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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Nice one Phil, ” find the administrator ” quality.
BT
Good news mate and get well soon!
All you need to remember is no alcohol for the next 6 months and you’ll be fine!
blantyretim
Good news mate .
Philbhoy
next 6 hours maybe…..8)
philbhoy
No alcohol for 6 months , are you trying to scupper this mans recovery :-))
Mike Ashley could reference his own business interests and the recent Sevco history in exercising the naming rights:-
I’d suggest The Sports Indirect Payments Stadium
blantyretim is praying for the Knox family
12:27 on 4 September, 2014
Thanks for the best wishes bhoys
out of surgery and in recovery ward…more opiates on the wsy…
only metal plates remaining are the ones in my neck…
hail hail…
—————————————
Good to hear. Wish you a speedy recovery.
Hail hail!
BT
Well done on surviving the knife.
Do you like green grapes or them funny coloured ones?
Somebody mentioned bottling Scottish tap water & selling it to the export market as Highland natural spring water.
Jimmy Logan did exactly that over 40 years ago.
It’s amazing that some people thought he was a comedian.
BT
Great news, fly along to the Horse & Barge. You will make a fortune if you have any to sell.:))
setting free the bears for Res. 12 & Oscar Knox but saying no to CQN racists
12:26 on
4 September, 2014
TD
The Sons of Paradise, according to the ever-reliable Google, are a Reggae Band from North Carolina.
I am sure that you will join with me in rejoicing the fact that, a mere 150 years after the end of the American Civil War, a reggae band can flourish in North Carolina, to the extent that they can market t-shirts.
I am less sure about the state of evolution of reggae music in South Carolina, the heart of the secession movement.
Maybe, local correspondents such as RWE can inform us. :-)
——
Hail Hail to reggae, freedom and progress.
Even/esp in the south!
There’s hope…….
HH jamesgang
SFTB
I have my doubts that is the sons of paradise I was looking for.
Blantyretim
y’on plates in your neck are bolts mhate!
you’ve missed a stonking day.
MWD has been unmasked as actually being Ruth Davidson. who’d have thunk!
Ernie it transpires is Patrick Harvie
TD’s joined the Green Brigade
And Jobo is Carol Kirkwood…
Now for these opiates…….
HH jamesgang
Blantyretim
Didn’t know you where in the doc.hope all goes well and a speedy recovery mate.
sydneytim
10:02 on 4 September, 2014
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
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Bit premature with the condemnation there, Bhoy ……… Hahahahahahaha
Tramadol for starters bhoys
Jamesgang
I don’t join groups, I’m a born leader ;)
Bottled water! Some of it is quite nice (San Pellegrino, for example), but most of it is marketing. I remember talking to an expert on the environment, who said (not completely seriously) “We should try to put people off it by telling them it’s full of greenhouse gases”.
BT
Good stuff mate
Immobile for a few weeks then
If you put any more beef on I can lend some of my clobber that’s too big for me
Aaahhhaahhaaa :-)))
TD
“I have my doubts that is the sons of paradise I was looking for.”
You not a fan of reggae music, then?
jamesgang
12:39 on 4 September, 2014
Blantyretim
y’on plates in your neck are bolts mhate!
you’ve missed a stonking day.
MWD has been unmasked as actually being Ruth Davidson. who’d have thunk!
Ernie it transpires is Patrick Harvie
TD’s joined the Green Brigade
And Jobo is Carol Kirkwood…
Now for these opiates…….
HH jamesgang
————————————————-
:-)))
BT
All the best Pal – good to hear you are on the mend!
BT
follow the tramadol with solpadol and some declafenic.
Give me a call afterwards
Ruth Davidson says AYE
http://moonbeamswd.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/victims-no-more/
TD
metalwork removal from right knee. Should be ok to gate crash pensioners do this year again…
jamesgang
ruth has a slighty smaller ass than ole mwd….
Jamesgang
Sounds as if you’ve had plenty already
BT
Look on the bright side, you’re spelling normally improves when under prescriptive medication.
Tramadol, cocodamol, lager, cider, whiskey yada yada yada.
All the best son!!
SFTB @ 12 26 .
The Sons of Paradise .
A reggae band ? .
I assume there is no Trade Descriptions Act in Carolina
setting free the bears for Res. 12 & Oscar Knox but saying no to CQN racists
12:43 on 4 September, 2014
TD
“I have my doubts that is the sons of paradise I was looking for.”
You not a fan of reggae music, then?
———————————————————
I don’t like reggae, no…I love it
MWD ;-)
TD ;-)
Aff oot
Peace has descended here. My work is done.
QuitWhileYou’reAheadCSC
Bottle of Malvern anybody!?!?!
HH jamesgang
Pf
lost that pick of you and an big d, little and large show..
Although u wher slighty more funny…
mwd
will do buddy
BT ref MWD touche!
Ouch!!!!!!
PMSL!
HH jamesgang
BT
And more pissed:-))
new article posted.
Ok this will probably not go down well…
I’m sick of dancing on the Hunco grave.
I actually sympathise with genuine Rangers fans now. Not the No brain Catholic hating fraternity but your normal supporter who was born on the wrong side.
Imagine we were about to lose Celtic for a second time?
blantyretim is praying for the Knox family
You’ll be back on your feet before you know it.
All the best.
HT
thanks da, do me a favour and phone the oldtart, been ill for a few days, tell him to grt the gp out…
BT
I see those drugs are working.
Ruth is a bigger ass than I could ever hope to have.
Ruth Davidson says AYE
‘Saint James The Apostle’s Park’………… Think they’ll go for that?
Good stuff BT.
Take good care pal……..
Regards & Hail Hail
TBM