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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Tamrabam
“I really wish that we would stop claiming that this guy is some sort of fitba genius.”
Have you seen that claim made?
Starry
Not much you and I can do about it
Unfortunately our custodians seem content to acquiesce in it
SFTB
It’s been asserted by many on here …
absolutley spitting teeth at our treatment from SFA, again. This should go to court, again
TONY
That was from my reply to Bhoylo.
My mistake-in your opinion-not his.
Btw,how you keeping? I assume a mutual friend explained that I tried to
meet up for a swally wi you but missed the moment.
Good night,spent in company of people who worried who the feck I was to start with!
Pointless knee jerk reactions with the name blame game, if we don’t know the full jackanory, it’s cam doon time a think, naw? Let it pan out it’s self, but I do agree it is rather annoying.
bigphil47
14:27 on 3 September, 2014
if that is truth re Guidetti and the SFA, PL and our club better roast them
PL would be sitting opposite himself…….
Bobby Murdoch
Winning Captains
Bankie Bhoy
Leftclick
Summa
SFTB
Thank you guys for the nice words. Much appreciated.
Hopefully I can post a comment a bit more frequently now.
I would like to say a great big thank you to Paul for trusting someone who he had never met with the keys to the kingdom, all those years ago.
For someone who is regularly accused of being a Board puppet/mouthpiece, a pawn of Svengali Pete etc, funny how Paul never ever gave me any direction on what he would like to see linked, nor did he edit, censor or delete anthing I did. my sincere thanks to you Paul.
I do hope the Quick News continues in some format. It has become increasingly difficult to find anything in the MSM worthy of gracing these good pages and I felt some new blood tackling the QN challenge would be healthy.
For the record I am a devout getoutofthespfl camp. Hate to see my beloved Celtic gasp for air in the ever shallow little pond that is Scottish football.
Take care guys.
Will talk soon and often.
Jim
I am
leftclicktic- HH
Tim Malone Will Tell,
A bit unfair on the SFA.
Actually, I know what happened on the fateful night of transfer deadline.
Campbell, the bestest administrator in the west, heard the news of the incoming paperwork for Guidetti.
Hampden cleaners (who are very busy btw) found him the next morning still sitting at his desk, with a Hermes 1972 typewriter plugged into the phoneline, screaming in frustration at its failure to print said documents.
Well that’s his excuse, and he’s sticking to it.
Ray Wilkins has his hands full as Jordan’s new coach.
Bada Bing
So true – footage just released of PL complaining to himself at the SFA…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c63YDrSrcO8
CanajunBhoy, thank you, sir.
BMCW
I’m good thanks, sorry I missed you, as long as you had a good time, I think, I’m not to sure how I’m reading your post correctly? My appols, it’s kinda mixed up, lol.
!!Bada Bing!!
not impressed with the sfa as a whole
Big Mark(o) was a palooka !
PL needs to give himself a good talkin too :)))
FFM,
So its confirmed that Campbell Ogilvie has had herpes since 1972 ????
Just popping my head round the door.
Guidetti! Yes? No?
Turkeybhoy @14 25.
” So if this is true then UEFA would be stopping someone from earning a living “.
Indeed ! .
One of the myriad delights of the Sion saga was the revelation that natural justice tends to mean sfa in UEFA land .
PF Ayr
“It’s been asserted by many on here …”
I managed to miss that.
Really!! Some one called him a genius!
Guidetti Blame Game – Oddschecker:
3/8 chance – SFA. Default blame position for most in the know. Most likely culprit.
5/2 chance – PLC. An up and comer in the culpability runs these days. One to watch
5/1 chance – MCFC. Generally regarded as well run professional outfit. Less prone to administration errors than 1st and 2nd favourite
33/1 chance – Scepovic. Not all players enjoy fellow professionals competing for their 1st team positions. Sabotage has not been ruled out, with the most likely method being the unplugging of CO’s typewriter from the phone line.
BMCW
Indeed
Pity he was a lazy big shyte with an attitude to match
CANAJUNBHOY
Go with the Grace of God.
Return with the fire of a legend.
That’ll be a ‘no’ then?
Bhoylo83
14:19 on
3 September, 2014
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
Not making comparisons,have not seen the boy play.His physique,and from what I have heard,very skillful,just makes me think of Viduka.
I think the issue is most likely to come from Celtic, or waiting on Man City and the processing not being able to be done in a minute. We might have sent the documents through with 1 minute to go but that doesn’t mean it can be received, approved and uploaded before the deadline.
Sounds like our argument is we had the papers ready before the deadline… may be wrong.
TONY
Dinnae worry,I confuse myself sometime!
Back in early October,so we’ll try to get a sesh sorted if you are ok with that.
Just a wee one. My Mum stole a breathalyser kit the other week.
Might stay at my sister’s place…..
Tim Malone Will Tell,
My sources (whose identities must be protected at all costs) will make no comment on SFA STDs btw, fwiw.
However, there is a belief in the dark corridors of Hampden that distilled goat blood is a cure all.
BHOYLO83
Yip.
Agreed.
Thanks for the contract,see ya when I’m due another.
South Of Tunis
14:41 on
3 September, 2014
Turkeybhoy @14 25.
” So if this is true then UEFA would be stopping someone from earning a living “.
Indeed ! .
One of the myriad delights of the Sion saga was the revelation that natural justice tends to mean sfa in UEFA land .
I know,but if this were true,I cant imagine we would not have another Bosman scenario.
UEFA are not above the European courts.As was proved.
bigphil47-never have nor never will be impressed by the SFA.HH
CanajunBhoy,
Hail Hail
Turkeybhoy,
If we don’t sign JG he will still be a man City player.
If we do sign him he’ll be a Celtic player.
Uefa can stop him playing but they are not stopping his employment.
Hello TD67
aye wait and see indeed.
But i will wait and see before i pass judgement on the loanees and the signing. Its only fair.
If they are stars I will declare that unreservedly.By the same token, I also wish we could have waited and seen, before we declared that Ronny was the new Messiah, who was going to sweep away all before him, with a new swashbuckling fitba technique never before seen in these parts, with new all shiny fit as a fiddle fast runners, populating his team of 19 year old proteges, worth millions.
I also think the sevconians are still waiting to see if Fat Sally can deliver them to the CL group stages. Sometimes its a long wait, and patiently waiting while going nowhere, is often not all its cracked up to be!
Allegedly.
Cajunbhoy,
Good luck and thanks.
Ps are you any relation to will. I. Am? :)
BHOYLO83
IMO,Viduka had more talent in his little finger than Henrik had in his whole body.
========================
LSD, kids – just say no.
Tamrabam,
It’s not a crime to be positive about a manager and players.