There was an interesting report from Greece this week about what Celtic is supposed to want for Vasilis Barkas.
There is something like shock in our press corps as they report on it.
We’ve evidently set his transfer value at over £4 million.
I am frankly surprised that any of them are confused by that.
It’s what you pay for an international keeper his age, even if he’s no longer an international. Since going on loan he has played more than 20 games in the Dutch league this season, and he is rated highly.
Just not in Scotland. Just not in this country, with its pig ignorant media prone to their snap judgements.
They decided that this guy was a write-off ages ago, with some of them claiming that he has no talent at all, as though Celtic would have spent £6 million on someone of whom that was true.
He might not have done it here, but we didn’t buy a complete dud.
When we signed Barkas he was an international. He was a Champions League footballer who had played against us not long before and made show-stopping saves which played a role in us being knocked out of the competition.
He arrived at Celtic in the most surreal circumstances imaginable, barely met his team-mates and had no time to build relationships before being written off. Leading the charge were some of the dumbest people in our media, people like Keevins, the man who thought we should have bought John Spencer instead of “one of Dr Joe’s old pals.”
He keeps up his campaign of vilification to this day, and he has tried to whip up the mob against other Celtic players too, including Carl Starfelt, who continues to defy his shameful statements with great performances like the weekend past.
Keepers thrive on confidence as much as, and perhaps more than, any other type of player. They don’t get forgiven in the way strikers do, strikers who get all the glory because they can screw up five times in a game and still produce a winner.
No wonder a lot of people consider goalkeepers to be slightly mad.
That kind of pressure would drive you mad.
The kind that comes with being the only players who don’t get to make errors, whose every mistake is catalogued and used against them, and in a new country with team-mates he was only allowed to see at training … is it any wonder that this guy didn’t make the grade? Is it any wonder he needed to leave this club to find his confidence again somewhere else?
Now that he’s found it, he’s worth something.
I don’t think he could return to Celtic Park; he would instantly be under that pressure all over again and would never get any benefit of the doubt. What he can do is help us recoup some of the transfer fee.
The Ibrox club is trying to flog some of the dreck they have left.
One hilarious piece the other day suggested that they may attempt to sell Ben Davies.
To who exactly?
The clubs who wouldn’t snap him up when he was available for next to nothing?
That was when we were briefly interested.
Ibrox paid £4 million for him.
No-one else was interested then, and if he’s considered surplus to requirements at the club which finished second in Scotland what chance do they have of even seeing that back?
Hagi and Kamara are being touted with a move.
Neither would fetch the £4 million we’ve told clubs that we want for Barkas.
And hey, we might not get that … but whatever we do get is still likely to be more, for a flop, than they will bring in for the best of what is left at their own club after the departures of Morelos and Kent.
That just about sums up the appalling state that they are in.
That’s not fair. I reckon Hagi would get more than 4 million in. He actually has a bit of potential. Otherwise spot on
£4m for Hagi you are having a laugh. 3 appearances, 18 mins of game time.
Not even in a fit of madness in the EPL would they see close to that. £4m cos his Da was a player.!
Limited in pace, physicality with a record of injuries. I believe he will stay to see out contract or they will rush thru a sale for around £2m claiming £20m in add ons.
Think what Ajax paid for Bassey. Hagi will get a fee. We don’t do ourselves any favours pretending there aren’t people out there who’ll pay for him. 4 million these days isn’t a huge outlay. And away from Ibrox and their… Unique brand of rehabilitation I don’t think he’d be as often injured.
Spot on James with Barkas totally losing confidence as he never found the chance to build up any in the first place. Also came into the club when Craig Gordon was outted which was so wrong on principle, along with Hayes, so will always claim the 10iar season was always set up to fail by a board wanting to keep the scum relevant.
Create the chaos within the changing room and Barkas and Duffy become the biggest victims within it.
Neither were able to produce anything the ability they once had which is of no surprise when a player totally loses his confidence especially at a time when the demands were so high.
Still don’t believe Barkas is worth 4M plus and would be surprised if we got anything close to that amount either.
Regardless a keeper nowadays uses his feet more than his hands these days and still possibly remains better with the ball at his feet than Hart, maybe I’m a bit more old school with wanting a keeper better with his hands so far happier with Hart between the sticks than Barkas.
Just got a feeling that big Ben won’t be our number 2 next season and don’t believe Barkas is going to be a solution either, so maybe 4M for 2 keepers could be more realistic and allowing us to possibly invest in a younger more modern approach to the keepers role may be a better solution to a potential problem in the making still.
By the way still remain a big fan of Hart for all he has done for the club since his arrival, but don’t believe we need to stand still either in the position either
Enjoyed this article fery much.
An informative article, especially after just reading latest Ibrox Noise article on the Missing £100m.
It’s a pisser
I have never actually figured out what Barkas did wrong. Keevins was after him but so was Sutton who was also on his case.
Mainly the goalkeeping bit, Jim.
No harm to the lad. As James says he had everything against him. But his performances for Celtic were horrendous. It seems they were also an aberration and I hope he goes on to have a great career. But we can’t ignore that he was an empty jersey for us.
I don’t think he did anything that bad Martin. The problem was he didn’t do anything that great either. He never pulled off an amazing one handed save or stopped a one on one etc so his career at Celtic simply never took off. Wrong place, wrong time but I really hope it works out for him in the future wherever he goes.