Today the press is awash in the latest Celtic transfer rumours, linking our captain and our right back with moves in the summer. It’s all ridiculous, and in particular because the last transfer window has been shut for a mere eleven days.
We talk, often, about how tiresome this all is, but it’s also pretty stupid.
These guys are both on long term deals. Callum is the club captain.
He has resisted every effort the media has made to tempt him away from Celtic Park.
Juranovic is literally just in the door, and he’s loving being at Celtic, and whilst this isn’t to say that he won’t fancy a move at some point there is next to no chance of this club letting him go when he’s one year into his contract.
Recent reports have linked clubs with Abada. It’s a matter of time before there is speculation about Kyogo and Hatate. There is already all sorts of utter bollocks being written about the terms of the loan deals for Carter Vickers and Jota.
Notice how the press isn’t writing the same sort of stuff about Aaron Ramsey; the presumption is that he will be happy to sign for the Ibrox club on a permanent contract when his loan spell ends.
This has to be one of the daftest suggestions that there is.
Ibrox cannot afford his salary, it’s just that simple.
Even if he is a huge success (no laugher in the back!) this is a pursuit doomed to failure. Yet the media, which presumes that Jota and Carter Vickers will have “better options” already has him at the centre of their midfield for years.
The truth is, it’s their club facing summer sales, not ours.
We are assembling something.
They are the club that will find themselves desperately trying to hold the team together come the end of this campaign. A number of key players are already heading for the exits.
Others – like Morelos, Kent and Aribo – are entering their final years … I don’t see any signing extensions because all three already think they will get mega-rich offers from England.
I expect our summer to be rather relaxed, even sedate.
If we have Champions League football to look forward to there will be tweaks to the squad and some good additions … I do not expect any of our current crop of stars to leave.
The first part of Ange’s revolution was always going to be the toughest part.
The next phase will be quiet by comparison.
In the event that this league campaign finishes the way we expect it to – with Celtic as champions – the summer over there, by contrast will be chaotic and characterised by the sort of mad scramble people had expected at Celtic over the last one.
We are right to be wary of suggesting that it makes for an equally chaotic season; it hasn’t in our case, after all. But this has been an exceptional set of circumstances, and rebuilds on this scale usually do not portend a successful campaign ahead.
We had a distinct advantage in ours; we had the financial resources to get it started and to see it through, and we were facing an opponent which at that time didn’t have the capability to pull away from us, even in the short term.
Malmo took care of that.
But if we’re already in a position of strength, and they are scrambling for money, then Champions League cash can only make us stronger and see us move further in front.
In other years I might have worried that we’d blow a chance like that, but if it comes it will be Ange at the helm and so the chances of messing it up are greatly reduced.
That’s why these transfer stories don’t infuriate me like they used to.
They annoy me, yes, but it’s like being out in the back garden in the summer getting plagued by midges.
They are a pest, but they aren’t going to spoil our enjoyment of our club right now, or of the growing certainty that this is only the beginning of some seriously good times.
Regarding Juranovic, never ever underestimate our board’s willingness (desire?) to sell a player and grab the cash if the offer is high enough. Is was only 13 months ago when Frimpong was sold, and he reportedly wasn’t agitating for a move either. But the price was right, and the board couldn’t wait to get their hands on that sweet sweet cash.
The best players and teams are always going to attract attention.
Have a pipe at the story on the Record Twitter site about the ‘ offside ‘ goal against the sheep the other night , look at the picture , lol
Then have a search for the guy who wrote it , Lindsay Herron , see who he used to work for
Mental stuff , how they’re getting away with this
Fcking rattled them silly , so we have
Did see that meant to be, kinda straightish, eyes shut with crayon in thumb line…mortified for the fkwit who dared to share!!
Must check heron out )))
Good players always get attention. Juranovic was a steal at 2.7m, as were Kyoto, Hatate and O’Riely. I would expect Juranovic to move on at some point. I hope our summer window is strong. Tall CH tall LB and a DM. That would give us improvements needed. The second Aberdeen goal shows yet again we are just too wee to defend set pieces well. Two small full backs and two centre halves also in the shortish category.
Advertising our players as saleable assets may be the way in which they think they can weaken our squad, turn players heads and survive our really successful recruitment but at the moment our players seem a happy tight squad. Really its as you say, a diversionary tactic from the fact that many of their players will be entering the last 12 months of their contracts in the summer. Celtic winning the league, maybe a treble, and no automatic CL group place would put them in a perilous position.
Ange can get us to the league title, the CL group stage and if he finds us the quality CB we need, I hope he’s in the image of Bobo. HH