As the football operation at Celtic enjoys its first break since returning to training in June, focus at the club moves to recruitment. Celtic have been busy renewing contracts throughout the first half of the season, the notable exceptions being Dedryck Boyata and Scott Brown, but reinforcements are needed ahead of the Champions League qualification games, if not the second half of the season.
The biggest area of concern is central defence. Filip Benkovic will (probably) return to Leicester City in June, while Dedryck Boyata will hope to cash-in on last summer’s World Cup appearances before he produces too many like those at Ibrox on Saturday. The Marvin Compper experiment was over before it began, while Jack Hendry has dropped to fifth choice and the fitness status of Jozo Simunovic has to be assessed on a minute-by-minute basis.
That leaves Kristoffer Ajer (20) as the only reliable option for a position that cost us dearly against AEK in August.
There is work to do elsewhere. Right back needs strengthened, we are crucially short of headcount in the striker department and there’s a reasonable chance Scott Brown will move on this summer, but while moves are underway to cover some of these gaps, I would forgo all other positions to get central defence sorted out this month, despite the fact that right now it is the most settled of the positions discussed.
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Guys it’s not 3 days it’s 12 months.
We needed a centre back 12 months ago
We needed a Right back 12 months ago
We needed a centre forward 12 months ago, as cover for MD and Griff, MD was always leaving, and with Griff out we do not have a natural Centre Forwrad in the first team squad.
I repeat 12 months..
I could not care less about Defoe. I understand guys saying “ffs 3 days” be patient, if that’s how long you have thought that we have needed these players then good on you.
I on the other hand know we have needed them for 12 months and if Celtic do not then this will be interesting.
Get our business done leading up to transfer windows and get the signatures on the first few days, it shows intent to any rivals.
All IMO of course
Aff oot tae wet the bed?
HH
D. :)
Philmac hinting that the Celtic squad had a sickness bug prior to the Sevco game, and, the bus being smoke bombed, anyone who is waiting on Celtic saying anything about the SFA or the events of last week should spend their time reading the 3 books that make up the Lord of the Rings, at least you will have done something with your time, not that I am recommending these books found them dull and repetitive.
50 shades
A hun being able to copy n paste? With crayons? C’mon?
MWD
Had celtic unveiled defoe and the young fellow bayo today, I think most would have been pleased, one with experience and one for the future job done
TIMJIM
The Bournemouth fans thought he had too.
It won’t happen but if I was the manager I would honestly sign Mulgrew and McGeady.
We’re definitely in a fight for the league and two course and distance winners would be priceless.
Oh and by the way, Defoe won’t get booted all over the park with our current squad of players.
Not that I condone Hun style of footy, but we should have players that can mix it up when the going gets tough.
I could never imagine great football players like Murdoch, Auld, McNeill, Hay etc getting bullied.
Bedwetterscsc
D. :)
In my opinion Celtic need at least two players in the first team who can look after themselves and not allow other teams to kick them all over the park if you think back MON had a few of them in his teams currently we are to nice as a team.meanwhile over at the Glasgow pensioners they are signing more auld blokes that no one else wants and there age bill will be even bigger why any Celtic fan is concerned about that beats me.We have until the end of the transfer window to strengthen our first team with real quality.H.H.
Three days into January,they sign two, one mid thirties other late thirties.The window has only opened wait until it is about to close,see how things are and if,there is cause for concern then vent rage time!!!!!
50 Shades @ 7:09 – bang on.
The big blue bogey man is comin’ to getcha !!!
Run, hide, scream, panic.
David66
You campin out the night ?.
FFS Freezin
:)))
Nally81
Seamus Coleman, James McCarthy, Victor Wanyama + 2 CBs & 2 strikers with at least one proven
Panic button being pressed on here tonight,
Defoe and Davis were good players but so were Ian Wright and Freddie Ljungberg till they turned up here, throw in world cup winner Juninho too,
Even Roy Keane tried it but his injuries caught up with him, still gave wee Barry a masterclass in how to be a midfielder at Ibrox though.
I would be dissapointed if Celtic signed similar today,
Defoe might only be here to soften up the deluded before Morelos gets punted.
Oh, hoh, hoh, hoh, hah, ha ha ha ha ; ?
?……………?
Celtic supporters as usual have been fair and un-blinkered in their retrospectives on Saturday’s game. Celtic were second best from about the tenth minute.
But since the officials had pre-determined that sevco would win how valid was that result?
Scottish officials adamantly refuse to apply the Fifa rules of Football in games involving sevco. And they are well aware that the corrupt Scottish sports press will applaud their corrupt practices.
Would anybody be interested in Andy Carrol and Bayo, I would por cierto :)
And Weah por cierto
Snake P
“Look at the number of penalties they’ve had alone this year.”
If you look at one stat alone, in isolation, you will see what you want to see.
One Glasgow club has seen 18 yellow cards and one red ( a double yellow) so far this season.
The other has had 34 yellows and 5 reds (3 of them straight reds).
Now , within the thesis that they are all out to get us, explain how we are the first of those clubs outlined and not the second.
In the Fair Play league, we are number 1 of 12 SPFL clubs and they are 12th of 12 (5th place for yellows but way out in front for reds)
P.S. I am not saying there is no favouritism towards them- today’s decision alone should make that view untenable. But the impact of cheating and favouritism has not been enough to derail us yet (and it has been forecast that it would for each of the past 7 years)
M6 BHOY,
With the greatest respect,I would say your posts about DD are nonsense.Maybe a fee ofvaround 15 million would need to be discussed,but no way,run of the mill fees.Its PLs job to negotiate,Brendans job to pass on to him what his scouts recommend.Every transfer we are involved in goes the same way.Dragged out.Driving us all crazy.
MOONBEAMSWD on 3RD JANUARY 2019 7:19 PM
50 shades
A hun being able to copy n paste? With crayons? C’mon?….
######
Aye right enough MWD, never thought that one through did i.
DOH ???
I would suggest the negotiations for a 36yr old, who no one wants apart from one club, and whose present club would like out the door, would take considerably less time than most negotiations por cierto.
I hope our transfer business won’t be a reaction to Dad’s Army across the river but the culmination of a thorough examination of what we need to take the club forward.
Often stated we are to reactionary in all football matters but hopefully we will be proactive in this window.
Would prefer we got guys in early to integrate with the team and coaching strategy.
NALLY81 on 3RD JANUARY 2019 7:21 PM
Wow, thank goodness you are not our manager ?
the ghuys on here showing their frusrations about the transfer window have every right to do so, calling them bedwetters shows more about you than it does to them, every other club do their business at the beginning of the window or the middle, every feckin window celtic are scrambling about on the last day, just cant get my head round the thinking of the board,,heaven help us if they win this league, our forefathers will never forgive us.hh.
I hope the new signings, when they come, have thick skins as well as ability.
The pressure on them is going to be immense
We may be on day 3 of the current transfer window. However, our needs are as they were in June.
Celtic, killie, Dons, sevco – which team has regressed the most over past 12 months? I’d suggest we have.
Does anyone feel out current squad is good enough, as things stand today, to retain the league title? Hmmmm. Could be tight.
There are genuine, valid and long standing concerns amongst supporters.
To suggest this makes anyone a ‘bedwetter’ is quite wrong. BSR is a better poster than this.
Some imaginative, proven signings please.
Has the MSSM started the Defoe for an England return campaign yet?
That Ashley Barnes of Burnley is a cracking footballer and would be an outstanding signing if we could afford to buy him.
HH. ?
Paul 67
Anyone
Anyone get a feeling of deja vu?
A bit like season 2010/11 when having punted £20m gross on players in 2008 (that Celtic failed to match in 2009) when in 2008 the BTC bills were piling up on the Ibrox carpet , Rangers HAD to win the 2010/11 title in order to survive (helped by not paying HMRC in 2010 the £2.8m owed since 2002) referee or Hampden disciplinary decisions always went Rangers way?
I do, which was why so much effort went into Res12, to ensure it never happened again.
On the bright side Celtic cannot afford another 2009 winter transfer window when the words “Stephen Fletcher” made space in Peter Lawwell’s eventual epitaph (to quote the man himself at a Roadshow).
It wont happen again? Surely not, especially when the means of ending Beaton like appointments is within Celtic’s power.
That would be more than careless.
STAIRHEEDRAMMY
I think they’re waiting to do a’ Charlie Adam for Scotland return’ double feature. Big Eck will be rubbing his big sweaty palms in anticipation.
Adi– don’t get it?
D. :)
I’m with HSJJ regarding Celtic’s silence on everything. If Beaton saw the infringements and admits to seeing them then he needs to be demoted pronto. You can put money on certain referees who will allow Carte Blanche by the cloggers and hammer throwers against our team and will without fail yellow card a Celtic player first. We know who they are Beaton, Madden, Dallas, et al, but our Board sits blithely by and says the square root of feck all.
As regards the huns signing the mobility scooter brigade, well they will suffer the same fate as their liquidated predecessors. We’re only 3 days into the transfer window and Sky Sports have spoken to some Slovakian tea boy who says our bid was knocked back, well we’ll see.
Seamus Coleman is is good shout as the boy is quality, should have been at Paradise a long time ago.
BSR, there is nothing wrong with bed wetting, ask Jermaine Defoe. In fact I can remember a time when I had wet dreams and dry farts – oh how I long for those days now ? ?????????
Who would win a fight between bedwetters and mineshafters?
Auldheid- some incredible decisions going their way on the park and more significantly at the appeals stage- looks like the SFA are back in their save the rangers mission
Labeling folk is a manifestation of cranial laziness.
Its easier than thinking, and opening the mind to the possibility that a poster might just have a point that the labler does not want to think about because it takes effort or challenges a long held belief.
The good Lord gaves us all hearts to pump blood and feel with and brains to think.
We should honour that gift by using the power of the latter to inform the former.
Celtic have been here before, hence the worry, that does not mean they will make the same mistakes as before (fingers crossed).
Auldheid
Are you saying we should sign Steven Fletcher? :-)
GALLAGHER on 3RD JANUARY 2019 7:28 PM
Nally81
Seamus Coleman, James McCarthy, Victor Wanyama + 2 CBs & 2 strikers with at least one proven
—–
Gallagher- that would do me.
D. :)
David66
Aff oot tae wet the bed :)