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Why we can attract top French youth talent

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By on CQN BLOG & Comments

Olivier Ntcham stole the show with a stunning free-kick goal for France under-21s against Bulgaria last night. Celtic’s midfielder came on as a 75th minute substitute, not long after teammate Moussa Dembele was subbed off.

Olivier has been capped by France at every age group since under-16. It is a mark of the expectations we have for him, and Moussa, that they are exposed to the demands of the Allianz Arena, despite Olivier having less than 50 senior games under his belt, and Moussa having less than 100.

At similar stages of their development, expectations of Kenny Dalglish and Henrik Larsson were considerably less, while contemporaries, Stuart Armstrong and Tom Rogic took years to reach peak form.

What we have seen from Olivier, and to a lesser extent Moussa, is a glimpse of their potential. Playing for Celtic, with its unique mix of expectations to win every domestic game, indifferent domestic opponents, and regular Champions League football, provides a great opportunity to polish potential into the finished article.

Young players will get first team opportunities in less demanding games, while 18-year-olds like Anthony Ralston will be asked to get stuck in against PSG. I doubt any other club can offer a better environment to develop talent, which explains why we can attract Moussa, Olivier and Odsonne Edouard.

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  3. Paddy Gallagher on

    Good day to you all. I would like to see us buying quality players that would be automatic first team selections. We appear to have invested a lot in the youth side of the playing staff in the last two windows. All these young guys pushing to come through should feel they will get their day instead of flooding the pool with quantity over quality. We would appear to be building a phenomenal squad so all good.

  4. ernie lynch on

    I reckon the whole Panama Papers scandal is nothing more than an international Masonic conspiracy to attack the reputation of The Great Desmondo.

     

     

    It’s the only rational explanation.

  5. corkcelt on

    I think Paddy Gallagher has a valid point , there are a few very promising kids coming through our own ranks, we also have Christie to come back & in normal times I would have expected Liam Henderson to be featuring occasionally.

     

    We have Ralston, Miller, Ajer, Benyu , Edouard, & Kouassi looking for a game, I think we can probably exclude Ntcham from the wannabees category,. but there doesn’t seem to be any point on adding to the aspiring talent list at this juncture.

     

    The situation with Odsonne seems strange, unless he is injured, he came with great credentials & we have an option to buy, yet we have hardly seen him, at this stage I doubt if he will be around next season.

  7. TheLurkinTim on

    Jobo….

     

     

    Did u make 221/2 yesterday…..did you enjoi watchin the paint dry….;-)). what colour yer family room…..you got a wall to break it up ;-))

     

     

    GenuineInvasionCSC

     

     

    H.H.

  10. tonyrome on

    Hi Bhoys

     

     

    Good morning to all of you but a special mention to all the bhoys I met at the hoot.

     

    It was my first but won’t be my last.

     

     

    I can say everyone I met yesterday were fine decent people and I look forward to sharing a drink with them again.

     

     

    Anyone who couldn’t make yesterday I look forward to meeting you at some point in the future.

     

     

    I met loads of good tims yesterday so here goes if I have omitted anyone from this list it’s not meant as an offence it’s just the drink and old age WEE EDDIE(non poster) BIG JIMMY(life and soul) PHILBHOY(lovely guy) OLDTIM(sharp dressed man) THUNDER ROAD,SIPSINI,FOURGREENFIELDS,HUNDERBIRDS(LONG DISTANCE RUNNER)THE LURKINTIM & MARK,BMCWP & COSY CORNER BHOY,FIRESDORFER,BATEENBHOY,AN TEARMAN and GERRY.

     

     

    Thanks again for a good day out bhoys i’m glad I came.

     

     

    KEEP THE FAITH

  13. starry plough on

    MORAVCIK

     

     

    The question would be why GVB, Rotterdam born and bred would leave his boyhood team Feyenoord the current Dutch champions to join a struggling Scottish team playing out of The Crumbledome???

     

     

    Sounds like wishful Chrimbo thinking:))

  14. TheLurkinTim on

    Bog Jimmy….

     

     

    Twice kissed ……is a prelude…..to a horses head…..glad u enjoyed it…I did….hope to drink with you soon …..again ;-))

     

     

    H.H.

  16. setting free the bears for Res. 12 & Oscar Knox on

    weebawbabbity

     

     

    Since you have confired your post was not aimed at me- I owe you an unreserved and huge apology and, if you do show up to see me, that is all the plain speaking you will get.

     

     

    My only defence is that you cited a poster, whom you did not name, quoting that they had cited family reasons for not showing uo and who had been critical of Kev J. I was the only one on the board yesterday who cited such reasons and they were genuine.

     

     

     

    GFTB and pogmathon

     

     

    Thanks for bringing this to my attention- I apologise that I ahve taken this as a criticism of my reasons for not being able to drop in yesterday. I was only 400 yards away from the pub yesterday but I could not get any free time as I was at a family event

  18. TheLurkinTim on

    SFTB,

     

     

    You know you coulda turned up yesterday…..citing….you’ve got another family event….our Celtic family ;-))

     

     

    Sorry I mist u this time ;-))

     

     

    H.H.

  19. dena29 on

    Bhoys I know its a bit early but i will be in Boston for Motherwell games in November

     

     

    any suggestion where i can watch cup game

     

     

    Thanks in advance

     

     

    HH

  31. weebawbabitty on

    SFTB, its fine thanks anyway , don’t know if you have read back or the posts have been deleted, but the two of us were getting threatened which I thought wasn’t allowed on this site

  34. moravcik on

    Starry Plough

     

     

    I was only quoting JohnJames

     

     

    I don’t think they could afford to do this.

     

    Would McCann work at Ibrox without an EBT ?

  35. TheLurkinTim on

    Poppy Debate Alert

     

     

    Faux Outrage

     

     

    I recollect….though my memory is hazy…..that not one of the Hootennaniers was wearing a poppy……although, from some family stories, It would’ve been appropriate…..shocked am not ;-))

     

     

    UTLR

     

     

    H.H.

  41. starry plough on

    MORAVCIK

     

     

    I can’t imagine anyone in the right mind heading to Ibrox:)) But maybe that’s just me:))

     

     

    It’ll be interesting to see if they appoint before they play the Big Boys of the league or after.

     

     

    The question of who exactly is funding them still remains moot!

     

     

    Good to see you posting again..

  42. Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan on

    Timabhouy

     

     

    Imagine for a moment you are a professional chap or chapess.

     

     

    It doesn’t really matter what kind of professional, in the traditional sense, person you are: lawyer, accountant, doctor, surveyor, architect, rust repairer, artificial limb polisher, pole dancer or whatever.

     

     

    The fact is, that within your own wee profession you are cocooned, hidden away in your specialist area of expertise and in many respects divorced and totally adrift from the real world.

     

     

    My own wee specialist world used to be the law and I would spend day after day talking to clients, other lawyers, accountants, surveyors and occasionally pole dancers about the law and what it is, what it isn’t and what it is meant to be.

     

     

    All well and good thus far.

     

     

    Then one day I went to see a rather swanky firm of accountants and they explained to me the benefits of an EBT scheme. This one was based out of the Isle of Man and was a pre-prepared tax vehicle and trust scheme which could save me a lot of money.

     

     

    I had a client with a valuable asset at the time, and the accountants wanted to do the equivalent of a quick Ali shuffle, move the asset about and eventually save him a lot of tax when he came to sell.

     

     

    It was a great scheme, they explained, and although it was expensive to administer ( which was their way of saying they were going to charge a big fee) the savings would be considerably more.

     

     

    All very good until I asked about the possibility of the Government closing such schemes down, declaring them illegal and seeking a bloody great fortune in tax, interest and penalties.

     

     

    “Most unlikely,” said the accountants:

     

     

    “But possible?” I asked.

     

     

    “Possible,” said the accountant “But our fees would cover any Government challenge right up to the Inner House of the Court of Session, but beyond that, you would have to pay additional legal fees!”

     

     

    Given my own wee cocooned existence, I was all too well aware what the legal fees could come to in The Court of Session and The House of Lords so I asked again:

     

     

    “Do the revenue have a habit of trying to shut these things down retrospectively?”

     

     

    ” Well, sometimes. But not very often.” said the accountant. And so we continued talking.

     

     

    The chap who was the accountant could not convince me to buy into his tax saving scheme for my client because it was quite plain to me that there was every chance that, no matter how much you paid in fees, The Government always had the ability to declare any such scheme illegal and so that did not seem like very good odds to me.

     

     

    And so it proved.

     

     

    I am amazed that any lawyers/accountants advise their clients to run the risk of an aggressive tax avoidance scheme using trusts and loans because no matter how legal it is today, The Government always, not sometimes – always, has the ability to retrospectively change the law to negate whatever hairbrained scheme demented and cocooned accountants come up with.

     

     

    And because they are cocooned in endless statutory instruments, tax decisions, secondary legislation footnotes and all that sort of thing, professionals (especially lawyers and accountants) don’t actually see the real world and what to do within the general spirit of the law and the tax regulations.

     

     

    I left the swanky firm and went to see a small diminutive one-man band accountant of my acquaintance instead and explained the position about the client who had a valuable asset to sell.

     

     

    “What does he do to mitigate the tax?” I asked this somewhat elderly chap who, on occasions, smoke a pipe and a cigarette at the same time.

     

     

    He paused for a moment, puffed on pipe and fag, and without consulting any legislation or specialist texts delivered his opinion on this tax conundrum without even knowing the sums involved.

     

     

    “Tell your man to sell his asset, and then spend the feckin money like billy-oh on another asset of any kind which will be tax deductible. Cars, Boats, houses, anything remotely to do with his business and tell him to live it up and party like no tomorrow. At the end of the year, tell him to write it all down in his tax return until he gets to a number that he is comfortable paying, and then send the tax return and a cheque for the comfortable sum.

     

     

    The tax man will look at the return, see the number at the bottom, see a cheque for that number, and he will bank it and file the tax return away forever. Your man will never hear from the tax man again. They are far too busy chasing lunatics who declare that they have no money because it is all owned by their aunty’s trust in Guernsey or some other tom fool place that shouts “Hey tax man I am trying to ram it right up you!”

     

     

    That is my advice ……. and you owe me a curry!”

     

     

    The big swanky firm eventually went bust — or “merged” as they say in professional circles.

     

     

    The one-man band’s firm flourished and prospered until the day he dropped stone dead as a result of smoking like a lum and spending all his fees as quickly as he could.

     

     

    I gave up the law and became a wandering story teller with occasional bouts of sobriety!

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