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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Tamrabam. Fella have you forgotten last seasons CL group stage results ? H.H.
Patrick27
Perhaps the centre half pairing for Maribor is VVD and Efe as per last season ?
Maybe this guy comes in to put pressure on a the big Diutchman or to facilitate what many think here, which is Efe is not a CH. Maybe Efe can be our new holding midfielder ?
Don’t know. All speculation.
• The Green Man
11:08 on 12 August, 2014
Big joe
There are hunfiltraitors…no doubt.
But the vast majority…like myself, are absolutely Celtic daft.
I cannot stand seeing how badly we performed against Legia…done my head right in.
So…we cant allow that to happen again.
And you can be sure..Celtic fans will go mental, when the team play like that.
As for the huns on the blog…they are only idiots…not hard to deal with.
HH
Fair point mate, and I’m not insinuating anything, but if you look at some of the posts, they do have agendas, its staring everyone in the face.
But……………………………………..
On a brighter note……………………….
Itsrrrrrrrrrrrrrrroasing
Derbyshire boy , the said CEO had the chance to make the investment before Legia and didn’t take it. Just like Shaktar last season. The appeal tomorrow is academic.
We should be strengthening the Team before Maribor. These loan signings will not raise the bar in the 2 games against Maribor. They may develop thru the season but not in time for Maribor.
In fact what our CEO has done is weaken the Team for Maribor by selling our no 1 asset and his replacement has still to prove himself.
Legia are a much better team than Maribor so we have a 50-50 chance. That’s why it’s so galling the CEO did not strengthen the Team.
NatKnow
11:18 on 12 August, 2014
So did Petrescu speak to Neil Lennon about the job or not?
tamrabam
11:01 on 12 August, 2014
Let the games begin……. win, lose or draw, I’m a Celtic supporter, faithful through and through …… I apologise profusely for getting really excited / happy on approaching Paradise and for enjoying every minute with my friends at every home game …… I really will have to work on that aspect of my life …… “Darn the hair that we care now” …….. :). :). HH
Tam,
If we look closely enough the malaise pre-dates Ronny at this level.
We got through to the ECL group last year by a bawhair against a team I never heard of previously and then became pot 4 whipping boys.
Ronny has a lot to do to reform the team Neil left him.
Leave RD alone…give him a chance ffs
You cant sack him after a few games, thats ridiculous.
Back your manager and players..lets see what happens…there will be plenty of time for post-mortems after the Maribor result.
PL…thats another matter entirely.
HH
Seems to me the the folk on here berating the club for taking on loan players are the same ones criticising them for wasting millions on duds.
We are unfortunate to have spendthrifts as neighbours. Bottom half EPL mediocrity can breeze in and tempt our top players with doubling, or trebling their wages. We can’t compete with them. Unpalatable, but undeniable. Buying a player for £10m and fitting him into the first team must be a lot easier than getting one for £2m and expecting him to be an instant hit.
Ernie-Tamrabam- i was meaning backed by the board,but can see why you are asking about the fans’ too HH
One of pauls articles the other day was how big Fraser was first in and last to leave for training every day.
That training started at 10 and the players head off after lunch.
If that is the case and I have no reason to doubt Paul then the training undoubtedly needs a change so we can be a better team.
Why are they only doing half a shift.
Louis van Gaal has put in CCTV cameras at training , the players don’t go home at lunchtime, they work a full shift.
That info about heading after lunch is not good enough for me.
SydneyTim
11:04 on 12 August, 2014
Natknow. When I talk about forwards I mean about strikers and wingers. Must be about 20duds in 5 years. Awefull scouting
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Strikers and wingers do different things though. So are you expacting a winger to score 20-odd goals a season in the SPFL?
Latchford. I am surprised that you think Legia are a much better team than Maribor I thought Maribors European record was better than Legias but maybe im wrong ? H.H.
Hunskelper
You say its too early to sack him now and I agree. By the time we have played Maribor it will be more than 4 games.
RD and any other future Celtic manager will be judged on European performances/results much more than domestic games (especially while the huns are on their knees)
The SPL means nothing more than an entry to Europe nowadays
just for my interest, if RD repeated the Legia display next season after winning the title this season, would that 40 million quid loss merit him staying for a 3rd crack at qualification
“the same players were good enough to quailify for the CL for the past few seasons”
Tam,
Well no really. In the corresponding fixture last season celtic had wilson, ledley, Sammy, Broony and ambrose.
ernie lynch
11:22 on 12 August, 2014
NatKnow
11:18 on 12 August, 2014
So did Petrescu speak to Neil Lennon about the job or not?
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Wouldn;t surprise me but I don’t know – do you?
Point I’m making is that he went to Qtar for the money – nothing to do with “problems” at Celtic – whatever is meant by that?
joe fillip
the same players were good enough to quailify for the CL for the past few seasons, why do you think they are now not good enough.
do you Ronni inherited a pile of mince?
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Naw, he inherited a select few who needs a good boot in the Tatties. A select few who is in there ain we comfort zone and dinnae like seeing whit they ur seeing. too much like hard work for some. weed them oot and make an example of them, regardless of who they (think) they are. In Ronny I trust
I would suspect that Denayer is VVDs (cheap) replacement. VVD will be playing his football down south by the end of the transfer window and the club bank account will be £7-8m to the good.
Getting replacements in before a player leaves is good planning, however the club leaves themselves open to criticism and ridicule from their own support as their actions always look like reducing the quality of the squad in order to increase the bank balance.
Bada.
The Embra Panda wraps her legs roon wee L.G.
Thrashin and squirmin she is……
I thought ye lost aw yer passion says wee L.G “whits aw the thrashin and squirmin”??
The Embra Panda says…..I’m tryin on yer trainers.
H.H.
derbyshirebhoy
11:12 on 12 August, 2014
Please refrain from being sensible, FGS….!!!!
Natknow. Ok to be more clear. Our scout in the last 5 years has brought in one goal scoring striker out of maybe 10 attempts. At the same time he has brought in about 10 wide players All duds so far.
When it comes to scouting players who are forwards ( strikers and wide players ) he has been a failure which has cost out club millions He should find a different career
Why don’t we use Hartson or Sutton as scouts
Ernie
I’d be asking myself who agreed such terms in the first place and making sure there could be no repeat but I still wouldn’t sign.
67
as you like my friend, but you didnt highlight for me why, we should all be happy with RDs performance so far, I guess its because deep down you know that he is not looking as good as many hoped that he would. But keep the faith and keep smiling too.
It would probably be better though if there were 60,000 in a similair frame of mind attending our CL games and then using the CL cash to improve our prospects the following season, In my opinion anyway. You know what I mean, genuine season on season improvements. building the club, the player pool and the finances. That would be nice
I would loved to have seen it on here had Celtic signed five players and played them against Mairbou Stork Nightmares!
Damned if ye does
Damned if yous don’t..
tamrabam
11:11 on 12 August, 2014
I haven’t made my mind up about RD.
You definately have.
derbyshirebhoy
11:12 on 12 August, 2014
SO I am CEO of a company awating the outcome of a planning appeal for a major development . I am being asked to sign off on a several million capital spend prior to the decision. Would I? Darn tooting I wouldn’t.
So the squad is just fine then?
southside
11:23 on 12 August, 2014
Post of the week….but your sensible statement will fall on (some) deaf ears….
Seems to me the guys on here criticising the loan deals are the same guys criticising the club for wasting millions on duds. I am one of those. And it’s all becaus ethe whole strategy of employing footballers are our club is wrong and has been for last few seasons. Scouting network, from the evidenceI can see is a failure. To reliant on one mans opinion who is living off the back of success at Hibs from a youth team who existed there before his employment at that club. IMO.
MWD says AYE
If Legia do win their appeal are we likely to counter appeal or will we accept the decision? Legia’s behaviour has left a bad taste in the mouth. Writing an open letter in an attempt to guilt trip our beloved club is one of the most pathetic things I have witnessed in football. If they win the appeal I would rather we accept the decision gracefully rather than sinking to that their standards.
The lad Denayer, on paper sounds an excellent acquisition, even if it is only a loan. It sounds like he is composed at the back, something we are crying out for alongside VVD. It will be interesting to see if he is selected against St Johnstone tomorrow.
I have to admit at not being overly impressed by 3 loan signings so far in this window. We still need a striker badly. The way things look I don’t think we will get one before the 31st August deadline. Are there any good young strikers available for loan?
Geordie Munro
a valid point my friend, and one that should be addressed by RDs backers, ie the board who appointed him.
I’m quite happy we are adding loan signings to the squad, relatively low risk move after Pukki,Balde etc last season.
However, I feel this doesn’t offer any hope for building for the future and more worryingly implies to me that the board don’t trust RD. Fair enough the supporters can trust or distrust as they please, but the board brought this guy in and should back him with investment.
How can he gain respect of the dressing room and stamp his authority without full support of the board?
I feel they are keeping him on a leash so they can chuck him under the bus if it all goes south. They should back up their decision to hire him and let him make some permanent signings to start the rebuild we need after Lenny.
HH
drambowiecelt- VG :))
@AgentScotland: Celtic are looking at spending upwards of £3.5m on their CL “wildcard” but are awaiting final result of Legia appeal before committing to it
Hey folks, I’ve been reading the posts and comments section for years now, but this is the first time I’ve posted.
There seems to be a split in the support over our new manager, his performance to date as well as the willingness of the board to back him up.
I’m of the opinion that both schools of thought can be right here. It’s still too early to call for the managers head, I was in the stands for all but two or three of Lenny’s home games, and if we take off the rose tinted glasses he didn’t start any better than Deila. That being said, we did seem strategically childish over two legs against Legia. While few Celtic managers have roared out of the blocks in my entire lifetime, none to date would have failed to plug a defence so out of sorts, especially away from home. In this sense his detractors are right, if what we’ve seen so far continues to the end of August we’ll probably know he’s not up for such a demanding job. I have faith that by September well all be singing his praises mind…I hope :)
Regarding the board, awful player acquisition policy recently. My problem with it is simple, I grew up watching the team I love win hee-haw, but they could entertain you like nothing else. Maybe it was never as great as my memory wants me to think, but our current custodians seem to think football is a results industry. That may be true for lesser clubs, but Celtic is more than that, there are a handful of clubs with a reputation for entertaining football, and we were lucky to be amongst them. I’ll turn up win, lose or draw, but I remember a Man Utd supporter once telling me ‘you lot won’t be happy until you’ve got ten wingers on the park’. He wasn’t right, but he wasn’t totally wrong either, until the board addresses the fun factor I think we’ll see attendances dwindle.
Sorry about the long winded first post!
Not saying Lenny left the squad in bad shape btw, wasn’t his doing IMO.
starry plough
11:31 on 12 August, 2014
If we were successful bet we’d get Granton Star in the next round.
Gary67
That’s all supposition. We don’t actually know but if we have made the mental leap that each time we sell a player we have to buy a replacement that cost more than he did then I think we are torturing ourselves unnecessarily.
People are complex. VVD might believe he’s outlived his time with us and has nothing more to learn breezing through a league where the forwards are inferior. He may have made his mind up he needs a new challenge already. Maybe the solution with him is to provide for competition to shake him out of this, put new goals in place to motivate him or recognise it’s a lost cause and we must sell an unhappy player for the reasons above.
Too easy for us to sit on the sidelines and allow the outcome to feed our agenda (not saying you have one mate but you know what I mean)
Neil Lennon told Dan The Man, (now in the Middle East) not to take Celtic job as there are problems. Ernie Lynch …’suggested this’. I place as much credance as someone suggesting to me recently that Ernie is in a public funded position, but does not express his ‘socialist views’ in the real world as he does on this blog. Funny that? His diatribe the SNP are anti -catholic, really? I ‘suggest’ that there are more Labour MPs & MSPs in Scotland that are members’ of the Orange Order( that benign and social democratic movement ) than SNP MPs& MSPs.