Someone pointed out to me today that Celtic has spent £17 million on six players when a better idea might have been to spend that money on three. This is at the heart of our problem, I think. It gets right to the heart of the matter for me.
We do this project signing thing repeatedly, grabbing a bunch of them at low cost, and hoping the manager can use them.
Only rarely do we go out and bring in the right guy, without all this messing about.
I look back at the money we’ve squandered just on trying to solve the defensive midfield problem over the years and the conclusion I readily draw is that if we’d just identified one guy, a player who might have cost us a few quid but would have been easily capable of the job, we would not have floundered and spent so much money on waste.
Take Ismaili Soro. He cost us £2 million and delivered nothing. The guy we signed in the first January window under Rodgers, Koussi Eboue, was signed for roughly the same. We signed Soro in part to replace Eboue. That’s £4 million. We could have had John McGinn, and anchored this midfield properly, for years. That’s just bad strategic thinking.
It took us four or five attempts at signing a right-back to get one in because we refused to take the pursuit seriously enough to spend proper money on it. Kieran Tierney left, and how many left back options have we gone through? Plenty, all of them cheap, and all of them unable to get the job done for us. The same is true in every part of the pitch.
We’ve had a goalkeeping problem for the past few years. We’ve plugged that hole with freebies and cheap options; no wonder we’ve got no answer to it yet. Look at our goalkeeping situation in recent years. De Vries, Bain, Hart, Gordon and now Siegrist.
Three of them are on the books right now, they cost us barely £2 million between them … so of course this issue persists. This window will probably close without us seriously addressing that glaring problem with the squad.
We have, at the moment, in Abada, Forrest, Yang and Tillio, four players at right wing. Because we signed two of them in this window. We added yet another cheap defensive midfielder.
I said previous to this that the signing policy appears scattershot … we seem more interested in stockpiling potential than with buying footballers capable of progressing us.
And this board is convinced that stockpiling potential is the way to go. But after Soro, Eboue, McCarthy, Abilgaard, Iwata and Kwon one of the most glaring holes in this team remains unfilled because we insist on taking punts rather than on simply finding someone who can do the job for us right now, which results on us having to spend ever more money on the problem when we could have solved it years ago simply by finding that single excellent footballer.
Still people at Parkhead kid themselves that this isn’t a more costly way to do it.
Be honest; do you see Iwata or Kwon having any more future here than Soro or McCarthy? How can we have four players still at the club, in one position, and that position remains in desperate need of the right player to come in and do the job? A schizophrenic signing policy based on accumulating numbers rather than with doing it right.
Nobody will tell me that buying one decent footballer would have cost us more than buying half a dozen projects … and especially not when needs-must and you have to go out and buy the quality player in the end anyway.
All this club needed in this window were three or four signings in the right price bracket to meet Brendan Rodgers’ needs.
It’s now apparent how absolutely crazy it was to persist with the deals we had already agreed under Ange; that didn’t serve the needs of our club or our manager one iota, this is somebody playing Football Manager for real with our money … and in the process much of the incoming boss’s transfer budget was squandered.
So many elements of this have come into clear focus since Brendan Rodgers spoke last Friday and it must be clear to even those who defend this board that their transfer policy is nonsensical in the cold light of day.
Are we a club that seeks to win things or one that seeks to develop players for a profit and sell them on? The board’s defenders will tell you we’ve been doing both, but actually we’ve ridden our luck to a certain extent and got away with it here in Scotland because the opposition is piss poor and our biggest rivals are a shambles.
What awaits us in the Champions League is going to be seared into our memories. Rodgers must know this; he is not an idiot. He talks about “competing” at that level; the only thing this current squad will be competing for is the Ibrox’s clubs record as the worst side ever to play in the competition. That’s the level we’re at right now.
That is the level this nonsense keeps us at.
Your goalkeeper list misses Barkas, the expensive goalie who was meant to be “the answer.” So it doesn’t always work that way either. McGinn would’ve been gone within 2 seasons, though that’s not to excuse us not getting him.
Whilst I agree with the gist of your article, the far, FAR, bigger problem we now face is that it doesn’t matter if we go for a 7 or 8 million rate CDM. Someone else from a league they might actually want to play in will also go for him. We as a club no longer have any real appeal. This is why we’re in Japan andKoea, to promote ourselves as a stepping stone into Europe. European based players are unlikely to want to come here if they’ve veen got a sniff of going elsewhere.
I’m all for spouting fury at our penny pinching board, but I do wonder whether it might not be 100% their fault. World football does not see the Scottish Premiership as worthy of its time.
You buy nickel&dime players then that means your a nickel&dime club and really it’s nickel&dime supporters,you get what you pay for.
Spot on. Our obsession, and it is an obsession, with buying all these ‘projects’ means that when we do strike it lucky and get a real one the transfer money we do get is not actually a profit…it simply pays for the garbage we previously bought and lost on. Then we go and do it all over again. Pure insanity!
Another thing that needs mentioning. How must our own homegrown talent feel when they see all these ‘projects’ coming into the club and getting into the first team squad while they themselves are loaned out to diddy teams?
Whilst I agree with your comments about the signing policy ( And to clarify..I have absolutely no time for those who run our Club)….I need to ask a question…just who are we supposed to sign ? Its all very well us shouting about ” real quality ” players…but where do we get them from ??…And would they want to come to a cold wet country where the standard of football is pish??…Also quality players want quality money…and that’s a recipe for bitching and resentment….I fully understand your valid points…but I’m not sure we can attract the kind of players we’d all love to see.
A ‘Project’ player is of no use if he doesn’t play. I have to agree that the Defensive Midfield position is fundamental and the outlay on ‘hopefuls’ could have been better spent on someone reliable with experience.
Iwata and most definitely Kwon will
never be the muscle and “power” we need in midfield…..
HH
One word – LAWWELL
This was what Pedro the Hun does, and now he’s back, he’s doin it again.
We spend £20m on 10 “prospects” – pay them wages for 4-5 years which is another £5m-£10m and then as they’re always duds, let them go for free or sell for a fraction of what they cost.
Definition of stupidity – repeating the same mistakes and expecting different outcomes.
Course the mistakes we support make is funding them, now ah know the season ticket they have us over a barrel – probably the real reason they won’t complete the stadium, cos then I’d season ticket holders threatened to boycott, they wouldn’t have 15000 on a waiting list to fill the financial gap.
But champions league – cos let’s face it the team we have the now will get pumped in CL, so why would we go through the pain of watching and support that….
HH
Spot on James. Celtic have been crying out for a midfield enforcer and a quality goalkeeper for ages. Another striker is also required, yet we continue to add young prospects to the squad and up our wage bill at the same time. We need to spend our cash on quality not quantity.
The recruitment model could have been applied this summer, as normal
but with one ‘tweak’ applied.
That unexpected windfall of £25M for Jota could have been ringfenced immediately
to buy in 1, 2, or 3 exceptions, who could be first team starters?
Of course there are no guarantees in football, but at least the paying punters
would see where the money was going – and see that the Board was serious
about making progress in Europe.
Even if progress was not achieved, at least the support would recognise and
appreciate the change in approach – to at least try to shake things up a bit?
The Celtic Board are trying the Man City modus operandi on a SPFL Budget.
Viz a vis Mark Lawwell’s input under Daddy’s direction.
Costly with no guarantee of success and locking in futures years budgets on salaries if we can’t move the ‘projects’ on and still not fulfilling the original need.
Even if we strike ‘Gold’ we are lucky to get one or two years out of the player before they attract attention and move on. Any successful ‘buy low sell high’ is reduced when you consider the costs of the players that don’t make the cut.
It’s a risky undertaking for a Club like Celtic where its Income is limited by the nature of the League it operates in.
Clubs like City are funded by Foreign , usually State or Oligarchic sources involved in ‘Sports Washing’ where ‘Transparency and Accountability’ are non existant and unlikely to be censured to any meaningful degree.
Despite our historic reservations about the Celtic Board I find it impossible to believe that they don’t see the pitfalls in this scheme. There must be some other element to this that we are not seeing. They must be aware of the feelings of the fans at this time, our expectations of being able to defend our League Title ( more so with changes to CL 24/25 and available monies ) and to improve on our European competitiveness.
As fo Brendan WTF was he thinking and what was he promised.
Nearly 55 years of watching Celtic and seen some crazy behaviour by the Board but this is Financia and Sporting lunacy. A ‘lose lose’ gamble. No upside.
Top and bottom – this is shambolic governance of this fantastic club and I hope fans vote with their feet
For me ,Celtic were at their best last season when Mooy was fit and on form. I have no doubt Hatate is a skilled player, but often gives the ball away high up the pitch,.
On Saturday Celtic did not have a back-up striker on the bench. Oh is out for God knows how long, and Maeda is far too erratic to be relied on .
I agree the midfield is powderpuff.
For the amount of money wasted on speculative signings of holding midfielders that never cut the mustard, we could have brought Victor Wanyama back….. but why waste all that money on just one Wanyama when for the same outlay you could have five of Efe Ambrose instead?
Throw in the wages to provide nothing and your spot on James.
Starting to believe after the Barkas and ajeti that the board are no longer prepared to spend big on players.
Even CCV and Jota had to do a years loan before we were prepared to spend the very decent sums for what they bought to the club.
Since then and 2 windows later we still haven’t gone over the 5M mark.
Looks like this figure is a cut off sum now and the board remain unprepared to go above it either.
Surely this can’t be the right strategy for our club, with CL in mind, and the amount within the bank?
Finding it embarrassing at this stage and a very dangerous game the board along with Rodgers could potentially be playing currently.
28 first team squad players and still struggling to get a starting 11 that we would be content with for a CL match, is a very poor situation to find our club in, and will not be received well if them improvements aren’t found
Bang on James. The fans are taken on a carousel of joy domestically, then expectation for an improved Euro campaign followed by total dejection and bewilderment. I have been on this ride too long now and realise things will never change unless the grey men are all removed and modern intelligent, passionate and ambitious replacements are found that can maximise the potential of a great institution with a worldwide support some EPL clubs can only dream about. I need to take an extended break from this soap opera
Never felt so pessimistic about a new season since 1998/99 just after Wim Jansen and Murdo McLeod had left.
Watched the Ibrox mob last night, they competed with PSV reasonably well, although I do think they will probably go out and drop into the Europa League.
What worries me is we have gone from being well on top domestically to being in trepidation about going to Ibrox a week on Sunday.
This change has all come about during the past 4 weeks through the ridiculous scouting and signing policy of our Club and the 3 games played where we’ve been less than inspiring.
The board of directors both present and past of our great club have taken our support for granted both in the way they fail to defend the players and supporters and the way they’re treated by the football authorities, especially the Refereeing dept.
Like everyone else I’m scratching my head at what’s going on, especially looking at BR’s interviews and statements.
This board have got to sit up and take notice of the supporters or suffer the consequences.
Jota, 6mil, 25mil sale. Jura and Gio low price but turned a profit, (too low) and that’s the Pistol Pete transfer model. As long as we can conveyor belt youth/projects then that’s great. The Bunnet’s back in town, get him in to give us a backbone, a sense of challenge the VAR, give the board a kick in the arse and protect our Club. We need leadership in the office that support the Manager and that’s not apparent at the moment.
Like father like son springs to mind.
Bit of a rant but hey ho, here we go.
I fear your right James regarding Ibrox shocking record in the CL,we could beat that ,with this shambles we have now.