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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leftclicktic – Worthington Group are the ones who have the rights to challenge ownership of the midden. Our other hero sold those rights to them, they will be doing the litigation. Although they will be smart enough to wait until admin 2 arrives then fire their claim in preventing the administrator doing his stuff until it is resolved.
Woman in Leeds City centre does everything but take a magnifying glass to my Bank of Scotland fiver.
BSR says YES
LiviBhoy
10:01 on 4 September, 2014
‘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!’
####
I think it’s because we have soft water and they southern English poofs have hard water.
Perverse, isn’t it?
LEFTCLICKTIC
Howdy,bud!
Was Craig Whyte not involved in Worthington?
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.
——–
I’ve seen some contrived arguments not to vote YES.
However IMO admitting in public that you have allowed yourself to be so persuaded on the basis of random bampottery on a Celtic blog -while still giving the impression you AFTER ALL THIS TIME STILL can’t tell the difference between YES Scotland and the SNP – takes the biscuit.
I really despair sometimes.
ernie lynch, typical of your kind. Pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about.
BTW are you talking to your brother yet? Must have been hard to find out he was having an affair with your wife.
bournesouprecipe
10:07 on 4 September, 2014
‘Woman in Leeds City centre does everything but take a magnifying glass to my Bank of Scotland fiver.’
###
You maybe want to clarify the nature of this transaction.
That’s how rumours start.
SQUIRE DANAHER
Personally,I might be persuaded by someone implying I was thick. I’m sure that wasn’t your intention though.
Bsr,
Hold every coin in your change up to the light and peer through it.
And then watch their face :))
ERNIE LYNCH 1009
Ouch.
That made me smile. Especially wrt the magnifying glass!
BSR
i lived in london for a couple of years.
used to get my 5 a day(fruit not guinness Bobby!) from a stall outside embankment station.
really nice london guy owned it….one day lady in front of me offers him a jock fiver and apologises to him…..he grins and quick as a flash
‘all right darrrrling…there’s a bloke right behind you who’ll take it…..’
HH jamesgang
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS
10:06 on 4 September, 2014
At one time soft water was thought to be partly responsible for the poor health of Glaswegians. I don’t hear so much of that now, so maybe the ideas been discounted.
RogueLeader
Thank you.
I sensed oooor hero in the tweets ,
I read a long time somewhere think it was ecobhoy on RTC that if you keep in mind all the way through the saga the Green and Whyte are somehow in this together somewhere, it all makes a little more sense.:)))))
Till later all
Ernie
Your bum squeak is getting louder by the day! :-)
MWD says AYE
moonbeams.wordpress.com
I read somewhere that hard water is better for you.
Maybe for young children with all the calcium in it or whatever.
BMCUW
What italiabhoy votes is his own business.
I make no effort to persuade him
I would like his process to have been more rigorous than disagreeing with internet bampottery.
bournesouprecipe
10:07 on 4 September, 2014
Woman in Leeds City centre does everything but take a magnifying glass to my Bank of Scotland fiver.
BSR says YES
—————————————
Ye think it was the note, or yourself she was suspicious of? ;-)))
Guys, ironically, and for the avoidance of doubt I was in Poundland.
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS
Morning bud
Hope all is well and hope to catch up soon.
Morning Bhoys it is good to see Guidetti saying if he has to he will wait until Januarys transfer window to join Celtic The bhoys keen. Now I see Ibrokes has a new name poundland. H.H. :-)
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS
10:06 on 4 September, 2014
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.
——————————————————————
When I lived in Surrey I had the same problem. Boiling vinegar in the kettle gets rid of it….if you’re into vinegary tasting tea.
Now I live in London, and the water is just rank full stop (I also have a posh kettle that filters the water).
See now, isn’t kettle and hard water chat much more interesting than the referendum?
Great job Ernie. just keep alienating everyone and ensuring they turn to the YES campaign.
Could you not consider door canvassing or public speeches? Just think of the impact!
ernie lynch
10:12 on
4 September, 2014
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS
10:06 on 4 September, 2014
At one time soft water was thought to be partly responsible for the poor health of Glaswegians. I don’t hear so much of that now, so maybe the ideas been discounted.
===============================
It was the lead pipes it came in that caused the damage.
bournesouprecipe
10:15 on 4 September, 2014
Guys, ironically, and for the avoidance of doubt I was in Poundland.
———————————————————-
Pundland? Maybe she never seen such a large denomination note! I hope you explained denominatino to her? :-)
BIG-CUP-WINNERS
10:18 on 4 September, 2014
Any more info on the MI5 guy?
The one with the wire?
bsr
so how many bigot-laden, asbestos-riddle stadia were you looking to purchase?
Blue bank note = 5 Ipoxes
Brown = 10 Ipoxes
Red note – it’s called a Whytie cos it’s almost certainly a fake!
HH jamesgang
ernie lynch
09:48 on 4 September, 2014
Down here where I now roam/plunder the canals in the midlands most of our water comes from Wales that’s why I have a strict regime of only drinking alcohol as you can never be too careful, saying that it can be a bit expensive brushing your teeth with 17 yr old Ardbeg whisky all the time.
Hypochondria CSC
Big cup winners,
Ernie is to the no campaign what billy 05 was to the yes.
They just don’t learn.
Bawsman
10:18 on 4 September, 2014
That was it.
The soft water was able to dissolve more of the lead.
I suppose if I hadn’t drunk so much lead I would have been able to remember that for myself.
Edit.
That’s actually unfair on bb05.
He’s learnt to zip it……or change his nick name :)
Frank Ryan’s Whiskey @ 09.27
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.
………………………………
But that’s not entirely accurate Frank, is it? Schiehallion has been off line for a while now and is being replaced with a brand new FPSO, the Quad 204. Also, BP while having sold off assets to other operators will still have a major presence in the north sea via the Andrew (including the new AAD), Bruce, Clair, ETAP, Magnus assets. They also maintain the Miller as a non operational asset.
I’ve not done any work for Shell for years but your statement on BP and especially Schiehallion is way wide of the mark.
Two things about the Ibrox naming rights:
1) along with the ‘secret’ share options, it’s yet another thing that has been hidden for several months. What else is there?
2) the fact that it’s come out now, is a last gasp, desperate cry for help. They are essentially saying “we have nothing else we can sell quickly to generate working capital, please, please, please take up your share options”.
They’re sunk.
They can take our freedom, but they’ll hesitate with our fivers.
squeak squeak squaek
MWD says AYE
http://moonbeamswd.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/victims-no-more/
A 45 year old has been arrested and charged over an incident last week in which Jim Murphy was hit by an egg..
BBC News
weeminger @10.25
I’d buy Coisty for the day. My garden fence needs to be painted!
HH Jamesgang
Ernie Lynch
This is a genuine question and please believe I am not taking the Mickey.
You seemingly have a view on literally every single topic or subject which appears on this blog.
Ever thought of having your own blog?? Seriously??
weeminger. Are you buying some of the shares ? Do you think they are a good investment ? H.H.:- )