Signing players is easy, just ask anyone who has never done it. The selling club invariably wants to wait until the last moment, when they are sure no one else will bid up the price. The player occasionally wants to wait and see if you have Champions League football that season. This deal might be the only income the agent will get that year, so he needs to make the most of it.
Then you have the really complicated ones. Players have pitched up at Celtic Park from a far-flung part of Europe, terrified to sign because some shady character thinks he owns a part of him and has not been paid off.
There has been a time recently when everything was agreed, then the selling club told the player he would not receive his final salary. The player, not unreasonably, said, “This is not right, on a point of principle, they need to pay or we try again in January.”
You want to sign all your top targets, but to do that, you need to pay the top price the club, player and agent can imagine you will pay, even then, it’s not always going to happen.
It is only right to pay the top price you can afford on exceptional occasions. Your strategy should involve being prepared to fail in a negotiation, because to succeed at the prevailing price does not fit your overall budget.
In Scotland, we are still conditioned to some extent, by the bombast of David Murray. Old Zsa Zsa rattled his jewellery and boasted that he never allowed price to stop him buying a player he really wanted. I hear the echoes today, “Just pay the money!”
Murray made it sound like a virtue. It wasn’t. It was one of several vices that led to liquidation.
You have to lose some. Players will not come and some existing players, who are out of contract, will leave. Both will be painful, fans will accuse you of motives which have no internal consistency, but if you get a reputation for not letting players walk away due to money, you are dead in the water.
You need a bucket full of tactics, not cash, to sign players. Experience helps too, and not the good type, you will mostly learn from bad experiences. There will be times you phone the player’s grandfather, who is on your side, but you will still not be able to convince the player Celtic Park is the right move.
Then you will publicly turn your face to stone. “This is our line and not an inch more”, was the subtext of a recent Celtic Tweet. “Curious”, I thought, “What’s the chances this will work?”
The football business is mad, there is no other word for it. It is full of dafties, alpha males who are still trying to impress their decades-dead fathers, the occasional warlord and some fine young athletes. Try to understand it through the prism of normal life and you will misinterpret everything.
Oh, and if at least 50% of your transfers are not justifiably described as a “saga” you’re not working hard enough. Transfers, like sausages, are not meant to look good when they are being made.
Let’s hope David Turnbull passes his medical…..
I’m off to the CQN Charity Golf Day in Aberdour this afternoon, not to play golf, of course, but to hear Danny McGrain and Willie McStay.
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16 roads. on 24th June 2019 10:10 am
Another significant factor is MIBs, and their determination not to protect our players from being frequently assaulted.
KT is targeted in almost every game.
It would be understandable therefore if he did decide to quit Scottish football, before he is faced with a potentially career ending injury.
We are talking about a genuinely world class footballer here don’t forget.
HH. ?
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Definitely True. Brendan reigned in his desire to be the Iron Man, and quite rightly so.
KT was invincible when he came in. Scottish Fitba is a Sad place Howevaaaaah.
Brendan said to stop getting up and getting on with it – showing you are hard as nails.
Karamoko – Need a Word.
Magical
Back to Reardons Saturday with the Bhoy. The Wee Legend. I don’t think I will win 8 in a row again.
God Bless Every CQNer.
KT, worth a 5 star hotel
Petec
I’m sure you know as well as most on CQN, KT signed a six year contract with upgrades that last until 2022, and beyond the potential 10 in a row.
Nobody, regardless of what they post on CQN knows the terms of that contract and how it compares with the mythical Daily Rancid’s Arsenal offer, of course the EPL offer will be significantly richer.
The only recent comparable situation IMO was the seven magnificent years given to Celtic by Henrik Larsson for whom financial ‘exceptions’ were made.to keep him. Like any Celtic supporter we’d like to think the rule book would be ripped up for Keiran Tierney.
Whether we’d do that remains to be seen.
We have a pay structure and pecking order in football, that means at the moment with alleged impending sales ‘the board’ wouldn’t be able to cope with banking the money ( we’re gonna need a bigger bank ) never mind find ways of spending it, on the squad.
How does the club square this circle? stockpiling profit, and another zero net spend, is not required en route to continuing domestic dominance, no matter how many players we sign before August, we’ll still be in Pot 4 should we arrive at the CL.
It might be easier to enhance Keiran Tierney’s deal again.
HH
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 24TH JUNE 2019 10:50 AM
May be mistaken but I read a suggestion we could be pot 3 if we qualified for the CL, not sure if that was confirmed.
HH
fight………………………..
fight………………………..
Help please………………..
might any of you modren social-media types inform me if any of these sites like Football Scotland which pop up on Newsnow are associated with the Record?
Just askin’…
Thanks.
Traditionalist88
In the event that we qualify for the Group stage, according to the seeding we are indeed in Group 3.
see https://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/seedcl2019.html
AN DUN:
If clubs make an offer which is in the player’s contract, then the player and the agent then make the decision whether they go or not. Not the Club! por cierto
Trad88
Indeed, pot 3 it is.
HRVATSKI JIM on 24TH JUNE 2019 11:07 AM
Thanks
HH
18m + benchmarks
https://mobile.twitter.com/gffn/status/1143102400506601472
Trying to take the emotion out of it, difficult I know, but I would be comfortable if we had a bid for Calmac ,we accepted and he was happy to leave. He’s been a smashing player especially under BR. He’s a good age and deserves the big money. As for KT , much younger , injured for a long time last season. He needs to stay and get back to the level he was a season or two ago. Plenty of time to make the money move.
I am hopeful both those players would be back at some point in the future.
new article posted.