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Celtic Fans Will Rejoice If The Idah Deal Is Done. If It’s Not, Can We Afford To Wait For Him?

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When Celtic made their “official” move for Adam Idah yesterday, I think a lot of people sighed with relief. I didn’t react at all except to acknowledge that the story was out there. Norwich have since confirmed it. They also confirmed that they had rejected it.

Last night, The Record printed an “exclusive” saying the deal was now on the brink of being done.

First, I’m not going to comment on either story. I’m going to present a hypothetical in the event that the deal isn’t as close as The Record seems to think.

We do know there was an initial offer to Norwich who rejected it outright.

Rejected it without prejudice.

The fee we offered seemed well below the £6 million that had been mooted for months, but none of the reports – not even from our enemies – suggested that we’d have better luck if we simply upped it by a couple of million to hit that mark. The report last night said that Idah himself has stepped up to say he wants the move and that’s made a difference.

There is no word on whether we increased the fee. There is nothing in the initial reports which suggested that we would get Adam Idah if we upped our offer to a higher level. Perhaps his intervention made a difference. Perhaps the club simply offered more.

We did not get a release clause in the loan deal. Norwich refused to include one. That was telling. From the moment we realised we had a really good player here the realisation started to dawn on a lot of us that we might not get this guy back. They liked him and rated him. Their new manager wanted a better look. Their club reckoned it had a bankable asset.

Rodgers likes him. He’d like to have him. The manager is entitled to the club’s best efforts to secure him. Up to a point, and I think Rodgers himself would know where the line is, and what the timeframe should be for simply walking away.

If the deal isn’t close, if Norwich have put their foot down, if they have refused to entertain this, then we have a decision to make.

Obviously, I’ll be delighted if we get this across the line. But I’m ever conscious of the ticking clock and the knowledge that there is a number over which we will not go and which I would agree that we should not go.

I do not believe that Rodgers would push the club to spend anything it had to in order to get this deal done, if that was going to impact his budget overall, which it would. I do not believe Rodgers would accept waiting until the final day of the window, especially if that came with no guarantee that we would get Idah in any case.

See, Rodgers knows what a lot of people don’t seem to realise, a fact which astonishes me; he knows there is always an alternative. As much as he likes the kid, if this deal doesn’t look as if it is going to happen there are other players out there.

Idah was great for Celtic, and Celtic was great for him. I’d love to see him back, but I’m willing to accept that it might not happen, and in that case I’ll be grateful for his coming in for a short time, doing what he was brought to do and us moving on to another target.

We all know that if we were capable of spending an unlimited sum in this window that there is a number beyond which a club will offer no resistance to a bid. My thing is, and I’m sure it’s Rodgers’ as well, is that first we are not operating with an unlimited budget and second, no matter who the player in question is, there are better players we could get before we hit that figure.

There is a phenomenon with football fans which we have seen repeated this summer over and over and over again; an inability to look beyond what they know.

We know Kieran Tierney is a great player when he’s fit. We know Odsonne Edouard can score goals. We know Miovski is a great player. We know Idah is a good striker. We know Jota was a real talent who had a major impact on the team.

So of course, when these players are available, we are linked to them. If we move on from Idah there will be people who accuse the club of penny-pinching and not wanting to just “pay what they want.” I won’t like it myself if we end up with some sub-optimal option.

But Kyogo cost us £4.5 million. Giakoumakis cost us £2.5 million.

Is it crazy to suggest that there might be other options out there within the £2.5 million – £6 million price range?

Hey, I know they are.

There are many tens of thousands of professional footballers in Europe alone … it’s not even a failure of imagination it’s the natural suspicion of what we don’t know.

We know Idah can do it for us. He’s proved it.

So, bringing in some guy who most of us haven’t heard of is a risk.

It’s always a risk signing somebody. But I’d remind people that none of us had even heard of this guy until January, and the reception he got when he signed was not exactly laudatory.

I was cautiously pleased when I checked him out. He had the two key Rodgers attributes of pace and power. My initial reaction on Twitter was to suggest that we might be surprised, and that he was worth waiting to see before we blasted the deal.

But even I didn’t write a welcoming article, especially after discovering there was no right to buy, which made it look either like something that we weren’t convinced by or a case of us developing someone else’s player for them.

I will be delighted if we’d concluded a deal. Because although I am always excited about signings we’ve not heard much about it is obviously better to bring in someone about whom we are all agreed is an enhancement to the side, and he definitely is, having proven it during his short spell here on loan.

On top of that, we will have to give the club credit for going and getting the guy who the fans want, and who the manager wants.

But if this isn’t going to happen right now then maybe it’s not going to happen at all, and that’s the decision we have to take and the thing we have to weigh up.

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14 comments

  • Pat says:

    I’m not sure rejoice is the right word for a player who is probably going to spend more time on the bench. Miovski looks a better option and a more rounded player. We should put a deadline on Idah.

  • Kevan McKeown says:

    Can understand why certain deals can take time, tho it is gettin on. That’s the pre-season games about to start and so far no signins. Maybe just me and sorry tae sound pessimistic, but ah think they should have had at least some buisness done and dusted by now, they’ve had plenty of time tae search, even before the season ended there. Then ye start gettin the familiar feelin of previous windows. Hopefully see some positive activity soon.

  • Liammccarthy says:

    Just buy him,he’s big,strong & fast,Rodgers and the fans like him!?

  • James Fullerton says:

    Maybe the striker up in Aberdeen would be a better option,OK I accept Idah scored a few important goals ,but he also was missing a few times,so in my opinion Miovski would be my choice,

  • Stewart says:

    Really got to move on,,,this wait and hope and haggle over a few quid days should be over

  • Owen Mullions says:

    Sad news that Tommy Burns widow Rosemary has passed away. Requiescat in pace.

  • JimBhoy says:

    I wish the big guy well whether at Celtic or Norwich or elsewhere for that matter.

    Totally 100% true we could get maybe even better quality and certainly better value for money elsewhere. When I employ folk in my line of work I always try contract to hire as you get to se the quality before committing. Like a loan deal we now know what Adam can bring to the team so maybe worth that little bit extra to seal the deal.

    Miovski and Adam would be great pieces of business.

    A lot of freebies and cheap options as English teams need to cut wage bill. If players want to come into Celtic most likely with a pay cut we should be exploiting that market. I am sure Brendan will know those players well.

    We need first team ready players not bargain bucket speculatives like over at the Ibrox demolition site. Celts have good foundation to build on, the Rangers have a foundation of sand (it seems) and a hefty bill before they pay for playing staff.

    • Clachnacuddin and the Hoops says:

      Great post JinBhoy !

      Yep – I’m gonna be greedy as well and hope that both Idah and Miovski are delivered to Paradise !

  • Francis Glasgow says:

    We need to sign two strikers so we should sign another one and wait for Idah

  • Roonsa says:

    Good article, James. I totally agree. I am one of the very few Celtic fans who thinks that £6M is actually too much for what we’ve seen from Idah. If we take him on at that, fair enough. I trust Brendan’s judgement. But I also am aware of what we paid for Kyogo and Giakoumakis. I also know that both those players had a better pedigree than Idah before we purchased them.

    I also take on board what you say about Brendan knowing there are alternatives out there. Of course he does, in the same way that Ange knew that if Riley McGree felt that playing for a fair to middling English Championship team was a better career move than coming to Celtic then there were guys out there who could prove him wrong. And Matt O’Riley has done that.

    BTW … I just listened to the podcast. Unlike another one of your readers, I didn’t feel that the intro was too long and boring enough for me to make my judgement call based on that alone. LOLZ. I liked the more laid back and less scripted feel (when compared to the special which I also enjoyed, by the way). I look forward to listening to more of those and am interested to see what guests you will pull in for future podcasts. I always think it’s better to have someone to bounce off in these situations. But, it’s your baw, you do what you want with it 🙂

  • DannyGal says:

    I think Brendan/The Board are being sensible here by starting at 4m and possibly ending up at 6m, rather than starting 6m. Even then it would be the same price as CCV and Jota, so quite a punt. I don’t think we should escalate this to near Edouard levels though. If they start bidding for Miovski now then Norwich may bend a bit?

  • Michael McCartney says:

    I would love to see Idah at Celtic Park, he has already proved he has the temperament and goal scoring instinct to be an asset to the team. If Norwich try to hold us to ransom I would call their bluff and walk away, let’s face it, he was a fringe player for them in the English Championship, 6 million with a couple of add ons attached is more than enough, and unless Norwich think he is going to be a big player for them, which I very much doubt, then they are trying to take the pxss if they’re asking for more than 6 million.Get the deal done quickly or move on.
    At the other end of the pitch I would hope moves are being made right now for a decent experienced keeper. No messing around, the keeper position is every bit as important, if not more, as the striking position.

  • Charlie Green says:

    Unfortunately, I think Lawwell will play this out until the end of the window and then announce his signing trying to fool us into think we have made progress. It would be a great signing but no improvement in the team unless BR plans to play him alongside Kyogo.

  • LPATIM says:

    Morning folk’s, why has this deal not gone through yet, what is the problem with our board, yet again been linked with players on a free, want to be a big club in Europe, start acting like one.

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