The news that Celtic is appointing a new lead scout, and that he comes from the City Group, might once have been greeted by our sites and some of our fans – this one included – with deep dismay. That’s not the case with this one. This is a fine appointment, coming from a big, big club and with a perfect pedigree. I’m pretty happy with it.
The guy’s history, and the work he’s been doing with the City Group, is impressive just taken on its own. What stands out most about it is that he’s not primarily been focussed on England, he’s spent time, in fact, working in New York, scooping out the leagues which feed into the MLS. He’s looked far afield. We are not hiring him to do Sky Sports Scouting.
I think Celtic will spend less and less time focussing on England.
That’s certainly not what this guy is being brought here to do. England is too expensive and that means that even mediocre players are going to go for bigger and bigger fees.
Brexit has further complicated things, with domestic produced players the priority of many of their clubs.
I’d like to see us scout the MLS more regularly.
We’ve already taken Johnston from there and that’s looking like a superb piece of business.
I watch their games regularly and their players have a high level of technical skill, especially those produced by the clubs and not bought in from elsewhere. It is a matter of time before the US starts producing world class footballers as regular as clock-work. They have the cash and the infrastructure for it.
So it would make sense for us to be plugged deeper into that setup and to have people watching those clubs.
Just as it makes sense now that we’ve looked at Asia to look at Africa, where there’s no shortage of superb talent, most of it flowing towards France and Germany rather than here. The success of this particular Celtic side has been in thinking outside of the box. Hiring this guy, with his CV, is a sign that we’re now living outside that box permanently.
And that’s why I commend it, and why we should be excited. This is a new club culture we’re building here, one that isn’t even necessarily dependent on the manager.
Oh he’s given us the blueprint, but we are committing to it in a big, big way.
Is anyone else bit concerned that we’re maybe getting getting a wee bit too close to City group and could end up being swallowed up?
No. However it would be nice to know what you actually mean by being swallowed up and what the potential disadvantages of being “swallowed up” are.
Essentially, becoming some kind of feeder club to City, having decisions made for us/about us rather than by us, and, most insidiously, ending up as some sort of soft power adjunctto a political regime a with very dodgy humans rights record.
You have a fair point; criticising the Qataris’ (and others) human rights record in no way defende rhe U.K’s record on the same.
Pity that the two American lads we signed (two fullbacks if memory serves) couldnt get work permits allowing them to show what they could have done at the time.
Still amazes me that the old regime signed these two young guys knowing full well that neither were internationals (unlike AJ) so the government would NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS have granted work permits!
STOP POSTING THIS ABSOLUTE CRAP . THIS SITE IS JOKE !!! BYE !!!
Is that your first post Mick, never heard of you….and you won’t be missed. Bye!
Would like to think that this appointment gives us better opportunities at attracting the younger players who can become eligible for european competition by coming through our youth ranks.
Getting the 8 Scottish based players for european competition is a potential problem in the making for the long term and has to be addressed now.
Still need something put in place still, so the younger players can get game time to help with there development still.
So hopefully this is been addressed now behind the scenes, as presently I don’t see many places available for the squad for next season with not expecting to many of the current squad to be leaving, and hopefully with his connections can help get plenty of the deadwood out of the club come the summer also.
We do not want to recruiting from Africa, when we still have a yearly African cup. FIFA demand players are released for 4/5 weeks January into February…. a bad time to loose players