When clubs don’t get their transfer business done early, bad things can happen. I know that there are a lot of folks who believe that January business is hard to do, but a lot of the ways in which we are allegedly restricted are just restrictions we put on ourselves.
One Celtic site earlier in the week attempted to muddy the waters by making a spurious claim about how early on in the transfer window only certain types of players are available. The first of these types is the players clubs don’t want. We are supposed to believe that this makes those players unsuitable for Celtic, but this of course is rubbish.
Some of those players are better than people we have at Celtic Park right now. Some of these people have failed because they’ve fallen out with managers. Because they don’t fit into the playing style. Some have failed to adapt to certain teams in certain leagues.
They are not automatically bad players because they are available. We keep on hearing, from some of these same people, in defence of Mark Lawwell, that Gustaf Lagerbiekle is a good player … but we’ve spent the entire window so far trying to move him on. Does that make him crap? No, he just doesn’t fit with the way we want to play.
A good head of recruitment would know who was out of favour elsewhere and which of them would do a job for us. He would know who was gettable because their clubs had financial problems and needed to cut costs. Half the players who are available in England right now are available because their clubs need to cut costs to comply with FFP.
The trouble is, the longer you fumble about the more chance that some of those players are going to get offers from elsewhere. If you’re really good at your job the deals should be halfway in the bag before the window even opens. We act sometimes like we’re some third-rate operation instead of a team which plays in front of 60,000 fans every week and is targeting trophies and titles. If you’re trying to sell a player on Celtic it shouldn’t be a difficult job.
Are there obstacles? Yeah, some of these guys can earn more money elsewhere.
I hear forever about how “good players don’t want to come to Scotland” but I would suggest you look around at the good players who have come here over the years and the good players who are here right now. Make the package attractive enough and they’ll come alright, and depending on where you are shopping the opposition leagues and stadiums and attendances are terribly different than what we have on offer right here at home.
Our biggest problems are the limits we impose on ourselves. Change the parameters of what we’re willing to pay and offer in wages and our chances of getting quality dramatically increase. The better the quality the more we can move players on for. We’ve already blown through the £20 million mark twice. The £30 million mark is next to be breached and we’ll do it if we up the quality of this squad and do more than just flounder in Europe.
Without someone capable of finding those players and getting them early, what happens? Your options narrow as the time drags on. Yes, you have a chance of getting some players on your list the closer you are to the end of the window but at that point in the proceedings every other club who is looking for a player in that position is equally keen to get stuff done. I am not convinced that there is an advantage to be gained by dragging it out.
What definitely does happen is that your list of possibilities starts to shrink. And once you’ve waited and waited and waited and waited before moving on you find that the lesser options start to become more attractive as you get more desperate to get deals done.
How can anyone think a strategy based on last minute deals is smart? Agents and clubs can chisel you out of money when they know you are desperate. The quality that was available at the start of a window is rarely available at the end, and so in most cases you end up paying more to get lesser footballers than the guys who would have walked into the team.
Right now, most of us would hail signing Miovski for £5 million, which is £1 million more than he’s worth, as a masterstroke. Right now, most of us would take Shankland, and that’s a player I think would score goals and get us over the line for this campaign but would not come close to offering us the step up in class that we’re looking for next season.
But needs must, and right now yeah you’d take an SPFL level striker because that might be what’s left for us on the last day.
If it’s a choice between that and some guy coming here to top up his pension pot, count me in. If its that between some kid on loan from an EPL team, us essentially doing six months development on someone else’s player, I’ll take Shankland, gladly, over that even if Hearts chisel another £1 million out of us just to get it over the line.
There are those who sneer at the likes of Van Hooijdonk. People like me sneering at the likes of Kvistgaarden. Both of those players are better than the alternative if Kyogo gets in injured and we end up with Oh and no back up to him.
We’ve kept McCarthy when there was a loan offer for him because apparently we prefer to pay all the wages of a player we’re not going to use than to pay some of them. Whatever the reason is for not letting Lagerbielke go this afternoon, the risk is we end up with them both and a bunch of other squad filling dreck who aren’t going to play staying here to suck on the wage bill.
So penny pinching about bringing players in on one hand, but taking ridiculous and self-defeating decisions to let non-functioning footballers leech more money out the club on the other. Who the Hell is running this? Who is in charge of it?
Because it is a goddamned shambles.
It’s sickening.thats why I gave up my season book 2 years ago.a bunch of Tory scumbags filling there pockets on my behalf. don’t think so.then you have that clown over on cqn calling fellow fans bed-wetters.a pr**ck of a man.HH
I deleted CQN a long time ago. He has his tongue that far up Lawwells ar** he can taste Desmonds..
Maybe Liewwell & Son think McCarthy and Lagerbielke can be played up front together? A pair to rival Larsson and Sutton…….
Thats the final nail. We reject the opportunity to offload McCarthy whose offered nothing since he arrived on a fortune and happy to sit there taking a chunk of change from the club and hes not the only one
So would you sit and take the cash. The problem lies with the clowns running our club for buying them in the first place and not moving them on.
Shambles is the only word to describe this window, and late on pay more for a lesser player. I do not have confidence that Celtic will strengthen now. I sincerely hope I am wrong. And will it cost us? That is the gamble. Would I take Shankland right now? Hell, yeah! It would be enough to win the league, hopefully. You are usually first on the ball, James. I read many other ‘Celtic’ sites, but many only repeat what you have said the day before. Copy n paste? Kerp up the good anaylsis
This window has been a bomb-scare event, agree with all points raised.
Maybe a scale of success should be added to players signed by the LEAVEITTOTHELAWWELLBHOYOS.COM
well, what if their remunerations were directly linked to how their signings perform.
ie. He doesn’t make the team they then will get no bonuses.
That makes too much sense, they’d never let that happen.
I too was baffled by the decisions to keep players rather than loan them and ease the wage bill somewhat. ABSOLUTELY BONKERS.
It is indeed a shambles and totally embarrassing!
Proper businesses are not run this way. The Lawwell’s do not deserve a bonus. They should both be kicked out of the club. Lawwell senior seems totally arrogant and immersed in himself. He is a narcisist. His son is simply incompetent.
I totally agree with this article bang on in fact. Mccarthy is he related to members of the board because if someone wants him on loan then see u later buddy four year deal who sanctioned that nonsense. Lagerfield he’s been told go on loan your surplus to requirement but no wait a minute changed our minds might have an injury somewhere what a joke just like lawell and son the new chuckle brothers laughing at us. 60 million quid on the line but hey ho John mguin just wait till summer oh no he’s away to Aston villa didn’t need him anyway attitude. Oh no Joe harts broke his leg it’s cool scott brain to the rescue. Greg tailor injured listen bernabie u can’t go on loan now cause we think your the next Liam scales just as well he didn’t go back on loan new deal for u my man u took your chance. Phew lucky with that one. Complete and utter shambles. Time all celtic fans buy all the shares and get rid of that Desmond and his side show. Wouldn’t blame Rodgers if just said I’m off. Can’t take penalties no set piece tactics with corners or free kicks but hey don’t need to worries cause we’ve got plenty of dosh or at least the board does get rid of the dinasours
A couple of points regarding this particular article…
Yip while we seem to play a ‘certain way’ I think we should really have a few tactical changes at hand to out fox and out think teams that have us ‘sussed’ –
I would have Shankland and thereafter Miovski this window in a heartbeat and I think either would bundle us over the line to the title and we should pay what we need to even if it is more than we have to…
I also think that the old wrinkly woman in the chair at Hearts would rather see him going to Sevco as she was helluva vocal in us not being declared Champions in the Covid season…
But there again money talks and £6 million should get Shankland –
And by my reckoning we would still have £63 million in the bank !
Our failure to keep our foot on their throat will be our downfall… this year more than any other is crucial for Celtic… we all know this and the consequences of letting them in again and winning the league and massive money spinner that will be next season’s CL.
They are spending money they don’t have and unless they go bust again they Will HAVE to pay it back this time…this time Celtic, our fans, the shareholders and their sychophantic lickspittling SFA MUST make sure they do and will. We will be watching every step and pressurizing our board like never before.
Their fans are crapping themselves if we buy Shankland, and on FF, suggest as much.
I am certain he will do enough to guarantee us the leage and go a long way to creating panic inside the minds of the hun for the foreseeable future…Ergo considering the 5-6 million quid waste on Barkas surely 4- 5 million for Shankland is smart business.
Celtic are playing with fire, while 72 million£ on a bank bench gathers dust… shameful.
You can bet your last ‘thin dime’ (Oh Fergus you were tight as well but at least you fought corruption) that if the boot or should I rephrase that ‘jack boot’ was on the other foot that it it would weigh a fcukin tonne on our throats for certain…
It might well be for years to come the way things are panning out these las few months –
I’m very easy going so will give them the benefit of the doubt until the last minute of the transfer window…
It’s very simple – Get Lawerence Shankland – It’s not as if we cannot afford him –
But by fcuk – if Sevco do it’s the 90’s all over again for us Celtic supporters I’d say !
Don’t panic… another project loan with buy option!! .. is on the way.. Adam Idah with 1 goal in 29 Premier League appearances for Norwich is just what we needed to take us to the next level !!!.
Beyond a joke at this stage.
Who is in charge? Lawwell Desmond & Sons FC
Most supporters have said for years their needs a massive overhaul of this completely useless board who are totally lacking any ambition for CELTIC and nothing has or will change as long as they are getting their unjust salaries and bonuses.What was the plan sold to Rodgers and by whom to return or is he just another one joining the gravy train?
I don’t remember a sense of frustration as witnessed in this window. We have known since November we need recruits and players should have been identified so that they could come in early January and get themselves up to fitness quickly.
Why this hasn’t happened is at best willful incompetence and at worst utter negligence. The truth is somewhere in between. The club seem more concerned with getting players out the door than in
You are also right that we should be able to bring in players of quality and at an appropriate wage. How do we know? The board tells us every year with the bank balance trophy.
We need to scrap any wage structure and ceiling for fees and start bringing in the right players for the team. Failure to do so will allow our rivals to get ahead and win this league, which, ironically and something out board seems to miss, is going to cost us a financial bonanza.
Regarding your second paragraph Pat – May I add the words ‘deliberate sabotage’
My reasoning for that is we’ve never found out what’s in this Five way agreement…
And our chairman has allegedly lied about it’s origins and his viewing of it’s contents to his shareholders at a previous AGM !
We had Toney in the building and McGinn was a shoe in….and we managed to sign neither.