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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Anniesland
on route to the jubilee
I’ on the train to Queen St. Very quiet today
Weet weet weet @ 06:25
Guid yin that deserves another guid yin….
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8R-M4Ov8M3Eo
Morning all!
Off topic, but would like to congratulate Westside football club on their league win last night in the Lewis and Harris league.
The entire league season unbeaten, highest GD ratio and a trio of cup wins is remarkable return for the debut managerial season of ex player Murchaidh MacDonald.
Although it is slightly indulgent to use this forum ( westside quick news must of crashed after the league win) it is , tenuously, linked as Murchaidh is a lifelong Celt, ST holder and long time lurker on CQN.
Well done!!
HH
Good morning friends from a very bright, dry and cheereful looking East Kilbride.
National Cycle to Work Day – wish me luck!
Sports Direct Arena or Ipox park or a Pair o white sports socks ????
Either way TWO FURRA POUN
TWO FURRA POUN !!
Happy Thursday and have a good day Hail Hail !!
Watch the media spin A name doesn’t matter it will forever be known as Ipox ;)
The Zombiedome is nicer Dontcha think lol !
Ashley Direct Sport Arena
or ASDA for short!
Ashley Sport Direct Arena
or ASDA for short
Doh!
£1brox
HH
Sheriff Fatman
06:59 on
4 September, 2014
Fair play and well done Westside.
But who won the Jock Stein Cup?
HH
Jobo
lucky you re located to ek…
BT
All the best today son, take care.
Cheers HT.
ill be flying soon, different type than bada bing though.8)
Wouldn’t it be great if the Huns pissed off Mike Ashly and he chose to take up his option on naming right’s. the you’re fecked areana
Brings a new meaning about going to poundland I guess
Praecepta, from last night, photo opportunity? What’s happening on Saturday?
WeeFra, sorry mhate, shut down the iPad after the last post and went to bed, but I’m good.
Hectic, but good.
neil lennon & mccartney
07:05 on 4 September, 2014
Shoorely not, as ASDA is Green and White!
:-)
Morning all. Dreich down here at the moment. Forecast is for improvement. I didn’t see our game last night but I take it there is a great deal of room for improvement.
Imo, there has been a great deal of improvement in the debate over the last couple of days. Could that be because the SNP aren’t allowing the rabble rouser (my Dad’s description) to get on the airwaves?
Sheriff Fatman
06:59 on
4 September, 2014
Teuchters parTICularly welcome.
Slainthe.
Pcs
it was a young squad playing, also had izzy and young philip tzwardek(sp) in central defence…
No wonder Ashley has not exercised or publicised his naming rights, he does not want to be associated with such utter failure.
Dig oot the adult nappies for Friday:
Former Rangers director Imran Ahmad makes third bid to freeze club assets
Former Rangers commercial director Imran Ahmad has returned to court for a third time in a bid to have £620,000 of club assets frozen.
Lawyers acting for Mr Ahmad claim he is owed a £500,000 bonus for the time he spent working at the Ibrox club.
The Court of Session in Edinburgh heard Mr Ahmad is worried about the potential prospect of Rangers becoming insolvent.
Lord Stewart continued the case to Friday when lawyers for Rangers will address the court.
Mr Ahmad, who has twice lost court bids to have Rangers’ assets ring-fenced, claims he is owed £500,000 for negotiating deals and wants another £120,000 to cover legal expenses.
Advocate Kenny McBrearty QC told Lord Stewart that Mr Ahmad is concerned about the current state of the club’s finances and fears Rangers would not be in a position to pay up if the court eventually rules in his favour.
He told the court Rangers have sold 23,000 season tickets this season, down 15,000 on last season.
Mr McBrearty said the Rangers board’s latest plans for a share issue may only raise £3.6m and cover part of the club’s obligations.
He added: “There is a significant hole in the club’s finances for the forthcoming season.”
BT
Hope all goes well today Bhud
Hail Hail
goldstar10
08:12 on 4 September, 2014
No wonder Ashley has not exercised or publicised his naming rights, he does not want to be associated with such utter failure.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He should be well used to that at newcastle!
Just waiting to get knocked oot ma nut cowiebhoy…..
thanks.
Later bhoys
źzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
BT, good luck.
Hope all goes well today.
And the game was live on west side tv
Sheriff Fatman
06:59 on
4 September, 2014
Morning all!
Off topic, but would like to congratulate Westside football club on their league win last night in the Lewis and Harris league.
The entire league season unbeaten, highest GD ratio and a trio of cup wins is remarkable return for the debut managerial season of ex player Murchaidh MacDonald.
Although it is slightly indulgent to use this forum ( westside quick news must of crashed after the league win) it is , tenuously, linked as Murchaidh is a lifelong Celt, ST holder and long time lurker on CQN.
Well done!!
HH
JohnBhoy
02:10 on 4 September, 2014
I came on here to laugh at Rangers but was quickly enraged by the sneering tone of those St Stivs comments about Jim Murphy MP. I’m not going to turn this into a political argument, just set out the facts, which I know well, due to the fact my daughter was in the Clutha at the time of the crash and spoke to Jim Murphy outside (she knew him from a school event years earlier).
Jim was walking by the Clutha moments after the crash (I think he may have been in the Scotia across the road), saw the commotion and went over to see what was happening. Folk on the right-hand side of the pub who had been watching the band walked out of the right-hand door relatively unscathed through a cloud of dust. This, thankfully, included my daughter.
All the destruction and, tragically, death and injuries, were at the left-hand side. Men there did indeed form a human chain to try to get inside and pull people out. The scenes inside were, I’m told, horrific. My daughter and other women were shooed away by the men who were there.
Due to my daughter’s involvement, I took a great interest in the TV and newspaper coverage. I saw the Jim Murphy interview many times. I don’t know if he spoke once or twice at the scene but it wasn’t more than that, I’m sure.
Frankly, he looked in a state of shock. He tried to describe what was happening. He made it clear there were people doing a lot more than him at that left-hand door.
At one point the interviewer said: “There’s blood on your shirt.” Jim stared ahead and mumbled: “It’s not mine.” I thought he was going to break down but he held on.
He paid tribute to those helping and to the people of Glasgow. At no time did he suggest he had been in the Clutha or had done anything heroic.
His words from the BBC interview then appeared verbatim in numerous newspaper reports, as they had been relayed by news agencies at the time.
My daughter recalls Jim being genuinely concerned at the scene but, then again, everyone was in a state of shock, unable to quite comprehend what had happened.
Given how shaken he looked in that interview, I’d hazard a guess that Jim maybe saw some things he’d rather not have seen.
But, and this is important, Jim Murphy did not appear on ANY media outlets the next day. And I am absolutely certain he would have been inundated with requests from TV, radio and newspapers. This, I’m told by another friend who knows him, was by deliberate choice.
It’s a shame that the seeping of poison into the current political debate has led to this shameful attempt to question the actions of a decent man at one of our city’s biggest tragedies.
He just happened to be there, not by choice. He did what he could.
And when a TV camera was shoved in his face he spoke, still in a state of shock, with a great deal of humility and honesty.
Then he went home to his family and stayed out of the limelight of what was a still-massive story worldwide.
Those are the facts.
—————————————————————-
Good post.
Two friend of mine were in the Clutha that night (husband and wife). They were in the “wrong” part of the pub and one of them suffered serious injuries (still recovering). Their friends who were at the same table were not so lucky. But for the Grace of God etc….My friends (Yes voters BTW!) both speak very highly of Jim Murphy’s actions that night – and the actions of all those desperately trying to get people out. Like Jim Murphy, they were contacted by many newspapers etc. looking for a story – but refused to talk to them out of respect for those who were lost. Jim Murphy made no attempt to make political capital out of that tragedy. That something they both agree with me about. Not everyone is so cynical.
Awe naw alls not well in Sevconia the peepul are threatening to walk again it’s looking like another ….
Zombie Nation Mobilization ;)
Can we help them with a new stadium name mmmm let’s see ?
Ashley’s Rabid Secterian Emporium Statium !!!
ARSES for short !!!! £1 well worth it !!
JohnBoy 02.10 and NatKnow 08.36.
Excellent posts – thanks. A shame that you had to respond to people who traduced the man’s reputaton without knowing a single fact in the case.
Neil Lennon & McCartney
04:06 on 4 September, 2014
Snake Plissken
15:48 on
3 September, 2014
http://www.oilandgaspeople.com/news/1039/scottish-west-coast-untapped-oil-and-gas-reserves-worth-trillions/
Might be worth consideration by those undecided.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No “might” about it – this is a major reason to vote YES.
Many thanks to SP for posting the link.
=====
OK FACTS not supposition. There is oil off the Atlantic coast of Scotland we know this just as we know there are oil reserves off the West coast of Ireland. Now for those unfamiliar with the oil industry know there are huge challenges exploiting oil reserves from deep hostile waters, anyone familiar with the industry will know of the challenges and costs BP faced developing and maintaining the Schiehallion field West of Shetland. The floating production vessel has to be decommissioned and will be replaced at huge expense after only 10 years in service due to wear and damage caused by the harsh environmental conditions. At the moment exploration and development costs render most of deep water Atlantic fields economically unviable especially given the volatile nature of oil prices. Will this change in the future? The great unknown if there is a demand for the oil coupled with a high sustainable price per BBL along with technological advances to allow exploitation at reasonable costs perhaps there may be a mini oil boom off the west coast. But there are too many variables to confidently predict either way. However one thing that should be remembered, should anyone decided to exploit any of the West coast fields they will demand huge tax concessions for doing so. Note: the UK only benefits from the taxation of profits derived from oil production unlike Norway where the majority of the fields are majority owned and maintained by STATOIL the Norwegian state oil company and thereby the majority of profit goes to the Norwegian exchequer unlike the UK where all the post tax profit goes to the multinationals, this situation will not change regardless of the result of the divorce vote. It is also worth remembering that tax revenue derived from the UK oil industry has exponentially shrunk over the last decade in line with a major decline in output, this is expected to continue. Ask BP, Shell etc why they are so keen to divest themselves of their North Sea assets?
Don’t believe the hype
Good luck BT…
BT,
Thanks for your earlier response about our team. Are you in hospital? If so, all the best.
Nigeria will be suspended from world football on Monday at 07:00 GMT if Chris Giwa does not give up his claim to be football federation president.
If the ban comes into force on Monday it means the African champions would not be able to play their Africa Cup of Nations qualifier on 10 September in South Africa.
Might give oor Efe a break that many on CQN say he needs?
I have to say one the biggest arguments against a Yes vote are the Nationalists who post on here.
Some really dreadful stuff on the blog these last few days.
There’s only one John Guidetti
He sticks the ball in the nettie
He’s Swee-eee-dish
We hope he’s no’ pish
Walking in a Guidetti wonderland
Masterpiece – now off to right a piano concerto in honour of Mo “Bang Bang” Bangura…
B.T.
Good luck.
Haven`t quite figured why you need it,but good luck anyway.