We knew that it was going to end with this result. They wander through the door of Lennoxtown, get a training kit, get some training, a sauna, a medical then they leave without signing contract.
I liken trials to those high street shop sales when then just stick all their old stock on racks and it takes you ages to find something nice in a medium. It seems like Celtic have a wedding to attend but are not going to get measured for a suit. They are hoping to pick something up in a sale.
The goalkeeping situation is nearly at critical level. Cool Hand Luka has proved himself to meet the basic good shot stopper criteria but lacks that presence. Another trial is muted for the Belgian that doesn’t do trials. Another bid for Double F seems on the cards.
The striker situation is more complicated as we have a wealth of numbers but none bar the top two picks will get anywhere near double figures a season.
The tedium of Bellamy continues. I feel like screaming just give up to the management and assorted suits. Too much money for too little return. He automatically becomes a first pick for his wage. He automatically becomes a problem.
Shane Long? With West Ham already looking to make him the focal point of Sam Walrus Puss hopeful long balls by offering a wedge out our league, with assorted add-ons and not strap on’s as you might expect from their owners., makes this a pipe dream.
My bet is that we don’t sort this out until the end of August.
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Couldn’t agree more with the above re the goal keeping and forward scenario. Here we go again. How long did it take to bring in a central defender!!!!Are we going down the same road again. No wonder fans get frustrated.
With the Cb I reckon we thought Wilson would arrive in January. He was always our top target.
right on- Bellamy is not the answer ..if he is ..the question was wrong.
My sense is Robbie Keane is still in the mix somewhere and for reasons above ..I am not in favour of him either as that ship sailed imo
The season has started so I am reluctant to be critical of Celts when we need unity
but
Zal is a good back up -and I like him a lot especially his attitude when all and sundry (me included) looking to find his replacement
is Lenny really getting all the support he needs to make it work this term?
not being -ve just feel ‘keeper role needs to be bolted to the deck
there is much to be +ve about now-the backline is stronger with some decent pace -a great mid with cover -2 strikers that can do the biz…yes I would like to see a big heider of goals target man ..
like the analogy on shop sales and tailoring
look on the bright side ..at least we are not Poundland hehehe
hail, hail
Whisper this, Robbie is finished as a viable concern. Spurs mate has it on authority that he is clinging onto his grand Spurs contract, waving it in the face of potential suitors shouting match this. He’s willing to be benches and see out his deal. He hasnt played regular since that 6 months with us.
Cool Hand Luka meets the basic requirements for our goalie. His fault is he is post Boruc.
Once again the Celtic fans are left with more questions than answers. Why have we got such a huge squad- with far too many average players ? Why are we not moving heaven and earth to get a quality keeper and a big center forward ?
I hate to say it, but I think at the moment we’re just seeing the usual BS and spin we get from the board every transfer window. I dont think they’ve got any intention of backing NL properly and bringing in another “three quality players”.
I’m sick of moaning about this stuff, but we get the same old crap every transfer window.
They look at Ipox and decide they dont need to spend any more money.
They stick a few rumours in the press about how we’re “interested” in players we cant afford. And, just as the transfer window slams shut, we fail to sign them. What a surprise !
Our transfer policy gets more bizare every year. We should be miles ahead of Sally, but already he’s making up ground- just by making sure he’s got good, experienced players in key positions. How much is a keeper like Mcgregor worth to them? How much would a keeper as good as him be worth to us ?
If we win the league this season, and we desperately need to, it’ll be down to the efforts of NL, the players and the fans- without any proper backing from the board, as usual.
It’s transfer tedium coupled with our fiscal policies which give the impression we watch them then act. We don’t and while they annoy and I have a go they have backed our last two managers.
I’m not saying I’m 100% right. But the way I remember it is that they didnt invest enough in the team when we we’re doing well.
They let WGS’s squad, which was built very cheaply, self-destruct through lack of investment. By doing this, they created a monumental disaster whereby they had to panic buy a new manager and a new squad of players- to save their own necks.
They’re supposed to be money men, but they’ve cost the club a fortune over the last few years. Everybody else at the club gets judged on their performance, but not them. They just seem to keep on repeating the same mistakes.
In no way can I disagree with that.
I have said in other postings I am worried lads! Totally agree with Paranoidroid above, our board have always been tight and I am not looking forward to this season as it stands!
Saw this on http://www.celticnewsnow.com and agree with your assessment of things.
The GK situation is simple, get young Sandomierski in! He’s probably 3 times the keeper that Forster is, we can make money on him because he will be great and some big teams have already been watching him. He wants to move somewhere where he will be No.1….hence why competition from Everton where Tim Howard will be No.1 shouldn’t be much competition at all. Plus we can offer him European football. If we are prepared to take Forster as our No.1 at his age, then there is no reason we shouldn’t take Sandomierski as No.1 !
As for the striker situation. We need to offload first! Murphy is crap and doesn’t give that physical aerial threat we need from him, Samaras just can’t find the net, he can get into the positions but it always seems to fall unkindly or something….Rasmussen I think can do it for us, but he needs to sort his attitude it seems and Lenny may not have forgiven him for last pre-season yet where he clearly pissed him off something terrible. Bringing in strikers without offloading is only going to hamper our chances of bringing through youngsters such as the very talented James Keatings! As our aim seems to be to try and improve our youth setup and how many players we are bringing through, it wouldn’t make sense to hold back a talent like that.
There are a few ways we can go with buying a new striker though. You can go for the young, slightly more expensive but could be worth a hell of a lot more route. We could go for the middle of the road, has banged in at least 15 goals a season for the past 3 or 4 seasons running route, there is the “I’m as good as Knowledge Musona but more suited to European football and I’m Mphela’s team-mate” route or we could go with the big, tall, target man who usually scores around 10 goals a season, gets quite a few assists but last season netted about 24 goals.
Vladimir Dvalishvili, Roman Kienast, Nyasha Mushekwi, Yoo Byung-Soo, Alexander Gerndt, Rasmus Jonsson….all proven goal scorers, all full of potential or have reached their potential and the first two have experience at international level and in Europe. Any of them would add something to our squad…..if we sell one or two of our current strikers. None of these players will break the bank either! Although Gerndt and Byung-Soo may be the more expensive than the others.
[QUOTE] Vladimir Dvalishvili, Roman Kienast, Nyasha Mushekwi, Yoo Byung-Soo, Alexander Gerndt, Rasmus Jonsson….all proven goal scorers, all full of potential or have reached their potential and the first two have experience at international level and in Europe. Any of them would add something to our squad…..if we sell one or two of our current strikers. None of these players will break the bank either! Although Gerndt and Byung-Soo may be the more expensive than the others. [QUOTE]
Its all very well pulling the names above out of a list but the prospective outlook is can we afford them?
You say the word expensive and the board go running, the words trial and play by play contracts seem to come into the fray more and more now as it it more viable to take a punt on a short term carthorse who may or may not do a job then spilling 3 million or above plus on a well groom race horse.
I believe that IF, and thats a big IF, somehow a Bellamy deal is concocted it may be a case of a similar deal to the last one he was on when he was a celtic park excepting the fact we will not be paying his full wages and probably a portion, which could be 25% or less giving the possible funds we may or may not have.
The only othe case scenario is that another marquee signing comes to the forefront that Mr Billionaire Desmond like the sound of and that he funds the wages for and then its happy days. Thing is I cannot see the latter happening and it would not surprise me if we are in the same position squad wise in 2 months as we are now.
These “deals” need to be lashed out otherwise we may be lacking in the long run.
We CAN afford these players.
Dvalishvili played with Kayal at Maccabi Haifa so we can get a scouting report from him, don’t think he would cost more than £2m and he has a great scoring record and has played in Europe a lot, I really think he should be the one we bring in.
Mphela’s team-mate at Sundowns, Mushekwi, probably won’t cost more than £1.5m…..if even £1m! Would add a good physical Drogba like presence up front.
Helsingborgs are in need of money so Gerndt and Jonsson could be available for a little less than they would otherwise although there was talk that Gerndt might cost up to £3m. Jonsson is younger and so probably at least half of that price.
Yoo Byung-Soo is a very good South Korean striker, set to follow in the footsteps of Park Chu Young of Monaco and if any of you have seen him play, you will realise that’s a VERY good thing. I think he would be available for £2m at the most.
Kienast is a 27 year old striker, playing for Sturm Graz….not too sure but could see him being available for around the £1.5m – £2m region.
Mphela was not coming for nothing, was it about £1.5 or £1.8 million we were supposed to be paying for him? We just wanted to see him on trial first. So I don’t think it’s that we WON’T spend the money, its that we are looking in the wrong places at the moment.
If we spend £4m on a striker and a new GK and sell off some of the unwanted and useless crap we have surrounding the team (how many CBs do we need?) then that would be enough to get a good striker and GK in and we recoup some of that money from player sales. Plus in the long run, depending on who you sign, you will make that money back when selling them on. For example Sandomierski, if we bought him for £2m, we should be able to sell him for £5m because I honestly think he will be that good!
To compound the problem of who we bring in is, who do we sell ?,because it seems to me that nobody wants the ones we want(need to)sell !