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One Life Left: Some Of These Guys Are On Their Last Chance At Celtic Park.

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Image for One Life Left: Some Of These Guys Are On Their Last Chance At Celtic Park.

The window just closed brought with it a lot of anger. It was a missed opportunity for the club to really kick on, to really strengthen and give us a grounding for the next couple of years. The manager knows it was a failure, the fans mostly know it was a failure and the club’s largest shareholder certainly does. It saw cracks open up at every level.

The club is sitting on a pile of money.

The manager has needs, and one of those is that we buy a quality striker. The Dembele cash gives us real latitude to spend. In spite of the Champions League exit, we’ve arguably never been in a stronger position than now.

I expect us to flex some muscle in January; players will be coming in not just to strengthen for the run-in, but because we need to start thinking about the next European campaign right now. That will be foremost in the planning inside Celtic Park.

But we have a big squad. We do, in fact, have a huge squad and one that is rather unwieldy in certain areas. No-one doubts that our “second string” are good footballers, or that the rigours of a campaign where we’ll have Europe and domestic duties to attend to will be easier with a smaller group. In fact, modern football virtually demands big squads.

The trouble is, some of these guys are just marking time here.

That’s a fact. And for many of them the next three or four months are the last chance they’re going to get to show us what they can do. Those players will have their futures established in that timeframe. The manager has his eyes on a bigger prize than our eight SPL title.

So let’s have a look at the players who might well be in the Last Chance Saloon.

We’ll start with the one who’s already certain to be packing up his football boots and heading for pastures new …

Marvin Compper. The Mystery Man Of Celtic Park.

This was a signing that ticked all the right boxes; people may have forgotten that in the months since we last saw him kick a ball in anger.

There is very little chance of him being able to turn people around now, the problems he has are as much to do with perception as they are with reality at this point and he’s been out of the game for way too long.

Compper is 33, so even if the more outlandish stories about why he’s not in the team prove to be untrue, his window is closing anyway. He hasn’t played in months, he has barely trained, he would be weeks away from fitness even if he were still in the manager’s plans.

For all his bombast and bravado in the press, this guy is just about done.

It will be a minor miracle if we ever watch Marvin Compper in a Celtic shirt again. I do not expect it. No matter how hard he works behind the scenes there are too many players in front of him, too many doubts over him, too many unanswered questions.

This guy cost us £1 million and God knows how much extra in wages.

The only reason the media isn’t having a field day over this is that over at Ibrox they wasted far more on players who didn’t make it and who they then had to pay off to get them off the wage bill. Celtic has probably already offered him a severance package. If they have, he’s refused it.

But it matters not.

This one hasn’t worked out, and he’s on his way first chance we get.

Nir Bitton: A Player Who Was Just Coming Into His Own And May Yet Have Something.

I think Nir Bitton is almost criminally under-rated. As a midfielder he’s one of the best passers of the ball in the squad. He is cool and calm in possession and he had skill and aggression. Nir Bitton is also younger than most people realise; he’s 26 years old.

What throws them is that he’s already been a Celtic a while, since the summer of 2013. He’s made over 170 appearances for us in that time; he’s been a fine servant, and because he signed a contract extension he still has two years of his current deal left.

It is without question that he can do enough to earn another.

Brendan likes him a lot. He’s one of the players who the manager trusts implicitly, and one he had big plans for before a knee injury shattered them in February. The big man has been out ever since; six months and counting. Gone, but not forgotten.

One of his strengths is his versatility. His natural game is as a midfield playmaker, which is an area where we badly need someone with his skill-set, but he’s also been played as a ball-winner in the engine room. What’s most interesting, of course, is that the manager has also deployed him in the centre of defence, in a move I find interesting for a number of reasons which deserve an article all of their own; suffice to say, the manager is taking his cue there from Guardiola whilst at Barcelona and the other coaches from that finishing school, who believe that midfielders deployed at the centre of defence make excellent “build from the back” teams.

Javier Mascherano is clearly the sort of template the manager had in mind, and the tactic is doubly useful in a team like ours which frequently comes up against sides who play with a lot of personnel behind the ball. Those who wondered if Kris Ajer was being properly deployed at centre back should take note; he started his career in the midfield.

It’s pretty plain that he is not in the defence just because he’s better than Simunovic. He’s there because he’s the closest identikit player to Bitton.

The big Israeli definitely has a part to play.

Whether it’s enough of one to merit a new deal is something we’re going to find out in due course.

Cristian Gamboa: Solid, Steady, But Just Not The Manager’s Favourite.

There is no doubt at all that Cristian Gamboa is a player.

There’s also not much doubt that he’s better going forward than he is in defence, but our style of play is perfectly suited to him and so watch out for him getting plenty of games as the league season goes on. He is a player I have a lot of time for. I just wish he was as big a favourite with the boss.

The problem with Cristian is pretty obvious; the manager thinks Lusitg is just a better player overall, but Brendan realises that the Swede has his limitations now that his career is winding down. That we were definitely in the market for a right sided defender – and let one slip through our fingers – is beyond question. That would have spelled the end for the Costa Rican, and I don’t think any of us would have been terribly disappointed.

Yet watch this guy in the handful of games he’s played lately.

There’s definitely something there.

He is aggressive and quick and can whip in a cross; the modern day attacking wing-back If ever there was one. He’s the kind of player who gets assists and starts counter attacks. If only he was as dependable at stopping opposing players from doing the same.

There are obvious parallels with a certain Sevco player who the media never tires of telling us would walk into our team; it’s nonsense, of course. James Tavernier would have to get by Lustig and this guy and I personally don’t believe he’s as good as either.

I’ll go you one better; young Ralston has far more potential as a player and I’d have him in the team before the Englishman as well. I’ve watched the Sevco captain be torn to pieces by even modestly talented players … there is no way he’s better than either our Swedish or Costa Rican internationals.

But being better than Tavernier doesn’t mean good enough for Celtic; the manager will use Cristian as a squad player, but if he’s to have a future beyond this campaign I think he’s going to have to dazzle Brendan and the coaches. Does he have what it takes to do that?

We’ll find out in the course of the campaign.

Scott Allan: The Mystery Inside A Riddle Wrapped In An Enigma.

The most baffling Celtic signing in the last ten years.

I say that with no hesitation at all.

I could not fathom it at the time and I cannot fathom it now.

We did not need Scott Allan. I am not even sure that the manager wanted Scott Allan. It is difficult to know. He certainly didn’t give him many games, and that didn’t surprise me as he was trying to break into the strongest area in the Celtic team, with half a dozen players in front of him in the queue.

How sure was I that Scott Allan wasn’t going to sign?

I famously said that if he did I would eat an entire concrete mixer full of humble pie. I still get slagged about it to this day. I saw no logic to the move at all. I saw no possible benefit for either Celtic or the player. I have never seen a thing that changed my mind about that, although he is hugely talented.

Watching Scott last season playing for Hibs I saw things that I liked.

He can open up defences. He can score goals. He definitely has a lot of skill, but as everyone knows it takes more than that to make it at a club like Celtic. Does he have the mentality to make it at a club like ours? Does he have that added drive? Perhaps. Perhaps not.

His non-inclusion in the European squad is, according to some people, the final proof that he’s not going to have any kind of future at Celtic Park. I feel bad for him, because this move seems to have been a dreadful error not just for the player but for the club.

It has set his career back years; not a nice thing to have to write about a young talent.

And yet a flicker of hope remains.

Our failure to bring in the kind of creative midfielder the manager has craved means there might yet be opportunities for this kid during what will be a long domestic and European campaign. He will not do enough to stay at Parkhead, but he might yet do enough to convince a club south of the border to give his talent the stage it deserves.

There will be options in Scotland too, of course, but this boy needs to find himself again and get out of the SPL comfort zone.

I will wish him well wherever he lands.

Ryan Christie: A Glimmer Of Light At The End Of A Long Road.

A week or so ago Ryan Christie was rumoured to be heading out of Celtic Park.

A week ago my hopes of seeing the player I believed was a generational talent making it at are our club were done. But events changed the picture. Our failure to get a defence opening player and the sale of Moussa Dembele have conspired to make Christie a part of the team.

And you know what? Such is the importance of the new role the manager seems to have earmarked for him that I can’t help but wonder if all the talk of him being allowed to leave and his not being offered a new contract was just press cobblers in the first place.

Because the manager does like this kid, and he does believe he has a place at Celtic Park.

I am delighted that Ryan will be playing a role in the team, and there are so many different positions where he can do a job for us; out wide, behind the strikers and even, as Brendan has pointed out, up front itself. He does score goals, and he creates them. His darting run into the box at the weekend caught the Sevco defence flat-footed. If they reckon he went down too easily, that’s their own damn fault for not being able to stop him making the space.

Christie was the best footballer in Scotland outside of Parkhead last season, easily.

He was one of the bright spots in an Aberdeen team which looks much less without him in their ranks. He was the centre of so many of their displays that it’s little wonder they look a pale shadow of themselves now that he’s back at Celtic Park.

The next few months are the most important of his career so far. I definitely want him to succeed. I definitely want the potential we all know is there to burst forth. I genuinely believe what I said about him when he signed; he’s one of the biggest talents of his generation.

He earned his move to our club. He belongs on the stage of Celtic Park.

He has to believe that. He has to believe in himself.

If he can get his head around it then the big performances – and that new contract – will come.

Kouassi Eboue: The £3 Million Man The Press Said We’d Let Go For Free.

Nothing sums up the inherent stupidity of the Scottish press corps than the headlines, during the window, that said we were willing to allow Kouassi Eboue to depart the club on a free transfer. The idea of it was so patently ludicrous that I was amazed anybody in the editorial departments of the media outlets which ran it were letting it go out.

Brendan Rodgers is the man to listen to on this player.

In January he said that Eboue is the natural replacement for Scott Brown.

“Eboue was brought in and he plays a specific role – the Scott Brown role. It just so happens he’s the captain, who’s been brilliant. It’s been difficult. Browny is one I’ve taken out the odd time and got Eboue in but there’s really no doubt that he hasn’t played enough games,” said the manager.

Even if you doubt that he’ll step into the shoes of the captain you have to say that this doesn’t suggest that the club has any intention of writing the player off.

Eboue is still only a kid. He has an entire career in front of him.

On top of that, he has a deal that’s good until January 2021.

Sending him on loan is a possibility.

Letting him leave entirely is not.

The area of the field where he plays his football is, as Brendan said, a highly specialised one. People who want to know why he’s not getting games should ponder it for a moment; are we meant to drop the most accomplished player in the league to satisfy that demand?

Eboue has been unbelievably patient.

But the kid has been at Parkhead for just over 20 months. He’s had a mere 19 games for the club. He’s had spells out with injury in that time. He has had to adjust to a new culture, a new language, and expectations that are through the roof. For all that, the coaches believe there’s a real player in there.

In the same interview Brendan said, “Eboue’s brilliant in training, he does everything, and longer term he will certainly fulfil that role when Scott moves on.”

He has been named as part of our European squad, which has surprised the hacks who had confidently said he was being shown the door.

I expect we’ll see him feature quite a bit in the next few months; he needs games to prove himself. It could be setting things up for sending him on loan for the second half of the season, so that he gets that game time he needs.

But do not write him off. Nobody at Celtic Park has.

Sacrilege Or Just Sensible? What Do We Do With Scott Sinclair?

If someone had told me six months ago that I would be writing about Scott Sinclair in one of these articles I would have said they were out of their minds; yet here I am and here it is. Does Scott Sinclair have a future in the Hoops beyond this campaign?

I am going to say yes, but for the first time the question needs to be asked. Because he still doesn’t look like the dynamic, all action, player who dazzled us in his first season and who swept the boards at all the player of the year awards. Right now he’s being kept on the side-lines due to the form of Callum McGregor. He was even dropped for Mikey Johnston. Who knows whether the manager believes Lewis Morgan to be his natural successor?

Sinclair has all the skill in the world, but man oh man there hasn’t been a player since Samaras who so needs to be in the right frame of mind before we see him at his best. I used to think of the big Greek as the ultimate confidence player. My old man always said he could tell which version of him you were getting in the first ten minutes of a match.

He could be unplayable. He could also be unwatchable.

Sinclair has never fallen to the point where the fans have turned against him, but the frustration of the management team has been obvious in recent months. From being undroppable he’s become just another squad player, and that is truly sad to see because the rampant winger from that first campaign is still fresh in all our memories.

With Scott there’s no question mark over his ability; what makes this doubly hard to take is that we know what he can be. We know he can lift even the dullest game with a mazy run or a wicked moment of skill. He’s got everything, we’ve seen it on so many occasions … just not lately. And you wonder if there are elements off the pitch that have led to this.

I think the guy might be homesick. I understand that entirely. A move back to England might suit him, but damn it, I would be loathe to let him go whilst there’s even a chance of us getting him back to his best. The early season has seen him re-appear in flashes; his goal in Athens might be exactly what he needs to get his head up again.

For all that, of course, he actually finished last season as our top scorer. That, alone, justified having him around. But this is a new campaign, and football is unforgiving. It doesn’t focus on what someone achieved before, it’s all about “what have you done for us lately?”

This is a big few months for him.

The Biggest Season Of Their Lives So Far …

None of these guys is a regular first team player right now.

All of them but Compper have something to offer us over the course of a long campaign.

But the future for these guys might be being measured in mere months now … all of them have something to prove to us and to the coaches.

Of the group, I’d say Bitton and Sinclair are certain to stay; the manager likes them both.

Kouassi will not be jettisoned until he’s in the last year of his deal; we’re not quite there yet and no-one should write him off.

Christie faces the biggest four months of his life; he has to grab it. The skill is there. I think he’ll do enough to stay.

Allan will probably not feature much; I’ll be amazed if he plays more than a handful of games. I think we’ll let him go in January.

Gamboa is a strange one. He could do enough to earn a contract extension as a squad player … he’s shown enough in the games he’s featured in to suggest that, going forward at least, he can be on the right what Kieran is on the left. He creates chances. He works hard. He’s a 50/50.

Only Compper appears not to have any kind of future at the club … but I said that about Boyata once and about McGregor and Forrest.

They all showed something but then you have to be in the team to do that … and that’s why I reckon he’s toast.

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