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Failure & Two Different Outcomes

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Today’s little story is a tale of two strikers, both failed, one who never made it and one who’s past his best.

One has a history of scoring goals, although anyone who’s watched him play wonders just how in the Hell he’s managed it.

The other was signed for £1 million, after convincing our club that he was worth it.

Anyone’s who’s watched him wonders just how in the Hell his former club, agents and PR men managed that.

The news that Amido Balde’s Celtic contract has been terminated should come as no surprise to a single fan.

This is one of the most baffling signings in the recent history of our club, one that makes not even the remotest bit of sense.

Whoever recommended him to us ought to be removed from the contacts list the club keeps.

Whoever watched him afterwards and thought he was good enough ought to be removed from his job.

Balde didn’t look even remotely capable of making a long term impact at the club.

He scored a grand total of 3 goals for us, in over 20 matches.

He was allowed to go out on loan, to Belgium, where he scored a single goal.

He then went to Tel Aviv where he was even worse. He never scored for them, in the Israeli league, which says it all.

I was stunned by this signing and that of Pukki, who was another striker with no scoring record to speak of.

They were unpardonable risks, and to have expected Neil Lennon to attempt to tackle a Champions League campaign with such unproven players was a travesty.

These guys cost us the better part of £3 million, all told, and that doesn’t even include their wages, not that it mattered much because both were loaned out anyway.

Amido was clearly a good kid, but not the calibre of footballer our club needed either at that time or at any time.

Signed primarily as a “project player” he highlighted each and every single problem with the concept.

Sometimes these deals work – look at Victor Wanyama – but the hit-and-miss nature of them can be costly, and so it was here.

Balde will find a new club. Of course he will. But his chances, slim though they were, of making it onto the bigger stage, of having a career at the very top, are gone.

He will find his level, earn some money and do alright … in relative terms.

It’s supposed to happen that way.

Lack of ability is supposed to close off careers like his.

Or does it?

I watched Balde play and he did have a certain level of skill, and athleticism.

Had he been branded as a winger or a wide man he might have gone on to a decent career somewhere, because he had some of the attributes to be one.

He certainly had a lot more natural ability than other players I’ve seen, players who have “made it” and been lauded by our media.

One of those players is Kris Boyd.

He has just sealed his third move to Kilmarnock, after completing a hugely unsuccessful spell at Sevco, his second sojourn at Ibrox.

It appals me that this guy, and not Larsson, will go down as the SPL’s record goal-scorer.

He clearly has a predator instinct in front of goal, but a far as being a footballer goes … it’s not there and it’s never been there.

He has not ounce of skill.

He is lazy.

Right now he looks shockingly out of shape.

Remember when the hacks suggested that Neil Lennon could do worse than sign him?

Jesus wept. I would have had Balde any day of the week.

How many managers now have seen Boyd play and not wanted him in the big games?

How did that man score goals at all?

He flopped, spectacularly, in the Scottish Championship last season and is now returning to Kilmarnock, where he’s telling the press he’s going to shoot them into the top six of the SPL.

He will probably be joined there by Lee McCulloch, which is another wee bit of lunacy from the board of directors there.

Some clubs seem to reward failure, players who are past it, like they’ve become retirement homes for diddies.

Gary Locke, their manager at the moment, has a win ratio of 20%.

He’s lost 8 of the 15 games he’s managed at the club thus far, and there can no better indication that he lacks a clue than these reported moves.

Frankly, signings like these are what get you the sack.

He’s already on the verge.

This will seal his fate, and it’s hard to have sympathy for him in the inevitability that this all goes wrong.

In the meantime, Celtic is set to complete a deal for Saidy Janko shortly.

He will be our second signing of the close season.

He sounds like a decent player, but no-one has ever compared him to Dani Alves.

I guess it’s only Sevco targets who inspire such ludicrous comments.

It helps, of course, that the papers employ ex Rangers and Sevco PR men to write for their sports sections.

And they wonder why the trade is dying.

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  • cliftbhoy says:

    Too right mate, very good post, they’re trying to bring the SPFL down to the Championship level.

  • Charles Donaghy says:

    Decent comments there but by your thinking neil Lennon should have beem sacked as he signed the dud balde and pukki

  • The Silver Fhox says:

    Boyd only scored as many goals because of the number of penalties he was allowed to take. I wholeheartedly agree that this is NOT a football player. Kilmarnock are only desirable to those who have few other, if any, options.

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