A year after trying and failing to sign him from Lech Poznan, Celtic have secured the services of Aleksandar Tonev from Aston Villa. Tonev has blistering pace, a right footer who is usually used on the left, he is an archetypal counter-attacking player.
The player’s profile blossomed during the first six months of 2013, in particular after he scored a hat-trick for Bulgaria against Malta, which brought Villa and Celtic to the table. The step-up to the English Premier League from playing a speciality role for Poznan was, not surprisingly, too much.
Aleksandar plays the same position as Georgios Samaras, albeit he’s a completely different type of player, but we will look to him to do the same job – be an out ball away from home in Europe.
Ronny will have seen him only from DVDs, so he’ll be keen to get him onto the pitch tomorrow morning for a run-out ahead of St Johnstone. Let’s hope the manager likes what he sees…. It’s a worry. The most promising part of deal is that Aleksandar has a point to prove, I’d rather hungry players with a point to prove than those who’ve too much on the clock.
Welcome to Celtic, Aleks.
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Bobby
never noticed Fleagle had posted, but yes, I will join in.
kit … @ 6.15
I we are trying to become a £30mill club the hard way.
Start at £75mill and work your way down.
Is PL carrying out this strategy for a bet?
It’s time we appointed a Dir of Football. While PL may be a good CEO he should have no say on who we sign other than wether we can afford him.
Anyone got any ideas who could fulfil this role?
I’d go for Davie Hay myself. Maybe Gordon S may be interested as he only works part time?
In my time we have had a mixed bag of goalkeepers.
Packy was the first and was a hard act to replace.
Boruc was easily the best since the Donegal Bhoy left.
However Fraser Forster was head and shoulders above them all.
Hopefully he will excel at Southampton. Good luck to the big fella.
Maybe the plan is to have the team full of loan players.
Is this a joke ?
Do we want CL football or not?
Another loan signing. This time a Manchester city youth player. So this summer that’s 3 loan signings and a free transfer for Craig Gordon.
Shameful in my opinion. Not a penny spent to replace the quality players we have lost in the last 12 months.
Somethings badly wrong.
Wait a minute. Is that it?
1 loan signing of another wide player
Wow. Thought PL had realised his mistake
No goal scoring strikers at our club
Sydneytim
We also signed a 19yr old man city youth player on loan for a year!
Champions league thumping, get lucky and go through cos Legia Warsaw messed up and we go sign 2 players on loan to strengthen for the next round!
I’m beginning to think the club don’t want champions league football this year’
If as I expect, uefa throw out the LG appeal and we fail to beat Maribor, Lawwell will be under big pressure.
What gets me is his sheer brass neck. He’s not stupid and must surely have an idea that the majority of fans are unhappy (many raging) at what they see as his deliberate downsizing.
I said after the Willo Flood window that the man is a gambler. That sorry episode resulted in a £20-30 million swing to Govan, which would have saved the now dead club but for their own dumb arrogance.
Peter Lawwell has lied to us at the last two agm’s about ‘coming out of the transfer window stronger’ and ‘reinvesting transfer funds in the squad’.
The gambler is walking a very dangerous path again.
One constant in any football club is the support. They eventually get their way.
Players, managers and CEO’s are just passing through.
HH
Kevtic
06:44 on 12 August, 2014
In my time we have had a mixed bag of goalkeepers.
Packy was the first and was a hard act to replace.
Boruc was easily the best since the Donegal Bhoy left.
However Fraser Forster was head and shoulders above them all.
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Well he is 6 ft 7 in tall.
If we could see today the celtic bank account how much cash would we have in hand.
Educated guesses anyone.
What’s the point of keeping it.
No investment on the pitch equals lesser chance of clients progress.
Law ell and Co. Time to go.
Clients = cl
Pretty grey this morning.
Autumn has arrived or so it feels.
Certainly can’t accuse PL of letting the FF and reprieve monies burn a hole in his pockets!
Hope it’s not the autumn of our discontent.
ButcheredShakespeareCSC
HH jamesgang
scullybhoy
07:24 on 12 August, 2014.
HaHa, liked that.
Ah well shift over, home time.
“Every sport has its rules and you have to stick by them,” said former Celtic boss Strachan.
“It’s the same in golf. If it’s a windy day and the ball moves or oscillates as you’re addressing it, that’s a penalty.
“Most of us have all been hit by these rules somewhere along the line.”
Strachan famously suffered a 5-0 defeat to Artmedia Bratislava in his first match as Celtic boss in July 2007 but went on to become the first Parkhead manager since Jock Stein to win three Scottish titles in a row.
And now he is backing new manager Ronny Deila to recover from a woeful opening and make the most of this reprieve.
“I’m still looking at the team-sheet to see how many of the team in Bratislava are ineligible,” he joked.
“I will need to get (chief executive) Peter Lawwell to go over that just in case I’m due a bonus for getting through to the next round.
“But getting over a bad result like that can be done. Lenny [Neil Lennon] had a poor start and I did as well. These things are sent to test you.
“Everyone in football will have their character tested but we wish Ronny the best of luck.”
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Excellent stuff from Gordon. One of the few, the very few ex-Celts who is not afraid of the MSM.
Domestic success for me is more than just winning league, with our financial advantage we should at least be getting to at least 1 cup finale
On the eve of the new season I can’t say I’m that excited about what’s about to start. Yesterday’s signing of a player we wanted a year ago is hardly inspiring belief in Ronny Delia on a couple of counts.
1. The player’s CV is hardly convincing
2. Ronny Delia came unprepared – he’s obviously arrived with no wish list of players he’d like to sign.
He originally came, as we know, to fill a lesser role at Celtic and circumstances (unexplained) thrust him into the spotlight role.
He’s talked the talk (so far) about playing quick attacking football but he’s failed to walk the walk. Agreed its early days but the signs aren’t good, he looked bewildered and reminiscent of Mowbray at times in the 2nd leg against Legia and made some elementary tactical errors.
Is Ronny Delia ready? Tomorrow night could be a watershed moment for him at Celtic, let’s hope it goes well.
Its looking to me like DD does not trust the new manager and wants to see him prove himself before releasing any significant transfer funds. In Ronny it seems the board have appointed a managerial ‘project’.
LW swot up before UEFA appeal
The arrival of Denayer on a year long loan, to allow us to develop him and give him game time for City’s longer term benefit, is a kick in the teeth for the Celtic youth set up as a whole and Marcus Fraser and Eoghan O’onnell in particular.
Not a fan of loan deals, but at least with Berget and Tonev there’s an option to buy. Denayer, who could be a wonderful talent, is merely helping out another club and makes us look like a small time club helping out the big boys because we have no money to invest in players of our own.
WGS is up there with best when it comes to ex Celts backing the club and never uttering a wrong word about us. Walker, Nicholas and one or two others, although ‘Celtic men’, readily go where the likes of McStay and Hay, Lennox and Chalmers never would.
We’ll done wee man.
jamesgang
Sign many years ago in the window of Blacks of greenock:
This is the winter of our discount tents.
I won`t bother responding to the know all whingers on here this morning. I am at a loss as to why they support Celtic. I certainly would not if I believed as they do.
JJ
Gary67
That’s because he was never supposed to be manager. We have a potential assistant manager at the helm of our club. Not Ronny’s fault. I’d take job. PL and boards decision to go for cheap option. Proof in pudding now that they will not back their man with hard redies.
The PLC might be lucky again and RD (Research & Development) might pay off. Pal does like a good RISK!
MWD says AYE
Something is very wrong at our club the now, yet another loan who was a flop.
Cannot understand this,we are given a second bite at the cherry and will not take it, anybody and everybody can see that we need a strong spine through the team CB CM CF. but no we take in flops on loan that other teams are desperate to get rid off.
The board is playing a very very nasty game with the fans here, the question being where will the breaking point come.
Dropped points on wed. and saturday with another CL battering next week should do it.
Maybe then we can start thinking about Fanownership.
KTF
Paul67
Dan Petrescu is quoted as stating that Celtic wanted him as manager , but he spoke Neil Lennon and was told that the club had problems.
He then decided to not take the approach any further.
We are not spending money.
Why?
Is it because the income from our season ticket sales is way down , and the club actually does require the proceeds of sales to stop a huge loss?
That they are trying to stop losses , whilst praying for the return of a The Hun ?
Could it be that No Huns is proving to be a financial disaster for Celtic?
The Huns had 43,000 at their league match on Sunday.
How many times this season will our home attendance be above that for an SPFL match?
We are on a slippery slope.
If the Hun fail to return to the SPFL next season, will that mean losses for Celtic?
TT
JJ
Are you seriously happy watching this play out from our club at the moment?
£11m in.
3 loan deals.
MWD says AYE
We are descending into farce.
I’m in despair.
Never been as despondent for a good number of years.
I see no light at the end of the tunnel.
The support is being short changed to a massive degree.
Yet there will be some who agree with our current transfer policy.
We are a laughing stock.
Utter disgrace
Could the loan policy be the reason we appear to have stopped trying to get into The English League?
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/jun/07/watford-foreign-loans-loophole
Probably not. But this is not a viable way forward for Celtic.
I remember the same guff when we signed fraser forster on loan
“3rd choice at Newcastle ” “behind a 37 year old” yada yada yada
There are posters on here who are beyond pathetic, any excuse to have a kick at their pet hate project.
Signing Forster on loan was an inspired piece of business. Signing talented players on loan with an option to buy is a hell of a lot smarter than spending £2 million on a Bangura to find out he can’t adjust to Scotland & then having to write off the entire amount.
Celtic almost always have an option to try before you buy in these loan situations. It’s a smart strategy. The criticism from some posters on here is laughable. Very probably exactly the same who were “experts” on Forster & Wanyama.
As for Ronny , 2 months ago he was looking at player for Stromgodset. That quality of player is not what he wants. John Park & his team have been looking for Celtic quality players for years. They are in a much better position to provide the options that the club need. Ronny will look at the films, read the scouting reports and say yes or no. Thats the way it works. Thats the way it should work.
The scouting department are a resource available to the manager. No manager of a big club does his own scouting. Of course they may ask for a specific player based on their own match day and local knowledge. Berget would be an example, but i very much doubt there are many or even any players playing in Norway who would make our squad better.
I absolutely support and commend the club for the moves they are making . It would be much more sensible to wait until the end of the window before condemning .
Lawwell must be over the moon at this transfer window so far
£10M in and no cash spent…..couple of loan players who have not seen the first XI
If this is the new model to bring in loan players because taking the cheap option fails then we know the game is up.
There is a limit on the number of loan players otherwise I could see this being the new cash free strategy going forward. I do not think our own development players at Lennoxtown will find this new development in their best interests.
Are we still allowed to sign 1 more player before next Wed?
St stivs the battered bunnet said swe had approx 10m before we sold watt and foster. Taken for a ride now
Barcabhoy
Come on mate .
Are you serious?
Surely you jest?
TT @ 7.59
Last year I thought we were hoarding cash for a special dividend to keep DD in cigars.
Now it is deja vu all over again.
The CL is our crown jewels.
We should mive heaven and earth to qualify.
Now CL qualification just looks like an after thought with the potential foe embarrassment thrown in.
DD is phoning the strategy in.
The C/man is a nonentity.
PL is rubbing our noses in it.
You could not make this up.
All we have left is blind faith and a wildcard to come straight if a plane and into the team.
We are set up to fail.
Does anyone think we actually want to qualify for the CL?
Downsizing of the mind
Barca
Quick — better change your password.
PL’s agent has hacked your account.
We could line up all the buys/loans before next week, but we all remember THAT night when we brought in Robbie Keane, Kamara, Braffheid etc went down to Rugby Park 48 hours later and got pumped.
See when youse cut yersel shaving in the morning? Do you blame Peter Lawwell?