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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I realise that this might be a spectacularly unfashionable view in the blog but politicians are people too, well most of them are!
Many constituency MPs and MSPs work really hard to help those in their communities. And Ministers work hellish hours with huge responsibility for a fraction of what’s paid to their private sector equivalents and (ironically) senior civil servants.
Most of the ones I’ve dealt with – from almost every party – became involved for the right reasons.
I’m not on the same side as Jim Murphy in the current debate. Nor on several other issues. But the guy on tv looked to me like a Glasgow guy on tv who’d just been dragged into a scene of horrific mayhem.
End of…
And if it’s a ‘yes’ vote we’ll need the likes of him to be involved in scottish political life. Douglas ‘I make Milliband look like an Alpha Male’ Alexander – less so!
HH jamesgang
oops – right = write
And I am not Jim Murphy!
HH jamesgang
tim malone will tell
08:59 on 4 September, 2014
….alternatively (trad version)
There’s only one John Guidetti
He sticks the ball in the nettie
He’s Swedisheese
He scores with ease
Walking in a Guidetti wonderland
I like yours too, though – never saw a song lyric before that has a rhyming couplet ending with the word ‘pish’ – pretty innovative. :-))))
HH
BGFC
bawsman
08:15 on 4 September, 2014
If ever there was a company, club, entity that needed their assets frozen, it’s sevco …….. If any other decision is taken by the Court today, then we know ‘the score’ …..incidentally, did anyone hear the news on Radio Scotland this morning…….ipox naming rights being sold for £1 to Sports Direct …!!!!!!!??
Not that long ago Jim Murphy and I could have been described as friends. We sat beside each other at Celtic Park and had been political students activist that overlapped.
He was and is a career politician. I wouldn’t trust him politically one iota. He has gone from being a supporter of the PLO to a strong champion of Israel. He has gone from being a supporter of CND to being a champion of nukes on the Clyde.
On the night of the Clutha tragedy he did what he did through instinct and decent humanity. I do not believe that he in anyway tried to make political capital out of that night. He was unfortunate to be passing there that night but did the right thing in trying to help and then getting out of the way when the experts arrived. I hope any of us would have done the same.
BT, good luck today pal. Keep yer hauns aff the nurses though once that rubber juice kicks in.
HH
Delighted we’ve finally sorted out our player recruitment strategy. No more blinkin projects. Brave new world consists of:
1. Look for a guy whose name sounds like Cadette so the fans can resurrect an old fave tune.
2. Even better if it also sounds kinda italian with attendant coolio/mildly menacing connotations for the hard of thinking.
3. Seek a guy who grew up playing in bare feet in case Anto or Griffo pawn his boots in the barras.
4. End of contract please. Practically a bosman preferred.
5. Recent injury or illness. See 4.
6. Swedish cos they’re good at fitba.
And finally…..
7. Ensure the signing process is a convoluted drama of epic proportions so that the fans feel that even getting him on the field versus Morton in a cup game is evidence of the power of PL’s UFH. Goals…..1 goal even will justify PL beatification while still alive.
GeniusCSC. Aff oot Timdom.
Wakey wakey Blantyretim, but not till they’re finished operating!
HH jamesgang
Frank Ryan’s Whiskey
08:48 on
4 September, 2014
Even as a Yes voter, I’d be taking the figures in that report with a huge pinch of salt. Even with modern surveying techniques the actual drills can come up with dust, or too much water, as happened with a company I have some money in who are based in New Zealand. Recent drill was supposed to hit the thickest part of a reservoir and triple size of field – based on seismic survey data. Hit too much water, field now estimated to be smaller.
If we get Yes, I’d be setting up a nationalised oil firm.
BT best of luck today.
Frank Ryan’s Whiskey
08:48 on 4 September, 2014
Ask BP, Shell etc why they are so keen to divest themselves of their North Sea assets?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No need to ask Frank, North Sea Reserves are in decline, along with revenues.
The article was not about the North Sea, as you well know.
Apologies if posted already
DUE to Celtic’s participation in the 2014/15 UEFA Europa League, a number of league fixtures have been moved to accommodate the Thursday night European football.
Celtic’s home game against Motherwell scheduled for Saturday, September 20, will now go ahead on Sunday, September 21 with a 3pm kick-off
Similarly the game at Celtic Park against Hamilton Accies due to take place on October 4, will now take place on Sunday, October 5 with a 3pm kick-off.
The Kilmarnock clash at Celtic Park scheduled for Saturday, October 25 will now kick-off at 3pm on Sunday, October 26.
The away tie against Aberdeen set for Saturday, November 8, will now take place at Pittodrie on Sunday, November 9 with the kick-off time to be confirmed.
And finally, Celtic’s home tie with St Mirren scheduled for Saturday, December 13, will now go ahead on Sunday, December 14 at 3pm.
non de ploom Was at the Westside game last night very emotional. My bhoy plays for them -No 11 Martainn – so you may know who I am. Thanks CQN for your indulgence. Hail Hail Hebcelt
Weeminger
A national oil company is exactly what’s needed.
Neil Lennon & McCartney
09:19 on 4 September, 2014
Frank Ryan’s Whiskey
08:48 on 4 September, 2014
Ask BP, Shell etc why they are so keen to divest themselves of their North Sea assets?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No need to ask Frank, North Sea Reserves are in decline, along with revenues.
The article was not about the North Sea, as you well know.
==
Neither was my post it was in the main concerned with West coast oil exploration. Question is still valid Why are the majors pulling out of the North Sea operations? FYI they include West coast operations in their North Sea portfolios – IE BP Schiehallion. How do i know this, well i am one of those guys who actually design and plan these wells.
Frank Ryan’s Whiskey
Our greatest natural resource is water.
The UK has already made a mess of the oil by allowing these companies to draw it out the ground. If new fields are discovered can we take control? I’m not up to speed but I do know that our water is around the best in the world and it is plentiful.
England draws it’s water from the ground in most cases and it is awful to drink.
There are regulalry droughts down South and hose pipe bans. Don;t think there were any this year but with the planet heating up we have a great asset in our possession our plentiful supply of fresh clear clean water. Pipe it down south and make a fortune. People can live without oil. Fresh water is one of the most important resources on the planet.
Just my input on natural resources for what it is worth.
LB
BT
Hope your day goes good!
Best wishes my friend!
“England draws it’s water from the ground in most cases and it is awful to drink”
Ever been to the Lake District? Peak District?
Broad brush no work.
Keeping The Faith
01:19 on 4 September, 2014
What would James Connolly vote ?
#########
He would vote no.
He never advocated Scottish ‘independence’.
He was never a member of any political organisation that advocated Scottish ‘independence’.
I miss Charles Green. I don’t think we appreciated him enough whilst we had him
Bawsman
Sure have. Stood at the water source for Manchester at the Lake District while on a school beano years ago.
I am talking the South. If the lake district and the peak district can supply the whole country then good luck to them. I read an article some years ago that it couldn;t. I will try and track it down.
LB
It’s a pity the name Poundland’s already taken.
Mind you it doesn’t stop you calling it that anyway.
If the nats are lying about something so peripheral to their campaign as Jim Murphy’s actions on the night of the Clutha disaster, what else are they lying about?
LiviBhoy
09:31 on 4 September, 2014
‘Our greatest natural resource is water.’
###
Oh dear.
That’s right up there with the sign I saw on the back of the lavvy door in a Welsh pub.
‘Flush twice, England needs the water.’
rogueleader
09:44 on 4 September, 2014
Did I hear right this morning on the RS news that greengo sold Ashley the naming rights for ipox ……. If he did, then we can assume greengo owns the deeds / assets ….!!!!????
ernie lynch, is that the same kind of lies that you and your Unionist chums are so fond of. Wasn’t that long ago you were spouting lies about Salmond having an affair, still waiting on you to substantiate that one.
Non de ploom @ 8.31
Yes, I should of mentioned that all the westside games are televised on livestream ( thanks to tech mobile in Stornoway)
Also, sadly, the Jock Stein cup was won by lochs (I think) one of the very few disapointments of the season
HH
HH
ItaliaBhoy
08:59 on
4 September, 2014
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.
===============================================
Totally agree with that………..I watched Jim Murphy being interviewed live at the time of the crash, I was moved by his obviously genuine distress.
No matter his politics, the words he spoke were as a common man caught up in a catastrophic and tragic event.
BT- Good luck with losing the plates today. You’ll have less problems going thru the ole airport scanners noo!!! :-)
eddieinkirkmichael
09:58 on 4 September, 2014
Salmond?
An Affair?
Well I never!
What have you heard?
ernie lynch
Just my thoughts mate. I wouldn’t drink a pint of water out the tap in London. The one thing I appreciate when I come back from anywhere is the ability to put the tap on at home and get a pint of water. Magic!
LB
Interesting conversations about independence and a dead club
More important for Celtic is making someone accountable for another transfer windows shambles ( squad not improved for CL qualifiers ) and to ensure that the corporate failures are not at the club for next transfer window
BT
Best of luck for your personality implant.
Don’t know why you need the good luck proferred by this illustrious site but every good Tim deserves luck in spades so here’s hoping.
HH Westside.
If Ronnie doesn’t work out Murchaidh is the Mhan.
The Nats.
What ARE they like?
##################
The Johnatron
08:43 on 3 September, 2014
‘On the Jim Murphy MP subject. Anyone see the footage of the so called Yes supporting egg-thrower? Probably. What you may not have seen are the pictures that show this man to have a “wire” behind his left ear. Strange is it not, for a member of the public to be wearing such a device? And is it also not strange that he was not followed / challenged by anyone, including Jims minder / security staff?
Why was this? Because he WAS one of Jims SECURITY STAFF. All staged for negative publicity for the YES campaign and YES supporters. Dirty tricks indeed.’
From elsewhere, much hilarity about the renaming of £1brox.
Apparently they are also renaming the Copland Stand as the 100pLand Stand, while the Broomloan Stand will be the CrisisLoan Stand.
Some lovely graphics going about too showing the five stars on the Rangers badge being replaced by five 20p pieces.
My, what a mess they’re in. And there’s much worse to come!
BT
Thoughts with you today sir, oooot yer nut at 10am :)))))))))
————-
RogueLeader
09:44 on 4 September, 2014
I miss Charles Green. I don’t think we appreciated him enough whilst we had him
——
Ohhhhhhhhh I appreciated him RL every second of him, his talking about the imaginary line in the sand for season ticket money While a zombie looked at the ground and applauded will live with me for a while :))))
that is only one of many and I have the feeling we will get some more one day.
RL any idea what David Low is hinting at with his Worthington group shares going through the roof?
eddie
livibhoy
save your contributions for those who deserve them!
HH jamesgang
LIVIBHOY
The water in Swindon is so heavy with chalk,I need to take a chisel to the kettle element every week. And it tastes bloody horrible.
So I don’t drink it much,of course!
But others do. And they all complain about it.