For Celtic, summertime business is every bit as important as the more traditional cup finals and league deciders held later in the season. We face qualifers for Champions League or Europa League group stage, which define our financial health and desirability as a potential employer.
The most important achievement was recorded on Wednesday when we qualified for the Champions League, but now we’re there, how prepared will we be?
Seven players left the squad, Daryl Murphy, who had already spent two years out on loan, Thomas Rogne and Paddy McCourt, who rarely saw first team action last season, and Tony Watt, who seems to be less effective than he was in the opening weeks of last season, and is now out on loan.
More importantly, Gary Hooper, Kevlin Wilson and Victor Wanyama all left, three players who were instrumental in our European victories last season.
Hooper is a textbook big game player who scored home and away against Spartak Moscow but he missed the home win over Barcelona and scarcely got a sniff of the ball home and away to Benfica, or in the Camp Nou, where his role as a penalty box poacher was less effective.
Kelvin Wilson had a disappointing first season at Celtic but as last season progressed there was a noticeable rise in appreciation of his talents. He had an exemplary Champions League campaign.
Victor Wanyama was the most effective central midfield player Celtic have had for some considerable time. We saw little of Roy Keane at Celtic but in Wanyama, you could see a player with the potential to go as far in the game. He is young and still has lots to add to his game, concentration, for a start, but we saw him grow from a place on the substitutes’ bench to a £12m player in 18 months.
It surprised a few that Victor (along with Gary) went to a team often found at the wrong end of England’s top flight, but he is still potential. The acclaim he received at Celtic is similar to that bestowed on Liam Miller nine years ago, whose Champions League performances were breath-taking. I still can’t fathom what happened to Miller but I hope Victor continues to improve; if he does, he could appear in the Camp Nou as a home player.
21-year-old Israeli central midfielder Nir Biton looks like a straight replacement for Wanyama. I don’t know enough about any of the new recruits yet to put my name to them but on paper, Nir works. At 6’5” he continues our current tradition of signing players born to shoot hoops, as well as wear them. A trial at Manchester City fell apart amid a diplomatic incident involving his nationality. He was going to make a move to a Champions League team at some point and, for the player, Celtic will look like an excellent option.
There was a moment during THAT game at Fir Park in 2005 when Craig Bellamy tore up the turf with the ball before looking up for someone to accept his cross, only to throw his arms up in frustration that there was no one in the box. Having one fast player is just not effective.
We’ve had pace-merchant James Forrest for a few years but we don’t play a speed-based game to suit his talents. With fellow-sprinter Derk Boerrigter also in the team now one of the things I know Celtic were looking for in a striker was pace, which is what I expect to see from Teemu Pukki.
Much of our Champions League game will be about playing counter-attacking football so we have to recruit for this model.
Teemu has been playing a supporting role for Schalke since they played against him, then signed him, from HJK Helsinki two years ago, but we have not had a striker who could claim a regular starting place in that company in nine years. He is another one who, on paper, works for me.
Amido Balde has been given some protection from too much responsibility and exposure to allow him to settle into the club, city and language, Celtic is a lot different from Vitoria Guimaraes. I heard that, like Wanyama during his first season, he’ll be allowed to settle into life as a Celtic player.
Virgil van Dijk was simply delicious against Dundee United yesterday. He has height, build, speed, can run with the ball and can pass. Build a defence around him. Steven Mouyokolo is one of those gambles managers like to take on players, who were once lauded but have had injury or other blemishes on their record. Most don’t work but we’ll soon find out if Steven has overcome his injury problems.
Derk Boerrigter has skill and pace. He is another one recruited with Champions League football in mind (not to face 10 defenders in the SP), a competition he has already performed well in for Ajax.
The comment was made to me that the players coming in were uninspiring compared to the three key players who left but while I could contest that, there doesn’t seem much point. We recruited Hooper and Wilson from the lower leagues in England, and Wanyama as a teenager from a small Belgian club. It’s not what you know about a player when he signs that counts……..
For years we have been encouraging Celtic to scout better markets and find value. They have been doing this to great effect in recent seasons. The gap between where we were last season and one stage further in the Champions League was enormous. To bridge it will take a while during which time we need to make every pound work.
Enjoy the ride.
Tomorrow we’ll talk money. In short, while I blogged a couple of weeks ago illustrating the circa £17m operational gap we have before Champions League or player trading income (i.e. we are not a rich club), notions that we are anywhere near being a poor club is laughable.
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“What was that last bid again Peter – o.k. thanks I’ll phone you back when we’ve decided”
Proceed to castigate Celtic and say we’d never sell at that price in a million years, or in the space of a phone call.
Gebhoy @ 12;43,
Don’t disagree with your post in general.
But this part…
“Is the manager making all the signings based on footballing decisions, or is PL signing players based on his opinion of worth?”
Believe Lenny said Pukki was exactly the type of player he was looking for, for the way his team plays.
Is he the Striker he was after?
I dont know.
Hail Hail
Honest Mistake @1302
Mate i am only listening to Lennys own words, and asking valid questions, i know for certain we did not sign our top targets, Lenny has already alluded to this.
I dont hate the board or disagree with everything they do, I have a healthy dose of skepticism when it comes to the PLC and the board, the PLC’s aims are not always aligned with the supports aims.
gebhoy
Perhaps one of the most revealing aspect of the whole transfer business is that Gareth Bale’s agent is to pocket £5,000,000.
Also if Harry Rednapp’s evidence in court indicates the norm in football, buying and selling managers and possibly others are leeching money out of the game.
tonydonnelly67 @ 12 43 .
Yes , Roma were good but Verona were dire .
Standouts for Roma were Strootman [ 17 million euros worth of defensive midfielder ] and the excellent playmaker , Pjanic [ 11 million euros worth of attacking midfielder .]
Game was marred by serious violence before and after the game.. The Verona team bus was attacked by Roma Ultras .
It has been a violent start to Serie A
TBB
Got me. Oil/fire- their all obscure chemichall compounds and reactions for me. When I passed my Higher Phsics and Chemistry, there was a Stewards Enquiry.
MadMitch
The Posh negotiation was cringeworthy.
It was amateur hour, worked on the rush and it failed.
I need some definiton of terms here. What is it that you deem cringeworthy of bidding low for an object with an unspecified sale price? Do you buy everything you want or do you sometimes say- too rich for me? It failed in the sense that we did not get Tomlin; it succeeded in establishing that he could not be bought at the value we deemed him to be.
PL is the worlds worst negotiator.
He pays over the odds for squad fillers.
He has, quite obviously one so. You are correct. Can you point me to a club who avoids making mistakes in the transfer market or does it less often than PL does?
Let me get this straight.
A no name footballer, playing for a no name football club finds out that The Mighty Glasgow Celtic (bags of league and cup wins to come plus CL football) would like to sign him and have made 3 offers, all rejected by the no name manager and no name chairman.
A WID BE UNSETTLED AS WELL!!!!!
gebhoy
13:11 on
2 September, 2013
Only a couple of weeks ago I posted that not alll Celtic shareholders have the same interests.
Any of you techie ghuys know how to disable the wee keypad on an Acer laptop ? thats twice now I’ve sent posts prematurely .
South Of Tunis
13:12
What, in your view, is at the heart of an increase in crowd trouble? The economy? A wider social malaise?
Gebhoy.
If I were you, I’d go back and read all lenny’s comments. You’d blow your arguments out the water.
If you can, give me an example of how the plc’s aims don’t match the supporters aims.
Hail hail
Modern linking midfield and attack with a striker in the hole is rubbish.
EMERALD GREEN
Think about something else while you’re doing it?
From the list of strikers who are out of contract, I believe Ched Evans is still in the pokey.
Astounded of forehead to see that I managed to jump out of the CQN predictor relegation zone by 31 places in a single bound from No. 76 to No. 45. I just now need to take this form into my CQN betting league where I am languishing in bottom place with 5 wrong out of 5, you can’t beat consistency ;-)
My personal take on paying these excessive transfer fees is that it is an obscenity. None of these players are worth a fraction of the fees that are being paid for them. I love watching football but at the end of the day it’s about a bunch of guys kicking a piece of leather around a field. Nearly every day we have somebody on here trying to raise much needed money for a charitable cause, we have untold millions of people in the world who are starving and living in poverty but football clubs can pay out millions on transfer fees and wages, whilst avoiding paying the taxes that should help the underprivileged. Yet we still have guys who come onto this forum on a daily basis decrying Celtic for being parsimonious.
As far as I am concerned Celtic FC – proud of its history, proud of the way it conducts its business and most of all proud of its charitable deeds. Yes, I do want us to be successful but I want us to do it the Glasgow Celtic way.
Hail! Hail! PMTYH
Chairboy,
On Pukki, i believe he wanted him and another striker, as i alluded to earlier Pukki is not an out and out goalscorer, and he should be given time, as i think he isn’t that type of player and we do need a kind of linking type forward player.
It was stated on the radio last week that John Park went to watch Finboggason and recommended that we didn’t buy at the £5 million price, which is exactly as it should be, i just hope we are not missing targets because PL et al wont go that extra mile when the manager wants to.
gebhoy
Kaka’ signed two year deal with Milan.
He will earn €4 million a year.
Was earning €10 million at Real.
How on earth will he make ends meet?!
HH!!
setting free the bears
13:13 on
2 September, 2013
The mistake was leaving things to the last minute and by doing so gambled with CL qualification.
TALLYBHOY
Ask Black for betting tips…..
Is it the quality of performance or lack of investment that bugs me?
This is the question I was mulling over yesterday.
Celtic spent in the region of £10 million this window, regardless of net spend, £10 million is a decent spend for a club in our environment.
Our footballing budget is far from small, in fact it is probably way above anyone else in Europe operating in a similar market without a sugar daddy or questionable morals when it comes to paying bills!!.
I spent yesterday looking through league matches from the past 18 months and counted 7 games that I thought we played really well, only 7.
Now it’s a result driven business and at the end of the day a wins a win……but, is that all we should expect with the vast resources at our disposal in comparison with the rest of the league?.
The reason I only looked at domestic games is because Europe takes care of it’s self, Lenny works well in this environment. He has shown excellent tactical knowledge to get results from games where we really would have been happy just not to receive a hiding.
Europe also creates it’s on special atmosphere that just can’t be recreated in the domestic environment, we are all up for it regardless of the opposition hence why the stadium will always sell out.
I had a big petted lip on Saturday night ( the wife said I look like my daughter does when she can’t get another ice lolly!), all because we never got the player/players I thought would add excitement to the other 40 odd games we play each season. Who known’s, maybe I have been spoiled, maybe I’m asking to much……..or maybe the football side aren’t producing the performances that they should be.
We are poor in domestic games for the most part. Would singing better players or spending more money solve this?, I don’t know.
I don’t ever remember basing my support on how much we spend or who was lucky enough to pull on the hoops, I just loved watching us play football……..that is fading fast.
Lenny needs to get us playing a fast attractive style of football in the league, it’s what we are used to. There are various reason’s why the attendances are falling. When I speak with bhoy’s I know that have given up, money is usually the main reason…..quickly followed by “and the football is crap”.
If the football was better and Celtic played in similar style to TB’s teams I don’t think attendances would have dropped as much and I don’t think there would be such a desperation for new players or concentration on net spend.
The unfortunate truth is, 100% of the onus is on us to provide the entertainment 100% of the time in domestic games.
HailHail
The Squad at the close of the transfer window
Keeper : Forster, Zaluska – as last year, strong
Right Back : Lustig, Matthews – as last year, arguably our strongest position
Left Back : Izaguirre – as last year, needed back up/competition, the manager has been let down here
Centre Back : Ambrose, Van Dyk, Mulgrew, Mouyokolo – time will tell but Van Dyk could be an upgrade on Wilson. Lustig can also play here as shown last Wednesday. I’d say at least as strong as last season.
Central Midfield : Brown, Ledley, Kayal, Rogic, Bisot – until we know what Bisot can do then we look weaker here than last season as Victor is a huge loss.
Attcking Midfield/Winger : Samaras, Forrest, Commons, Boerrigter -stronger looking in this area than we were last season though no plan b if Commons is injured.
Striker : Stokes, Pukki, Balde – in terms of numbers significantly weaker than last season, in terms of goals who knows
Another striker and the left back the manager wanted and things would look a lot healthier, hopefully this smaller squad will mean more youngsters will get more of a chance this season than they did last.
Bobby ….. you made me lol there ……. -:)))
Honest mistake;
PLC aims to get rid of the GB – Green Brigade and standing area, support wants them.
PLC aims to get the Hun back asap – Support never wants to play them again.
PLC not a peep about the cheating in Scotland – Support wants it exposed at every turn.
Theres 3 for starters.
gebhoy
Celtic don’t do their transfer business in public.
The usual suspects in scoddland’s meeja know this and will make as much mischief as poshable……………….
Picking the transfer window to pieces now it is closed for us is a pointless activity.We brought in six players during the window all of these players have played at some International level for there respective countries.All of the players can be improved by Celtic and possibly sold on for profit in future seasons that is our operating plan.I am struggling to see why there is so much moaning at the same time we are trying to be prudent which makes sense to me. I look at many of the clubs paying inflated fees for very average players and I cant help thinking they will eventualy run into financial trouble and I do not want that to happen at Parkhead. H.H.
Kayal33,
A Striker and Left back and i would have been delighted, it looks like we tried and failed, how hard did we try and how close did we come who knows, i am glad we didnt sign Tomlin we do not need another “project” at this time.
gebhoy
Quonno.
Wake up. We calculated the risks, identified that our team was more than good enough to dispatch shaktar karagandy.
Lo and behold we won. We’re in the cl group stages for the second year in a row. Stop moaning, move on from the elation you would have felt if we got knocked out and get behind your team.
Hail
Hail.
EMERALD GREEN
Always glad to help!
Cheers,bud.
Gebhoy.
A) nonsense. Who is in 111?
B) nonsense. Why did we vote against this?
C) nonsense. Wrestle a pig etc.
Hail hail
South of Tunis
Well it’s not to wonder why the stadiums are half empty/ full then, are Millan supporters behaving , for obvious reasons I ask?
JOE FILIPPIS HAIRCUT
I have to agree with you.
No point in worrying about what might have been,we have to play with the cards we are dealt.
Doesn’t mean I’m happy about the window.
But I’m not gonna dwell on it any longer. Those wearing The Hoops are there to be supported.
Not told they were fifth-choice targets,useless,and unwanted.
MadMitch 12:52 on 2 September, 2013
Ge … @ 12.47
“Our financial position does not make sense.
“If it does not make sense then it does not make sense.
“Then you have to ask why”
Basic accounts courses are available at collage if this stuff is affecting your sleep.
Places are still available for a September start. Maybe you boys could go on a course together.
madMitch/TBB
Apologies for typos and spelling in last post. I cannot multi-task, it seems.
gebhoy
“we should never ever be in the position of having to throw money at a club at the last minute”
Yeah, it would be great if all selling clubs sold us the players we want at the price we want to pay, but I cannot see that happening anytime soon.
We, in common with most other clubs in the transfer market will be making last minute bids and re-bids because a) our favoured target has gone elswhere and we are moving down the pecking order or b) we fancy pressurising a desperate club to sell a player to us for less than he is worth.
I see it happening in every transfer window since the Bosman rule kicked in and it affects everyone. Real have played 3 La Liga games without landing Gareth Bale, e.g.
emerald green @13.07
You answered your own question when you said you “read” that he hadn’t mentioned Celtic!
Caution, MSM at work!
HH
Kayal,
Mladen Petric a no brainer.
goalscorer, year deal !! nothing to lose
Talking of meeja mischief, I see the nerve gas genocide in Syria has been relegated to second place in the scandal charts by Stokes moving the ball back a foot or so at the free kick.
It must be terrible to be so eaten up by jealousy and hatred.
Honest mistake;
1. 99% of the support want the GB at CP, PLC dosent, its not just 111 which is bad enough anyway.
2. PLC wants them back theirs £4 million a season in it for them in revenue, you bet your bottom dollar they do, and they had no other option than to vote against, can you imagine the supports response if they didn’t.
3. This is an easy one for me if your right your right, they cheated nearly at every turn denying us UCL money and had help from a complicit SFA, the club needed to be brave and have some courage and speak out especially on behalf of the fans. They have said nothing. Too much money at stake for the bigoted pound, until we have an escape route out of Scotland they will continue to endorse the status quo by their silence!
HH gebhoy
Gebhoy.
If you’re just going to make crap up then what’s the point?
Good day to you.
Hail hail
Just watching some of the goings-on during the final few hours of the transfer window, I would love it if we had bundles of money to spend but as a Celtic fan I don’t think I would ever be comfy spending 42.5 million on Mesut Ozil?
Not entirely satisfied with how we carried out our business in this window but I think we need to give the new Bhoys a chance to settle in.