because these are just samples.
No apology for the word unity, but no referendum implications are implied or intended.
http://www.customink.com/stopbullying?pc=CRD-54616&cm_mmc=email-_-bgteo-_-20140903-_-bgteo
October is national bullying prevention month. In the USA anyway.
HH
Awe naw
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Bwk38srACrA
Awe naw
Naw your right, my friend noticed that a couple off weeks ago, a wee bit of brown back will help, but he can’t do it all himself, others will have to weigh in, and that includes the defenders too, and I mean all of them, when we loss the ball in the opposition half, they are up the park in our end in seconds with no tackles.
Anyone any idea when ibrahimovic plans on ending his career at Celtic ? ;)
ONE FOOTED PLAYERS
Canamalar,
You’ve missed the point regarding Fusball. It’s not the team formation, it’s the fact that every player has had both his feet tied together (even the GK). This is what makes the game a tactical challenge, while at the same time dealing with the issue of one-footed players.
Also the inability to face their own goal unless standing on their heads was another additional challenge for team members which today’s spoiled modern footballers would struggle with.
Bhoylo83
Ferencz Puskas? (Sp?)
darwinsbeautifulidea
12:47 on 3 September, 2014
Scotland will vote no thankfully and then the granny shagger salmond and the black witch sturgeon can bog off to a desert island together and give us all peace
JUST VOTE NO
What sort of freedom is it with the english royal scroungers as heads of state
________________
I have never thought that anybody could post a more objectionable & sub human offering than our Fascist Faction ( Kojo & TSD, etc ), but this attempt puts you right in line for that special award.
Take a bow.
Oops on Clyde there,
I rad amhan looking for £600 grand from thems.
Imrad
Can’t have fusball players at Celtic park…. Too much lateral movement…
“Delete Online bullying”
“Celebrate Different – Don’t bully it.”
And lastly with a deep breath…
“Unity Day – make it orange, make it end.”
Not made up, but from this site…
http://www.customink.com/stopbullying?pc=CRD-54616&cm_mmc=email-_-bgteo-_-20140903-_-bgteo
You have to laugh, this email arrived in my mailbox, just as two stalwarts were threatening a square go.
HH all
Tontime Tim –
The European Cup Winners Cup was in fact the second tier tournament behind the European Cup, with the Fairs Cup trailing third. The ECWC and FC were merged into the UEFA Cup.
One strange thing I noticed this season is that Celtic have been frequently playing with a midfield of left-footed players (McGregor, Mulgrew, Johansen and Berget). This has appeared to have an influence on what direction the game has taken. Add in Craig Gordon and Emilio and the majority of the side on several ocassions have been left-footed (and when Griffiths has come on the number increases). I have never such an aggregation of left-footed players like this before. Has anyone?
iki
18:33 on 3 September, 2014
sandmanYou missed out ######…. And so should you have.
=================================
Please spare me your faux-sensitivity.
Hand-wring to your fulfilment watching the old Chewin’ The Fat ‘Good guy, good guy, wank…’ sketch, then complain to someone else about the use of a mildly offensive term in a jocular manner; Spare me that easily-offended nonsense.
After Tommy Gemmell who was Celtic’s best left back?
RE: FEET
If their legs were not together they would be getting nutmeged every time how amateur would that make them look
timgreen
17:43 on 3 September, 2014
Ray Singh Car at 17.11 said:
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.
Not true. If its a NO vote they UK parties will seek to lower expectations about vague talk of extra powers. As yet, no significant extra powers have been guaranteed. As always we’ll need a strong Scottish Parliament to fight for every crumb.
If there’s a YES vote, Salmond leads the first independent government until the next Scottish election. There are plenty up and down this country who would vote for a Labour dug against any other candidate. For the first time in decades, a Labour vote might just mean policies aiming for some kind of fairer society here in Scotland away from the New Tory Labour we now have at UK level. That’s if there are any Labour politicians in Scotland of sufficient calibre.
The is a referendum to let the Scots run Scotland – whatever anyone thinks of Salmond. More and more Scottish Labour supporters are now seeing the bigger picture and that’s why the YES campaign is doing so well as we approach 18 Sept.
—————————
Scottish voters had a chance to vote for Labour in the 2007 Scottish parliament elections and chose SNP. The notion that, after the euphoria of a Yes vote, all those people will suddenly vote Labour is impossible for me to believe. If there is a Yes vote the SNP would win the subsequent election. Probably by a similar majority to what they have now.
Genuine questions
Is Myokolo (sp?) still at the club or has he left?
What has happened to Darnell Fisher?
Agreed Kilbowie, Paul should red card him for that post. Absolutely disgusting, Hope its brought to Paul’s attention. He is a currant anyway and brings nothing to the site.
CHEATING or DESPERATION or CORRUPTION
AnOrangeCount @AnOrangeCount · 9h
Agreement reached tonight with @ScottishFA and @spfl on releasing future revenues to TRFC to help them fulfill fixtures this month and next.
HH
B2k
The devil will be in the detail and it is the lack of detail and consideration of alternative scenarios that makes it difficult to decide how a vote effects individuals personally. All else being equal in ‘hope for the future’ terms what will influence a decision is a presentation of that future as the only outcome as opposed to a number of possibilities.
As an example there is on Twitter a letter with Ministerial approval that guarantees that earned State pensions in payment will not be effected by Independence.
All well and good because it basically says if you contributed to your State pension during your working life you are guaranteed to receive it.
Now leaving aside the issue of what device is used to reflect national cost of living increases after Indy ie is it the cost of living in Scotland or England that applies what if Scotland does not or cannot keep the £ ?
Let’s have a scenario where Scotland elects for the bawbee and on new currency day £1 =b1′
Your state pension (for ease of demonstration) is £100pa.
You get £100 a week worth of bawbees i.e b100 as long as there is parity.
Say the bawbee value drops to £1=.80b so instead of b100 you get b80?
Alternatively it goes the other way and £1=b1 .2. so you get b120 pw.
That is the gamble that may unfold but the presentation has been no gamble (as long as the currency stays the same) .
Folk’s eyes often glaze over when you go into detail but they should really pay attention before making a decision.
Tim Tanium
18:43 on
3 September, 2014
Mouyokolo was released this summer, Fisher is still at the club, just not getting a game under RD.
Myokokolo was released at end of last season, Fisher is still listed, I asked the same question as to whether he is injured or not a couple of days ago but got no reply.
Bada Bing.
Get in touch.
Mind you, that Nicola Sturgeon, she no easy on the eye, jist saying like.
BigYinMilan
And there you have the reason for our lack of balance in the team.
Then we lose Scott Brown, James Forrest and Adam Matthews to injury.
Too many left footers in this Celtic team.
Are Scepovic and Guidetti lefties?
Is this a pre requisite for signing them?
Someone take Ronny aside and explain to him what we meant by..
“just sign left fitters and ye’ll be fine son.”
An aggregation of left fitters – love that :o)
HH
THE EXILED TIM
18:44 on 3 September, 2014
CHEATING or DESPERATION or CORRUPTION
—–
All three
LEFT FOOTERS
Bigyinmilan do you think that might be why we look like we are running around in circles like let footed fish ?
Imran Ahmed and Mrs Ahmed want their £600k looks like the creditors are pittin their shants AGAIN ;)
Who’s the other club in history that have had Admin then Liquidation followed by Admin !!
yer right no not one and there never shall be one !!!!
leftclicktic
Aye, sure is >}
No looking great for them is it >}}}}}}}}
HH
Everybody using ole BMCUW’s keyboard?
BigYinMilan: Naw, usually it’s hard finding decent left-footed players …
Corkcelt
Fisher is still injured.
Team v Villareal tonight
Celtic Football Club @celticfc 4m
Celtic: Zaluska; Breslin, Twardzik, Izaguirre, Tierney; Lindsay, Kayal; Thomson, Berget, Boerrigter; Griffiths
Sheridan and Galloway a couple of chancers
embramike: Who’s in charge of the team Kennedy or Collins?