Setbacks And New Signing Targets. Just Another Day On The Celtic Transfer Rumour Mill.

Transfer windows have occasional days like today. Days of setbacks.

Days when your club lags and flags a little.

Actually, they follow a very simple rule of thumb; you have to be trying to do a lot of business to suffer a day like this one.

It’s a credit to us in some ways, a kind of backhanded compliment to the lack of messing about.

Think of the club at the moment as an army engaged in a multi-front war.

We move forward in some areas and pull back in others.

The line advances whilst another retreats.

Think of today as a day when some of the more obvious lines moved backwards some.

Yet along fronts, we steadily push inward.

The setbacks we’ve suffered are only part of the story.

The one thing that’s come out of this window is that Celtic marches on.

In that spirit then, let us now march on with them, to cover the daily gossip thus far.

Doubtless there’ll be more, and I’ll cover that as and when it breaks.

Our Pursuit Of Jack Stacey Has Turned Into An Auction.

When you are going after good players – as we clearly are in this particular window – you aren’t going to get everything your own way. You aren’t going to get everything easily. Jack Stacey is a very good right back, and as such we were always going to face a wee bit of a battle to get his services.

That battle today developed into an actual tug-of-war.

Stacy is wanted by Stoke, who can probably afford to throw more money at him than we can. But all we have to do is meet the asking price at Luton, and neither club has yet done that.

Rumours that they’ve turned down a bid of £3 million shouldn’t put us off.

Quality do cost, and he is a good footballer and easily worth us upping the ante a wee bit. But I heard last night that we have more than half a dozen names on our list of potential right backs, and so if one pursuit runs into trouble we can deftly move onto the next.

Stacey is clearly one of our options … but he’s only one, and we’re looking further afield than just England, where the bulk of our reported right back targets seem to be from. More on our other targets in a moment or two, but for now this one is in the balance.

If we were less engaged on other fronts that might be a problem; the only real issue is the ticking clock, but it’s doubtful any right back signing would play in midweek anyway.

The next deadline is around a fortnight away.

That’s the one we’re aiming for.

Olivier Ntcham Is Moaning And Wants A Move.

The less said about this the better, and in particular because James has already covered it.

If he was a first team guaranteed pick, if he was even remotely important to the general functioning of the team, if he had won plaudits for his excellent performances, instead of being a frustrating figure and often an infuriating one, I would see this as a bigger blow.

Ntcham wants away. When do we get actual news on this front?

Because that is not actual news.

That is known to all of us and has been for a while.

His disinterest is obvious. That he thinks he’s too good for the game here is the only real surprise.

He has not impressed fans, either with his displays or his attitude towards the club.

The general feeling amongst most of us is that he go anytime he likes and the club receives a satisfactory bid. There really isn’t all that much more to say on the subject; let Porto or whoever come forward and make their offers. The moment one hits the mark, let him go.

Ntcham’s area of the pitch is where we’re strongest. Bitton, Brown, McGregor, Christie, Rogic, Connell and Eboue can all easily fill the space. The manager wants more players in this area, and at least one will be signed. Ntcham will not be missed.

Rekeem Harper Will Not Be Coming As He Commits To West Brom.

The one real blow, as opposed to those stories which don’t really affect us one way or another, is that Rekeem Harper will not be the signing who replaces Ntcham.

He has recommitted his future to West Brom, following talks with Slaven Bilic.

This young man is a fantastic footballer, and I will admit to be gutted that he’s not going to be coming to Celtic Park.

This is the one that got away, this is the deal that I thought would be the most impressive of the window if we could have gotten it over the line.

The player is a product of the West Brom academy; he’s opted to stay at home and see out another couple of years. The big move will be there for him down the line and he knows it. If our young guns take the same attitude, I’ll be very happy indeed.

Harper got the tour of Celtic Park and was a guest of the club for the league decider against Hearts; I know we were close with this one.

There will be real disappointment inside Celtic Park that we didn’t manage to secure his signature.

He would have been a wonderful player and on top of that a really high profile bankable asset. Perfect, in other words.

We showed real ambition in going for Harper and it’s to our credit that we were even in the race to the extent we were. It wasn’t to be though, and yes this one leaves me feeling a bit low. It’s the only genuine setback we’ve suffered here.

Aiden Fitzpatrick Moves To Norwich. Well, Who Is He Anyway?

From the actual let-down to the one the media invented; Aiden Fitzpatrick of Partick Thistle has signed for Norwich.

Big deal, right?

Except the tabloids are claiming that this is yet another race that Celtic has lost out in.

To give them their due, they are saying the Ibrox desperados were interested in him as well, so this has the double effect of letting them put the awful words “Old Firm snubbed” on the piece. I can honestly say though that I’ve never heard of the guy.

Apparently he’s a winger who scored four goals and had seven assists in the SPFL Championship last year. He will not go into Norwich’s first team squad but into their B side. It’s difficult to see how he’d have broken through at Celtic Park, or why we’d have wanted him.

This is a tabloid inspired tale and a half. It is fair to say that it was not this deal that had me crying into my soggy cornflakes this morning when I was checking the headlines for the article. Instead this inspired a lot of head scratching, and a quick search on Google.

Nothing to see here at all folks.

Romain Sawyers Is Definitely On The List But The First Bid Has Been Rejected.

Romain Sawyers, the 27 year old Brentford midfielder is definitely one of the players we’re looking at in the midfield.

That story broke last night across multiple papers and today The Daily Mail has followed it up with a report that our interest has translated into an opening bid of £1.5 million, and that the club has rejected this starting offer.

They are said to want £2.5 million for him, and it might have been more except that he’s in the final year of his contract. He started out at West Brom, who allegedly wanted him back.

The irony is that they might have revisited that idea in light of the decision by Rekeem Harper to recommit his future there.

It could leave the way clear for us.

He isn’t exactly a potent goal scorer; he failed to score at all last season, but he did create seven goals. We’re not looking at him as someone who can put the ball in the net though, in spite of The Record saying we see him as the natural second choice for Turnbull’s position.

He isn’t. His position is as a deep lying playmaker; he’s a passer of the ball.

Overall I like the sound of him, although I don’t know much more about him than the reports and the biographical information suggests. Aston Villa liked him a lot and were interested in him last year; in another irony, it might have been the purchase of John McGinn that put them off making their interest into something more concrete.

In spite of the low offer there’s a deal to be done here, it seems.

He’s definitely a target and there seems to be movement towards making him a Celtic player.

We’ll see how this one spins out, but I reckon he could be the next player in through the doors.

Tommy Smith Still A Top Target. The Cost Will Be £3 Million.

Some reports today suggest that we’ve made Tommy Smith of Huddersfield our undisputed top target now that our pursuit of Stacey has become a transfer scramble.

This is good sense. It’s also interesting that Smith is a target for Stoke.

I don’t know why the two clubs don’t just get together and hammer this out between them.

We get one player; they get the other.

Smith is more experienced than Stacey; he is 27, like Sawyers. This suggests that some of Neil’s signings are not going to be the traditional “develop them and send them on” players but more mature footballers. Indeed, Smith is a former Huddersfield captain.

He would fit right in at Celtic Park and immediately become one of the senior members of the squad. I am intrigued by this one. He ticks the boxes when it comes to replacing Mikael Lustig. £3 million is a good fee, it’s about the middle of the road for us.

Stacey would have the greater re-sale value.

That would still be our preferred option, I think, but Smith is a decent footballer and we could have few complaints if this was the deal we finally closed.

Whoever we get here won’t be the only signing in that position; we still need cover at right back and so it’ll probably be one of these guys and one more.

Tomorrow 11pm Is Zero Hour For The First Round In Europe.

One way or another, if we’re going to register an additional footballer for the squad he has to be at the club by 11pm tomorrow night.

That’s our first registration deadline of this window.

So far we have made three signings, and all of them have been good. Two have cost us real money.

Do I expect us to get one – or more – over the line by the bell?

It doesn’t really matter either way, because I don’t think we’ll see any of our new players in the starting line-up in midweek, unless they feature tomorrow in the game we’ve arranged at Arbroath. These guys haven’t been with the club through pre-season training and it’s a big ask to think they can step in and do the job with such little time with the rest of the squad.

Any new signing that we made by tomorrow night would face the same problem, only more so.

For morale purposes, and to keep these good times rolling, it would be good to think we could close one more deal, and if it’s a right back I know every one of us will sleep more soundly in our beds. But I’d rather we got it right than did it rushed.

Have faith in the club and in the manager.

So far, in this window, they’ve been good for it.

The Rumour Guy is a Celtic fan and blogger who spends all day staring at Newsnow headlines and waiting for signings …