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 was down at the Castlemilk shops this AM, and saw at least three people with ear pieces with wires coming out of them, I presumed they where no voters, had to be right?
bournesouprecipe
I used to order a pint of Guinness in a quiet pub, then proffer Scottish fiver to the barman. Never been refused!
Five twenty pees above thur crest. Hilarious!
PS. Can any one change me 5 Aye Brokes furra fiver?
See the amount of Celtic fans with their own blog now?
You’d think your First Blog had become one of the Sacraments…
Frank Ryan’s Whiskey.
I meant to post this also.
http://www.oedigital.com/component/k2/item/3480-quad-204-takes-shape-subsea
HH
Not to worry davieO
that is my first and last.
squeak squeak
MWD says AYE
Moonbeams WD. Wee Oscar’s our Bhoy and Kano’s our mhan.
10:33 on 4 September, 2014
Not to worry davieO
that is my first and last.
squeak squeak
MWD says AYE
—————————————
Wasn’t a dig buddy – genuinely impressed by how many folk feel inspired to start a blog.
yorkbhoy
10:27 on
4 September, 2014
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
——–
Glad to hear it. I’m not into that malarkey. And I value eggs.
But…….
Anyone read about Robert the Bruce getting egged in 1308?
Or someone farting near Napoleon during the march on Moscow?
The Murphy Egg Moment will not be one of history’s bigger footnotes!
About as relevant as the ongoing compilation of a dossier about the crimes being committed by Islamic State so we can send them to the naughty corner!
HH jamesgang
Joe Filippis Haircut
10:29 on
4 September, 2014
Well I’m not am existing holder, so I can’t. If I was, I wouldn’t. The signs are there that some of tje major investors aren’t going to either, so I think the issue is doomed as it requires at least 75% uptake to go ahead.
jamesgang
…the naughty corner…
———————————-
That’s a good nickname for the Middle East ;)
Livi bhoy
A significant part of Southern England was flooded last year ….
See all you doddery old folk moaning about standing at the football?
Well maybe you wouldn’t be so old and doddery if you stood up a bit more.
######
‘How standing might be the best anti-ageing technique’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/11073662/How-standing-might-be-the-best-anti-ageing-technique.html
What’s with this Guidetti thing? How on earth can it take so long to make a decision? Is there a deadline day for decision making?
Sure brings a whole new meaning to, ‘Let me sleep on it’.
jamesgang
10:35 on 4 September, 2014
Hang on a minute.
Yesterday this was all an MI5 plot to discredit the nats.
Today it’s irrelevant.
Has there been a development I’ve missed?
….PFayr supports WeeOscar
10:37 on
4 September, 2014
Livi bhoy
A significant part of Southern England was flooded last year ….
——
aye and would you fancy drinking it?
SayNoToObstusePosts!CSC
Laters Timdon – aff oot!
HH jamesgang
Geordie Munro @ 10:23
Ain’t that the truth, unfortunately, changing your nickname doesn’t stop you from posting the same old nonsense.
Down here in England everybody checks the notes I pass across the counter regardless where the notes come from, probably a reaction to my appearance, I always hope they don’t hold on to my coins to long that I gave them in case the chocolate oozes out of them!
Forgery CSC
Ah -Billy Bhoy05 .
A man who was keenly anticipating getting rid of people who didnt adhere to the pie in the sky ( and just ignore the detail, it will all be fandabadozee on the night ) mantra ..
Augurs well.
ernie lynch
10:41 on
4 September, 2014
I know it doesn’t suit your agenda but all my Yes friends dismissed the ‘wired man’ as soon as the photos appeared. It was clearly a different person.
ernie
not from me it wasn’t!
i’m sure you’ll have that recorded on your cut and paste list!
SayNoToObstusePosts!IbidCSC
HH jamesgang
jamesgang
10:44 on 4 September, 2014
So you don’t think it was all an MI5 plot then?
What about the wires though?
WHAT ABOUT THE WIRES?
Guidetti named in MC squad…….
Martim @1042
Hoy!
This is my one and only name I spout the same old nonsense under.
weeminger
10:44 on 4 September, 2014
‘all my Yes friends’
###
Are ‘yes friends’ like facebook ‘friends’?
Morning all.
Italy v Holland friendly tonight.
Big Virgil likely to be on the bench.
Will watch it.
Hate international friendlies.
HH!!
ERNIE LYNCH
Dunno,but I reckon yes friends are better than no friends.
Jamesgang
Water purification …no ??
Obtuse …not my intention
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS
10:53 on 4 September, 2014
‘ERNIE LYNCH
Dunno,but I reckon yes friends are better than no friends.’
##
Especially if they are ladies. Fnwarr Fnwarr.
‘I’m just a girl who can’t say no’ as Joan McAlpine would say.
ERNIE LYNCH
Indeed!
An old line from Mash-just say yes,you’ll be surprised how many friends you make!
ernie
i never mentioned wires
or plots
or MI5
or indeed Will Smith or aliens or even Men in Black
someone did – wisnae me. was a bigger boy. he ran off. armed with EGGS!
armed with wires – not sure?
Learning point for you……
When you’re about to go into Ernie Dalek EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! mode make sure your wee bog brush laser zapper thingie is pointing at the appropriate poster!
I want no ‘blue on blue’ on here – in any sense!
Now i know that spats break out here a lot. so just so you know I’m typing this with a wry smile and I now want my breakfast not a square go.
Not sure what to eat, but quite confident that whatever it is you’ll soon tell me I was WRONG!!! to choose it!
;-)
HH jamesgang
Good luck BT
geordie munro
;-)
The Narrowbhoat Tim
10:42 on 4 September, 2014
Down here in England everybody checks the notes I pass across the counter regardless where the notes come from, probably a reaction to my appearance, I always hope they don’t hold on to my coins to long that I gave them in case the chocolate oozes out of them!
Forgery CSC
—————————————————-
:-))) {chuckle…}
….PFayr supports WeeOscar
10:53 on
4 September, 2014
Jamesgang
Water purification …no ??
Obtuse …not my intention
———
I apologise then. I’ll read it at face value, though I’ll confess it’s v hard for me not to see a large double dose of obtuseness in it!
So you suggest that when a large % of your landmass is suddenly hit with major flooding removing roads, bridges and topsoil as far as the tv news camera in the chopper can see….at that point the main aim and technically feasible option is to harness said water, purify it and start selling as Highland Spring……????….mmmm.
Breakfast time beckons.
HH jamesgang
ernie lynch
10:51 on
4 September, 2014
Sort of because I only have friends on facebook that I’m actually friends with. Still, I’m stung by your barb.
Obtuse? Means , no right in the heed, right?
Jamesgang
The suggestion was that England were short of water ….
My post was they’re not
As for the finance involved in setting up a water transfer system ……how long would it take to make any profit …or even break even
Money,money ,money and water .
Went to a wee shop in Sidi Ifni earlier —–purpose of visit – to purchase 20 litres of bottled water . .
Wee guy behind the counter tried the usual do you button up the back? gambit re the price . Having established that I didnt button up the back — he quoted a price in Dirhams , then Euros , then Sterling and finally Dollars .Best value ? ———– Dollars , then Sterling , then Euros and finally Dirhams . .
I paid in Dirhams ( @ £0.30 p a litre ) Wee guy was mightily miffed.