I took no pleasure this morning from reading that Juranovic and Giakoumakis might be heading out of their respective clubs, possibly netting us a nice chunk of change.
All that does is leaves me cold this week. For a start, it suggests that we sold those guys on the cheap last season, which was the impression a lot of us had at the time, and I just think “so what?”
Say what you like about the Ibrox club; they go for it. They take risks. They aren’t the kind of risks we would ever take or that I would ever advocate us taking, but building a war-chest is only valuable if you are willing to use it to win the war. It pisses a lot of us off that in spite of opportunities aplenty to do so we have yet to kill the Ibrox club off.
Getting additional transfer money in now will be nothing to celebrate if there aren’t players in over the next few days.
Besides, I can’t shake the feeling watching what’s going on in Saudi that there are things there which are going to see us shafted. We’ve lost any possibility of a future sell on fee for Jota if he is allowed to leave for nothing and that might have been substantial later.
But it matters not. We want to see signings, not more money tucked away for a rainy day. If, at the AGM this season, our directors expect applause when they tell us how much cash we have in the bank they better hope we’re well clear in the title race and have made a good go of it in Europe, or they will find an atmosphere as cold as Hell frozen over.
Looking back on the sales of these two players, I cannot help but think that we got them out as quickly as we could so we could make a fist of “balancing the books” in that filing year rather on the good of the team.
Those could have been costly departures and I really did not see the need to sell them in the way we did or for the fees we did. Certainly, there’s little argument that we are yet to replace big Giakoumakis in the proper sense.
We let a proven finisher with a great scoring record go to bring in a prospect.
A good one, but that’s all Oh was and is at the moment, a guy who has shown us something but doesn’t have the Greek’s killer instinct. A killer instinct he’s continued to hone in America.
We sold these guys for shirt buttons. I will not be surprised if both of them do leave their current clubs for more realistic fees, and only those inside Celtic can tell us why they did that, why they allowed that to happen, when we could have gotten more.
It will be some consolation if we do, in fact, get greater returns on those deals in sell-on clauses. But I won’t celebrate it until we see some footballers actually walk through the Parkhead gates.
Well, if we do end up with a Net Transfer Surplus this window,
then the Board members should all hang their heads in shame.
After the sudden exit of Ange,
we were sold the idea of a bold new reset at CFC,
with ambitions in Europe and the return of our top class manager, BR.
But, as it stands currently, most of that £25M for Jota is going straight to the bottom line
to help record an extremely healthy profit for the plc.
I think we are still at a Net Surplus [i.e. underspend] of £17M.
If the club was going to take a higher than usual risk with transfers – to help
achieve progress in Europe – then the sale of Jota was the green light to push the
boat out this window.
Let’s not get despondent after only a few weeks. It’s the ability to come back from a setback that counts, particularly with commitment and attitude. Celtic can beat any team in Scotland. It is possible.
When it comes to signings, a midfield enforcer with good short-passing ability wouldn’t go amiss but the club needs to identify these and they’re not necessarily a certain age or fee or on the other side of the world. The lower English Leagues are full of these, ten-a-penny. I agree that BR should be asking Recruitment for a list of potential candidates.
Hit the nail on the head James.
Couldn’t help thinking the same.
£60 million in the black at last accounts.
The club has never been healthier financially and we bring in 7 players, yet only 1 of the 2 central defenders would be a nailed on starter from our first pick 11.
Its a lesson on how unambitious the board are.
The one constant that has been consistently omnipresent whenever Celtic become more interested in cash than the team is Peter Lawwell. I had real worries when I heard he was back at the club. And since he’s been back in the boardroom – we’ve lost Ange, we’ve surrendered our hard won treble before August is out, we’ve signed a stream of young project players on whom the jury is out, we’ve got Rodgers back after his betrayal and who is already dancing around to Lawwell’s tune like some sort of hand puppet. I just pray that Rodgers sees that his reputation is on the line as a manager and removes Lawwell’s hand from his posterior pronto. We are in a position to destroy Sevco for a generation – if Celtic are ambitious, but not reckless, in the transfer market. C’mon board members, step up or step down.
You have to wonder how many goals GG would have scored with Tavernier and Barasic crossing the ball and 2 wide players other than Abada and Maeda. Abada was just awful on Sunday, we were a man down. I heard someone say on ASCOM that he expected him to be player of the season. If true, we will end up relegated
Give Brendan a chance.
League is a marathon not a sprint. A wee stint in Eufa also will be good. We are not a CL team.
We should see 3 or 4 ‘first team ready’ additions over the next week.
Agree with this article’s focus however spending a similar paltry sum on signings so far may be the rankers taking a risk but nowhere near us doing so, except the risk of failure. I guess they had less incoming money that helps in enhancing your point but we have only spent the profit of the Jota sale. No more. Risk doesn’t come into it with us.
Tight-fisted, penny pinching arrogance by this board on buying cheap unproven and unready youngsters has only one aim, future money making and for what; their bonuses and increased pension pots.
This approach will hopefully, maybe win us some domestic trophy, not the league cup though, but that’s hope for you. We’ve a good chance of winning Sweet FA and the SFA’s favourite unionist lodge club sweeping the treble with the rookie mole-man being hailed a genius. Truth is if we stay as we are, with this squad as it is, we’re gonna be bullied off the park regularly. Better we have a united voice before, during and after the St Johnstone game in an attempt to push through any pretence they have and let them know loud and clear this will end with their end.
We, the fans, know what we need. We see it in nearly every comment and I’m not going to disrespect any of you by repeating it again, but reality is we’re not getting any of that investment unless we seriously have strong words, demos and action against the board.
They on the other hand have the money from the outstanding transfer profits, season ticket sales, CL &TV rights income for two seasons, club merchandise, Sponsorship, etc, etc, etc, in their bonus and pension pots.
I’m trying hard not to lay the blame at Brendan but he must have known the conditions of his contract and may well be linked into a profit sharing scheme. Regardless he’s being very well paid from our investments and his whopping salary.
I’m also trying hard not to lay the blame at the players yet though some of them need to take a good look at themselves.
What ever happened to having professional pride? The time for Brendan to win us over is now. He needs to be voicing his serious concerns openly and loudly and insist on strength, experience and ready to go talent before this transfer market closes or he’ll forever be associated with the likes of Lawwell, the board brotherhood, Lennon and utter failure against all the odds.
We, the fans, are being trodden all over. It’s a scandal and theft of Putin proportion. HH
Lawell back and so are the problems .
More interested in personal profit bonus than the team.
Prior to Lawwell crawling back, we were fast tracking players in the door. Now it’s the same old process of last minute, bargain basement players and Rodger’s appears to be happy with the situation. Are we going the way of Leicester, we’re he failed to motivate them.