Do Celtic have a Plan B or C, D, E

Well this is going to sound like an extension of last weeks moan, groan, rant or realism, call it what you will while dancing to the sound of “She Said I love you bhoy I love you so, she said I love you baby ohh ohh ohh ohhhhhh ohhhhhh”.

With the sad news that Craig Bellamy, who was our number one target I have no doubt about that, has decided to head for the valleys of Wales and his hometown team Cardiff City. Where exactly does that leave us. If what I hear is true then the club were supremely confident of this deal going through. Only to be gazumped at the final hurdle by the Bluebirds impersonating a magpie and taking our shiny. I have mixed emotions about the entire episode really.

First off I am absolutely gutted that Bellamy chose them over us and I am positive it was a case of them or us. Then on the other hand I start to think I’m happy he is following his dream of playing for his boyhood heroes in a time when the mere suggestion of such an occurrence brings ridicule and mockery. They say in these days of golden purses and iPads that players are only about the money and wouldn’t stoop to playing outside the myth that is the EPL. Obviously I realise he will still be picking up a massive wage between his new employers and Man City, able to stock up on Apps aplenty but I’m sure he won’t have the same bonuses and tie-ins in his contract with the Championship side. I would wager he has had to take a substantial pay cut also to facilitate the move. So yeah happy he went there instead of an EPL side. Then again as I think on I’m pissed he has ended up in the hands of Dave ‘greetin faced hypocrite’ Jones after all the moaning he did about Celtic and the Ledley affair. I’ve mentioned before that Cardiff City have done the exact same thing as Celtic did in the recent past. So with Cardiff’s shoe firmly on the other foot so annoyed I am now that I hope Motherwell carry out their threat of sending in the bailiffs to recover money owed by the cheeky Welsh bollox. Who knows they might even buy some grass seeds with it. I knew the state of the Fir Park pitch was all Dave Jones’s fault. Pr**k.

As I say though what is now Plan B apart from The Defamation of Strickland Banks? I hope Celtic have one as the levels of excitement and expectations amongst the support as to who the next number 7 will be has reached fever pitch in some quarters. Not just anybody can wear the coveted, hallowed jersey and it was actually a bit of a travesty that Terry Butchers favorite nephew Scott McDonald wore it for so long. The problem Celtic have in my mind is that they have deliberately stoked the fire when prompted on the ‘name’ targets. We were more public than ever before in our pursuit of Bellamy while inviting Campbell, Bullard and James to come have a look at our nice back-garden and sample the Lennoxtown custard creams. Someone more cynical than myself might say the club were more than happy to show off the kind off guys that would eventually say no as they tried to hawk season tickets. I might be being a little unkind there as if the targets in question had said yes to the Lawwell of Del Monte then I’m sure we would have gotten the deals done. Still, I don’t recall many budget buys that escaped our clutches getting the ‘it was out-with our control’ treatment.

We have brought the guts of £15 million in transfer fee’s into the club with I expect another couple of million (probably more) to add to that if the likes of MAF, Samaras or Hinkel move on. What have we spent so far? Jaurez £3m, Hooper £2.5, Kayal £1.5, Izaguirre £0.6m. I may be wrong but I think everyone else came in on free transfers. Thats £15m in and £6.6 out so far give or take and remember we still have more fee’s likely to come in to add to that. I said last week there must still be £10 million in the kitty and it is imperative we buy a striker that is a proven goalscorer of a decent pedigree. They are out there despite what the people who can see no further than the english promenade will tell you.

Who? well that is the ten million pound question that even Steven Hanwking is stumped on. We have hopefully repaired the defence with the Majstorovic and Izaguirre shaped bricks and mortar, while we have more midfielders than the midfield factory up the road from me, we need to buy goals. The game against ICT proved that. Although we had a good second half showing, the difference between a 1 nil win and a 4 or 5 nil win was the lack of a quality striker. We were practically playing with four wingers without Hooper or Murphy in the starting eleven. Hooper looks to have goals in him but he’s out now for 6 weeks and he’s still a young lad that we can’t burden an entire campaign on. Murphy I already have a nagging feeling somehow is going to be the new Kris Killen and by that I don’t mean his ability but just that he is going to be on the outside looking in most of the time. I could be wrong and of course hope I’m wrong in that, I normally am actually so he should be good to go. There is no point going over the net bulging prowess of Samaras and MAF as it’s all been said all before.

We NEED a striker, we could go for McFadden who would be an undoubted success but more in the supporting role as he has never been prolific in front of goal (Plan C?), we could go for Stokes who would score for fun in my humble opinion at Celtic but wouldn’t be the dream signing the fans are chasing (Plan D?), Let’s not contemplate (Plan E?) nobody wants another orc in the hoops.

Could we just go out and try and get Keane with the entire budget and would he want to come back? I’m scratching my head and I feel Celtic have backed themselves into a corner filled with the fans expectations. I just hope and pray it’s only us that are scratching our empty nappers and the renaissance of the SSM is about to appear and pull a masterstroke in the style of Hannibal Smith the master of all plans, B or otherwise.

This weeks blog was brought to you by the letter after A, we await further developments with interest Celtic…

Harper

(btw in the words of my mother for more of my amazing insights see www.LostBhoys.com)