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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Guidetti the Swede in the No.7 Jersey scoreing goals the magnificent Seven theme tune playing in the background whats not to like. H.H.
PAUL67
I agree with your assessment about coming out stronger for a change-assuming Guidetti signs,of course.
No-one knows,of course,how the signings will pan out. But one thing for sure-the loanees have a point to prove,which must be to our benefit.
That’s my happyclapping done.
In my usual role,they should,IMO,have been in place in time to make a difference to the most important part of our season!
Now,off to the bar-I seem to have spilled some of that last pint. Bloody half-empty already…
martim1980
Brown is at his best on the right of a midfield three for me.
FIELDOFDRAMS 1227
Schadenfreude,I believe.
j77
12:40 on
3 September, 2014
He would have to have been released before the window closed. If they do it now he can’t be registered until January.
.
J77..
City want 2.5 Million..
Summa
j77. I thought that would be a good idea but as pointed out if he was a free agent he might be snapped up by a club that can pay more than us.H.H.
ernie lynch
Thanks for the reply, still none the wiser.
Born 67
weeminger
12:46 on 3 September, 2014
How could that Square with eu employment law. You’d be denying someone the opportunity to work
Canajunbhoy
Great effort over the years – we have all benefited from your dedication to the site over the years. Thank you.
Is this a case of SFA interpretation of rules again?
If the FA in England are somehow verifying transfers hours after the window then what are those circumstances?
I gather this is down to one registration doc missing which would have had Guidetti as still at Stoke?
Where the EFA able to say players have effectively signed for new clubs but then verify paperwork later?
Yes the Sky and BT deal for scottish football is sickening. I don’t see the current deals in England as a bubble. In fact the money will only go up as more and more people world wide start to tune into the EPL.
The population is due to increase by 1 billion in next ten years. Today it has increased by over 100,000. The bubble will only expand world wide in our lifetime.
The only threat I can see to Sky/BT etc is piracy.
Look at the music industry – it’s barely worth top artists recording an album anymore (not xfactor etc). Books are under increasing pressure as they take a digital format. If you were to search for book files in a MOBI format on Pirate bay. you will easily attain a lifetime of books worth tens of thousands within an hour, loadable onto a kindle. same with any software you care to mention.
If Wiziwig, Cricfree etc increased their bandwidth and quality of their streams, this will put exceptional pressure on the multinationals. And the quality has increased immensely in the last 5 years.
I hope a tipping point is reached in next few years
kdc
12:48 on
3 September, 2014
No it wouldn’t. He could sign, train and be paid. He just wouldn’t be allowed to play in competitive games until registered.
weeminger
I see, thanks! Thought it was too simple.
Why is it that we have to get verification of Guidetti’s loan transfer due to the timing of the forms being submitted 15 mins after the deadline when the PL in England can sanction Cleverly’s loan transfer to Aston Villa when the forms were submitted some 2 hours late. Also we can’t sign him as a free agent (if Man City were to release him from his contract) until the January transfer window. I can understand Fifa’s involvment due to the Europa League but not for the Scottish League games as he is now not able to participate in Europe due to the SFA not being insistent in getting a rapid decision fro Fifa. Yet again Celtic are disadvantaged by the governing body……. surprise surprise
Canajun – tammy tipped in your direction, thanks for your contribution and look forward to you posting more.
HH
Can anyone explain the rule about loan players please?
My impression is that you are allowed four. Is that four in the squad or four in the team at any one time?
If Guidetti comes, that would be five. Would / can we send Berget back to Cardiff if we need to ditch one to accomodate the big guy?
With 1 billion,86 million catholics in the world, maybe we should be marketing our catholicism more.
While we did some useful business, eventually, in the transfer window by adding to our potential firepower, we have not addressed our other main weakness which is in defence and is personified in the current (?) form, and positional awareness of Izzie and the basic quality of Ambrose as a reliable defender. Other managers are already exploiting this and it was fairly obvious, last weekend, for example, what any even half-useful winger can do up against our left back, no matter how good Ronnie Deila may prove to be as a tactical manager. We do not have much cover here. With Ambrose, while there will be many situations where he will show some skill, his lapses are too costly for him to be reliable at the top level.
Canajunbhoy
Thank you for your efforts and enjoy putting yer feet up :))))
BSR
Both of those could happen on the same day.
Which would be nice! :)
Coolmore Mafia
12:53 on
3 September, 2014
Who are you referring to when you say ‘our’?
GARYGILLESPIESHAMSTRING ..as I understand it there is no limit on foreign players the 4 limit applies to Scottish players no doubt some one will keep us right. H.H.
Hello all!
Long time reader, first time poster.
Testing.
Bhoylo & jfh.
If he gets fit and rattles them in I’ll be his no. 1 fan :)
I’m just not building it all up for a fall.
Dear reader. Welcome.H.H.
Coolmore Mafia
12:53 on
3 September, 2014
With 1 billion,86 million catholics in the world, maybe we should be marketing our catholicism more.
—————————
catholicism or Catholicism..?
If the latter aren’t we about 120 years beyond that?
DD
Positive thinking
joe fillipi
thanks.
Dear reader
Welcome to the madhouse. Hail Hail
Geordie Munro. I understand fella. H.H.
.
CanajunBhoy
Very well done for All they Years You gave Service and Posted overnight Celtic News..
Your Name should be mentioned a lot more on here..IMHO..
Happy retirement..
Summa
Dear reader are you well you know yourself?
Dear Reader,
for your information this is a Celtic website, although you’d be forgiven for thinking its an Independence debate website… :-)
Either way , welcome.
So we won’t be doing a deal with KC then…?! Smashing!
T4
Welcome,Dear Reader.
Obvious question wi that moniker.
Are you a hack?!
Welcome Dear reader,
Have you ever been part of the incrowd, are you in the clique and finally do you aspire to membership of the clique.
Do you have any aspirations in Politics ?
HH to you.
dear reader
Welcome.
Are you…
…John Guidetti?
HH!!