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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Delaneys Dunky
13:18 on
3 September, 2014
CM
A huge Christ the Redeemer statue on the Main stand roof would be cool.
..
DD..
Sammi has left.. You need to deal with it..lol
Summa of SammiTheRedeemerCSC
Tim Malone
don’t know for sure but the SPFL (?) statement referred to documents being “uploaded” so I doubt it very much.
HH
Tim Malone
I believe there is a central UEFA system to upload the details. I suspect some ‘attachments’ like confirmation from Man City that his Stoke affair is over needs to be added but any automated system nowadays has that.
Summa
Haha, is your moniker linked to Aquinas?
Tim Tanium
13:33 on 3 September, 2014
We are a nation at the moment. We are not a state.
‘On only 2 occassions since WW2 have the votes in Scotland effected the outcome of the UK elections’
With respect I think you’ve misunderstood that point. On only two occasions since the end of the war have Labour governments required their Scottish contingent to gain power.
For the most part since the war when England voted Labour Scotland voted Labour and when Scotland voted Tory England voted Tory.
Incidentally your point, albeit wrongly presented, contradicts the view expressed by some nats on here that Labour only wants to hang on to Scotland because it needs the votes to get a Westminster majority.
.
Jinks..
Re; WBAQN AKA Sammi Brummie News..
Aye..and l don’t get Ignored..In fact they All Like me..and Sammi..Early days lol..
Ps..Got sent a Photo of Jinks on a European Excursion will send it Post haste..
001Bhoy
Summa of Sammi….
13:47 on 3 September, 2014
:))))))))))
Dear Reader is an alternative/pop band fromJohannesburg, South Africa. The band was founded in 2006 by singer-songwriter Cherilyn MacNeil and producer/bass player, Darryl Torr. Dear Reader is now the solo project of Cherilyn MacNeil.
Don’t see anything untoward in there, and as an anagram its dear reader too..
So he might be a
Ayrshire is Green and
Snake
Let’s not
If you believe it get your cash on at the bookies…they’re offering 5/2 …fill yer boots
There’s a guy works down the Sushi Bar swears he’s Elvis.
That’s Modern Scotland for you.
..
Delaneys Dunky
13:51 on
3 September, 2014
Summa
Haha, is your moniker linked to Aquinas?
..
No..I’m Not that Sharp..
l Do Preach at times tho..;=)
Summa
TLWIO and Big Wavy,
Cheers for the replies. Mind you, I suspect that at the SFA they are still waiting for the carrier pigeon to return from Zurich….
Congrats to canajun bhoy on his retirement.
Is he retiring from CQN though?
I wonder if Sean Connery still hangs about with David Murray?
.pfayr supports weeoscar
13:44 on 3 September, 2014
MickTT
How big ??
Taller than you….smaller than me..
P67 said
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.
I havent seen or heard of Tonev, Mubarak or Scepovic
I therefore have no comment on how good or bad they are.
I will however suggest that they will need to be pretty darn good to make that midfield and forward line EL standard.
tim tanium
13:45 on 3 September, 2014
Honest Cover Up
Not scaremongering just a statement of fact. Power devolved is power retained. I am arguing that we should take this opportunity to grasp the sovereignty of the people of Scotland. We can then build the nation that the people of Scotland want to have.
BMCUW
Bobby Slamond more loathsome than Tony Blair a man who lied to everyone to take Britiain into an illegal war? Really?
Notice Tony Blair was voted CQ Philanthropist of the year. Nearly spat my lunch out with that.
——————————————————————–
You spit a pint out. ..!
Coolmore Mafia
Nice surreal idea.
Maybe we could emulate the Benfica pre-match activity and have a Bishop on a high wire flying round the stadium.
A half-time competition where you try to chip balls into the open roof of the Popemobile
We could sponsor James Forrest for a trip to Lourdes.
We could do the half-time scores update in Latin.
We could invite the SFA administrators to meet the Spanish Inquisition.
This idea has potential
Maybe we could just put the plate round :-)
TIM TANIUM 1345
I ripped up my membership the day he was elected leader,and refused to vote in the elections he won.
Does that make me a good judge of character?
I certainly stand by my opinion of him. And of Salmond.
Decision on Guidetti not expected til the end of the week or the start of next week, meaning he won’t be able to play in the Europa League.
Expand
Tweeted by Celtic Swoop
HH BB
If my memory is correct wasn’t the signing of Templeton completed after the deadline. The excuse was the fax machine was temporarily out of use at the exact time of the deadline and mysteriously came back on line 5 mins after the deadline. No authorisation from FIFA required in this instance. MMMMM.
Maybe too many fans thinking that John Guidetti could be our saviour in Europa League?
It’s clear that Scepovic was undoubtedly the main striking target – can’t wait to see him in action – and that John G was a back up. But Guidetti is not the finished article. The boy has been through so much in the last couple of years that there’s no guarantee he will ever recover his form of 2011/12. I do hope he gets clearance and signs for the ‘tic. Maybe he may just regain his confidence and come good. But I still think he’s in the dreaded ‘project’ category….
BIGbones8867 supports wee Oscar
14:05 on 3 September, 2014
Decision on Guidetti not expected til the end of the week or the start of next week, meaning he won’t be able to play in the Europa League.
_________________
SFA’d again. They must be held accountable for this, this is their call, they have deliberatley stalled this signing.
They have impeded Scotland’s last representative in Europe deliberatley.
Ogilvie out! now!
Why are we the only club in the football universe who’s local FA can’t perform a simple task…
I am delighted with the signings.We have done better than previous.We have brought in a striker,who can score goals.A winger who is fast and strong,and not it seems,injury prone.
I hope for Guidetti.I think he could be a Viduka type of player from what I have read.
For me the most important thing is to get Broony back.I think we may have a chance to keep Denayer for another season,if he gets the game time.Against Dundee some of his blocks were outstanding.Along with VVD we could have a great pairing
On the down side(I know)with having so many loan players,we could be back in the same situation next year when CL will be more important than ever,especially if VVD goes along with Denayer.But thats next year.Looking forward to the Aberdeen and Hearts,Salzburg games with a lot more confidence.
Starry
Can’t or won’t …big difference
Should Sevco ever find themselves bringing in players that Sally hasn’t scoured on Sportscene….can’t see them having he same problem
Ogilvie and Bryson …Hun sympathisers
Im reading again on here about the style of fitba that Ronny wants to play or a ronny style team and similar BS.
Ronny won the league once in Norway. That’s his sole claim to fame. He was in charge of one of the worst Augusts in living memory.
I really wish that we would stop claiming that this guy is some sort of fitba genius. On his performances so far he has a lot of ground to make up, just to be considered average.
All this talk of possible formations and I haven’t seen one mention of our top goalscorer and most naturally gifted player Kris Commons in the plans…
Wakaso – we haven’t even seen him yet so wouldn’t dream of starting him ahead of KC.
Tonevs – major flop at Villa. Why does he merit a start ahead of KC?
Forrest – unreal when fit and on form, but major questions about the former.
Headloss.
Really hope Deila fits Commons into the plans as he can go on to play in this team another 3 or 4 years and educate young Bhoys like McGregor and Forrest…
HH
….PFayr supports WeeOscar
Re-activate The Inquistion!
Canon Plough and Archibishop PF…
Hard to swallow this keech year after year..
Turkeybhoy
Mark Viduka is the most impressive footballer iv seen in the flesh playing for Celtic at Celtic Park
So i hope ur right and we get it sorted
Tamrabam
You could be right, then again? So let’s just wait and see.
starry plough
14:14 on 3 September, 2014
They can, they chose to screw us over
Further to my earlier post regarding the SFA relying on carrier pigeons – footage just released of Campbell, Sandy and the lads helping the Celtic transfer “doo” make its way to Switzerland…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj6-LG5VpGk
BHOYLO83
IMO,Viduka had more talent in his little finger than Henrik had in his whole body.
Talent matters for little without application.
Henrik is a legend in the game.
Both of them are rich beyond their-or my-wildest dreams.
Only one can sit the grandweans on their knee and show off their medals though.
Caveat-eventually!
Tom McLaughlin
13:16 on
3 September, 2014
Correction from yesterday after my son put me right.
A player does indeed have to be a free agent at the close of the transfer window to sign for a club outside the window.
So even if Guidetti were to be released from his City contract, he couldn’t kick a ball for us until 1st January.
So if this is true,then UEFA would be stopping someone from earning a living?.
As far as I am aware,out of contract players can sign at anytime,for anyone.Could be wrong,but if the case is as you say,UEFA definitely wrong.
BHOYLO83
IMO,Viduka had more talent in his little finger than Henrik had in his whole body.
_>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Someone call a nurse Ffs
if that is truth re Guidetti and the SFA, PL and our club better roast them