It screams at you, this headline; “Gordon Strachan delivers brutal Celtic transfer assessment as he reveals recruitment ‘gamble’ fear.”
When I read that headline earlier today I was honestly gob-smacked. Gordon Strachan is criticising Celtic and the board? I didn’t believe it at all. It’s not just a rare thing, it’s virtually unheard of.
Two of his sons are on the staff at Parkhead and Gavin narrowly survived an early purge from the manager. I am not going to call Strachan a sycophant, but whilst he may occasionally slap our fans down he never has a bad word to say about the club. Never.
It’s one of the things that keeps him part of the way endearing.
“Ange Postecoglou has already lamented the slow business behind the scenes since his Parkhead arrival and his predecessor has now given his verdict,” the sub-heading says. Except, that’s not what Strachan has done at all.
He certainly hasn’t delivered a “brutal” assessment.
“There’s indecision in the transfer market,” he says, but that’s the closest he comes to criticism. “A couple of players would like to move on: Odsonne Edouard and Kristoffer Ajer. They were short at centre-back anyway, so they’ll have to work on that.
“They’ll probably lose Edouard – he may move on. Leigh Griffiths looks like he’s counted himself out for the foreseeable future, so there’s a big rebuilding job at Celtic in terms of players. They need centre-halves, right-backs and strikers – not easy to get, especially when you see strikers going for £30m and £40m in England who fail quite badly at that level.”
None of this is criticism of the club.
None of it.
None of it delivers any verdict on how deals are progressing right now, or not progressing.
We’ve signed one centre back, we’re on the brink of a second one.
We know we need a striker if Eddie goes.
Not rocket science, not any of it, and none of it a surprise. Strachan is stating the obvious … but I say again, this is hardly “brutal” or in any way controversial.
This is his closing line, and this is where the record got its latest dishonest headline, the second time this week they’ve twisted someone’s words to paint the most negative picture they could.
“Celtic haven’t got that money so it has to be a bit of a gamble with the wage structure. There’s a lot of work to do with recruitment, that’s for sure.”
Strachan’s comments have been taken completely out of context.
He has not said our failure to sign all these players yet is a gamble. He’s said that we might have to take a gamble in terms of the wages we offer … something this site has already suggested.
For The Record to take two separate issues and make out that Strachan has attacked the board and the transfer policy is manifestly dishonest. Strachan himself should be fuming at that.
His comments were measured and weighted and actually he talked a lot of sense.
He at no time launched any kind of broadside against the club or how it is run.
The press is a joke pulling stuff like this. A joke.