As Ibrox tries to get its fans excited over a series of free transfers, and the Scottish press bangs the drum over “bragging rights” a minor transfer story slipped past them, but it’s an instructive one considering they’ve been following the trail of it for months.
This week, we signed the young teenage striker Filip Skorb.
He’s very much a project player, and we’re not going to see him in the first team any time soon. But he was being touted as the next big thing last month and for one very big reason … he looked to be heading to Ibrox.
There was interest in him from clubs across the UK, including some in the EPL who were looking to tie him down on a long term deal. There was some proper salivating being done about the prospect of him going to the club across the city.
Every one of our three national titles – The Sun, The Record and The Evening Times – had him in the Ibrox crosshairs. They all excitedly reported on how their club had “entered the race” against the likes of Leeds and Newcastle to sign him.
You know what’s funny?
Not one of those outlets wrote about his signing for Celtic. Instead that’s been highlighted on our own fan media sites, by the player’s former club and by the player himself on social media. The hacks haven’t bothered to cover it.
Which I find rather astonishing, considering the coverage this kid was getting just last month when the Ibrox club threw their names into the ring. You would think, to read some of it, that this kid was so good that he would be soon challenging for a first team place.
And maybe he would have been. Maybe he is.
The reason I don’t know for sure is that the four page pull-outs have been cancelled because he’s wound up at Celtic instead.
Do you think that this deal would have had the same treatment if we’d been linked to him first and he’d wound up over there?
The press would have had a field day; the media would have been filled with stories about how we had been “snubbed” and about how The Mooch had worked his magic.
There might even have been some mention of bragging rights.
Instead of all that … stone silence. Which tells me we’ve got ourselves a good one here.
This lad has a brain, he will be treated well.
This is an area within the club that has annoyed me for many a long year now.
Although the club have made efforts to rectify the problems that exist, nothing has been done by the SFA to help the existing problem with rather hindering the likes of ourselves still.
There is currently an 8 Scottish player rule in place for European football, so 40 needed by 5 teams from within the SPFL.
Do 40 actually play upon a regular basis?
Do they fuck, so how can they really be classed good enough for European competition?
We’re still struggling to fill the numbers and only have to take the 8 named this season and how much contribution they made for ourselves over the course of the season.
The answer still remains at very little and that prospect looks like still being in place next season and the foreseeable also.
There remains no proper development program within Scottish football still with a lowland league to CL in place with very little in between.
I know Ange is doing plenty in trying to close that gap which is even wider than our financial gap over the scum, yet there is only so much Ange can do.
Maybe it’s time to buy out one of these diddy clubs within Scottish football who have been given voting rights to hold development of Scottish youngsters back.
Sickens me with such an attitude within the lower leagues especially when they provide fuck all towards the good of the future of Scottish football.
Unless there is a change from Europe over this existing rule, which remains highly unlikely then Scottish clubs in general will continue to struggle in European competition I believe.
The numbers don’t lie, with most team’s using 16 players for matches nowadays. 2 keepers sitting on a bench with hopefully no involvement.
Throw in a few injuries and a Scottish team’s European squad is stretched to the limit, even moreso with having to make up numbers with turning to players with such little experience behind them.
As a requirement for a celtic player now, you are looking for them to be good enough to warrant a place within a CL squad which in turn should make playing within the SPFL a formality, we still remain well short in doing so within our Scottish contingent of the current squad imo.
Yet i Still have heard nothing to how the current problem may get resolved with a hit and hope approach still in play within Scottish football
For bragging rights, substitute 6th time lucky.
Great start shows he has intelligence beyond his years to bypass ipox and come the biggest and by far the best club in Scotland. Welcome to the Celtic FAMILY young fella