GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - MAY 25: Adam Idah of Glasgow Celtic FC applauds the fans after the Scottish Gas Mens Scottish Cup Final between Celtic and Rangers at Hampden Park on May 25, 2024 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images)
Adam Idah was in the news last night, and we all know by now I think what the story was. He missed the flight when Norwich flew out to Austria, because of an unknown issue, and when the manager got on the phone and told him he had to come out he did in fact go and at that point he was told he would be dropped from their friendly over there.
The manager was obviously angry and after the game said whatever was bothering him, the situation involving Celtic was certainly a major factor in it.
I’ve read a lot of comments suggesting that this is Idah’s fault. Players shouldn’t be spitting the dummy when they don’t get their way, and it makes me nervous, but I’m not ready to heap all the blame onto his shoulders, not when we have situations close to home where we’re walking on eggshells every day wondering if O’Riley’s head will be turned.
I’ve read comments suggesting that Norwich should not be standing in the way of his dream move. But that’s self evidently rubbish, and if someone in the media was writing that about our stance over Matt O’Riley I would be furiously telling them to mind their own business.
No, clubs know what our valuation of O’Riley is. Do we even know what valuation Norwich put on Idah? I’ll tell you this; we know it’s not as low as £4.5 million.
When a club gets serious about Matt they will make a serious offer and then sit down with us and negotiate in good faith. At that point a deal will either get done or it will not. Two teams have made bids, both are insulting. We all know this is the case, just as we all know there’s a deal to be done with Norwich … but only when we get real.
I’ve said right from the start that they had to be careful not to set a ridiculous fee we wouldn’t meet here and risk an unhappy player, but the offer we’ve made doesn’t come close to being serious, we’re at least £1.5 million short of that, and so what we’re actually doing is insulting the club that holds his registration and making them even more reluctant to talk.
Nothing about this makes us look good.
We’ve made a derisory offer and then walked away from the table. Last night we found out that Idah is still in the “Celtic WhatsApp group”; I see no reason why that would be the case and find it pretty ridiculous and I’d be extremely pissed off if this was one of our players, because it adds to the impression that people are playing games.
Whenever something like this happens with a player we’re trying to sign I always try to put myself in the shoes of the people at his club, and think about it as they must see it, and I would not blame them one bit if they were extremely pissed off by all this. It’s our club that is hanging this kid out to dry along with our manager who wants him signed.
We’ve behaved abysmally towards him and in the shabbiest possible manner towards his club. We had a responsibility to him, to the manager, to our own club and theirs to either make a proper, serious bid and to sit down with them and talk this through to see if a deal could be done, or to walk away from the table if one wasn’t possible.
For God’s sake, it’s been evident for over a month that we’re dragging our feet here when we could be moving on to other targets and we ought to have either came back with a real offer or made it known that we were looking elsewhere. That would have brought the closure to this which everyone involved needs in order to prepare for the season ahead.
Instead of doing this right, and trying to get it done quick, it seems we’ve tried to chart some shady middle ground, where we’re working on the player in the background and refusing to make a better offer to the people who control his future.
Nobody is to blame for this but us.
The way we’ve conducted ourselves in this whole window looks like we’re a club going through the motions and pretending that generating a few headlines counts as progress. If I were the Norwich chairman I’d be telling Celtic, and the player, in no uncertain terms, that whatever his future might be that no bid from our club will even be entertained at this point.
And you know something? If they do that, I don’t think we have a Plan B.
Today we might announce the signing of Bernardo.
Believe me, at this point I have no intention of greeting the announcement with fireworks and party streamers, not over a deal where we had a right-to-buy clause which we then re-negotiated downward and still messed about for more weeks when the manager wanted to get him in with others and get them up to speed.
The way we do business must be off-putting for clubs as well.
This might well be the last player Benfica loans us with a right-to-buy option, because they won’t trust us to honour it. And why would any club loan us a player anyway knowing that if the guy does well that we’ll play these sorts of games to unsettle him and then put in some low-ball bid? We do ourselves no favours at all.
But in this case, we’ve done Adam Idah no favours. We’ve encouraged him to believe we’d do everything we could to get him here and then submitted one derisory bid followed by a long radio silence and now he’s at loggerheads with his own manager and his own club and he’s pissed off their fans and made a rod for his back.
What a terrible way to behave. It’s like what the Ibrox club is attempting to do right now with Lawrence Shankland at Hearts, and what at least one club is attempting to do to us with Matt O’Riley and I can’t defend it and I won’t defend it.
For weeks now, this site and others have been almost begging the club to settle this issue, for our good, for his good, for the club’s good; either get it done or move along. Now our foot-dragging and our utter lack of respect for everyone involved has had a real-world consequence for the player, and we now cannot and must not let this drag on any longer.
We have spent £1 million on a young goal keeper to date Norwich and correct want around £8 million so you would think around £6/7 million they would do deal when you think back on the duds we spent millions on the lad from Norwich looks like bargain at £6/7 million.
How is it possible for Celtic to totally mess up almost every transfer window. Lawell and his self serving cronies, utter shambles yet again.
Agree 100% sums up the situation perfectly.
Absolutely 100 per cent agree
Great piece bang on ,it is taking months to get bernardo , this carry on is getting embarrassing ,I don t care what anyone says lawwel has his paws all over this
Great James
Sure wish your article could be sent to our board….and BR as this surely does make us look awful…. Miovski being looked at and a bid from Spain has been made
I sincerely hope the Green Brigade give the board both barrels at weekend…
I don’t think there’s anything in this article that I disagree with at all!!!
I have heard from a decent source that Norwich were wantinh £11million for him which is mental and maybe we should have looked elsewhere.
Yeah I heard that myself today mate, that should have been the moment we brought the whole matter to a close and said, “Adam, thanks, and good luck to you kid.”
I don’t know why we didn’t.
James, you are surely not surprised by our boards behaviour in regards to the pursuit of Idah and Bernardo.
You only need to look at the disgraceful way we tried to lowball Hibs over John McGinn to understand the way we operate under Peter Lawwell.
This transfer window should have been really straightforward. A starting goalkeeper. A left back to compete for the starting spot with Taylor. A central defender to start alongside CCV. Bernardo to maintain our options in midfield. Idah and Miovski up front.
What would the cost be 25 – 30 million perhaps?
I would have moved on Nawrocki, Lagerbielke, Kobayashi,Kwon, Johnston. Even if all 5 only netted us 10 million that brings the spend to 15 – 20 million. When you consider the surplus we have it is hardly an extravagant amount.
Why will we not spend money? Who is blocking the managers plans? If Brendan is Desmond’s man as many suggest then it is surely not him. Lawwell and Nicholson are employees of Celtic PLC of whom Desmond is the largest shareholder so it should not be the case that they are not enacting the managers transfer target requests. It is all very strange and when coupled with the complete stonewall silence from anyone at executive level at the club it leads to the situation we find ourselves in with supporter frustration at breaking point and mistrust in the board evident.
A house divided cannot stand.
A sad state of affairs and entirely avoidable. HH
Absolutely spot on. Embarrassing for our reputation. Agree 100% as we have the money unlike others!
It’s time for change in how Celtics board operate really.
Yes the formatted system to bring in young players to sell for profit is good but……
To not strengthen our squad from last year should be looked at stackable offences.
Making lowball offers continuously only makes Celtic look amateurs.
Everything said in this article is true & we all need to speak out regarding all these points….
I’ve had enough, have you guys……
Well balanced and some great points being made in this article. . We pride ourselves as our Club in doing things the right way and we are being hypocritical in our dealings with Norwich and Idah himself. Sort it out Celtic let’s continue to be a class act and Club like no other please???
Excellent argument James. In the past Liverpool were notoriously good. You knew if they came knocking it would be dealt with quickly and professionally. Similarly, outside football, M&S were a joy to deal with – fair, reasonable, willing to compromise. Nothing is gained by bidding millions below what the estimated sale price is/the amount you are ultimately willing to pay.
Just goes to prove that many on our Board are utter charlatans, only one step above idiocy. Personally, I would rather the lad at Aberdeen – he’s a better player and has played at a higher level, but if Rodgers wants Idah, so be it. But the window has shown that no lessons have been learned from last year, we still have plodding biscuit tin managers all under the deadening hand of Liewell. One player in since May. To mis-quote Tom Nairn – I wont be happy until the last Celtic director is strangled with the the last copy of the Celtic View.
Absolutely spot on Both Bernardo and idah should have been in USA with Celtic The board are penny pinching as usual Fair enough get good deals but Idah especially has gone on way too long Every Celtic fan wants him at parkhead so get it done now even if they pay a bit more than they had planned.
Agreed, James. But it’s not “us” it’s “them”- the board.
I’ve absolutely no doubt they’re stalling to see what happens with Matt and his transfer. This Board seems to be obsessed with profit to the detriment of everything else including the Clubs reputation, European progress and Fans trust. The more cash they have the more they want and there was no way they would pay £6 or £7 million for a Striker and then Matt stays, the unthinkable nightmare for PL and DD.
The whole thing is very weird. Celtic seem to be trying extremely hard, at not not trying at not trying hard enough, to sign a player who probably isn’t good enough. He’s solid and performed admirably in the run-in but I didn’t see anything all that special. So, as I said, weird with capital WEIRD.
Johnny Kenny has been in a rich vein of form recently. Stephen Bradley (Sligo),
said that Johnny was the best forward in Ireland at this moment. Brendan tried Mikey Johnston as a Striker. Should Johnny be recalled to Celtic or is it too late?.
Naismith won’t let Lawrence Shankland go. Hearts will jack-up his wages to match Ibrox.
A lot of Celtic fans are forecasting Hearts to take plenty of points from Clubs in last years top 6?. I will wait and see. Without L Shankland they can’t do it.
Ha , nothing new here ,it’s liewell playing and bluffing at poker, Norwich should tell Celtic to get to fuck.This board are incredibly arrogant and greedy,they knock back low ball offers for our players yet expect other teams to accept our pitiful offers.This has John Mcginn and Steven fletcher written all over it and to me it looks like our manager has no say or clout at all ,what on earth was he thinking when he came back it’s his own fault for accepting all the rubbish desmond and liewell told him ,but the board don’t care STs have all been bought,CL tickets and merchandise will still be bought and so on and on it goes ,I wonder if our fans are just as gullible as sevcos,at least their board inept as they are dip into their own pockets to try and help their manager,our board won’t even dip into funds that the fans and transfer income put there,never mind dip into their own pockets.If the boot was on the other foot and sevco had all the money in the bank and we were in their position, sevcos board would bury us and never look back .but hey the Celtic faithful keep on giving to this shower of charlatans we call the board.
You are spot on about the huns burying us given the chance, we had that chance to bury them, but Liewell lied and lied again about the 5 way agreement, the thing is if we bury them there will be no blue pound, and that is Liewells thinking, the boot on the other foot and we would suffer for sure.
Penny pinching Peter is to blame, he has gone way beyond his best before date, when something starts to stink what do you do with it, he’s overdue being binned.
Couldn’t agree more!! We’re behaving like an amateur outfit. Quibbling over £1m-£2m when we have well over £100 guaranteed in the bank with CL money. FFS Celtic, get some business done!!
It reminds me of the John McGinn debacle. A player that would have been outstanding for us. He wanted to come to us. All for another half a million quid.
You’ve hit the nail on the head again James, I can’t believe how many of our fans are still defending the board and assuring us that they are working hard. The season starts on Sunday, ok the window will still be open for a bit but we’re not properly prepared for the first game of the season, weaker than last season and that is inexcusable.
Bernardo and Idah should’ve been straight forward but Idah has a contract at Norwich and they don’t have to sell if they don’t want to.
After the usa if i didnt know any better i would suggest the board is cleaninghouse building lennox town tarting up the rest of the place, hording as much money as possible whilst getting in players to get as far as possible in the CL in order to abandon the SPFL for the riches of the EPL and leaving scottish corrupted football to the huns and the rest. The tv rights alone make it worthwhile and by adding 2 more teams to the epl makes it doable. We have capacity to go to 85k on extensions. Can you imagine every second week hosting both mans, liverpool , spurs, chelsea, leichester ect ect ?
I’m sorry but I don’t see it’s our fault what’s happening with the boys valuation as it’s nonsense end off story . We have every right to walk away from negotiations on this one if Norwich want to rip the piss
I could’ve swore you said yourself that you didn’t think idah was worth more than the 4.5 Celtic had offered, and if Norwich wanted 6, you believed we should’ve moved on. Who’s to say that this hasn’t happened? Celtic reportedly made the 4.5 offer, it was rejected, and that then appears to be the end of it. You’ve no idea if they are looking at other players now. Celtic didn’t tell him to miss his flight. The story goes that he flew home to get his phone and was late returning. And the story also is that Norwich want 11M+ for him. The fact it’s came out that he’s still in the team WhatsApp group is a complete non story for a player who was on loan with us, and his club clearly don’t want him.
As for Bernardo, I’m sure the loan to buy valuation was if he came in and made an impact. I personally like Bernardo, and idah, so would like to see them both sign, but if Bernardo still has room to develop I’m to a starter for Celtic, is it really that wrong for the club to go back and discuss a different deal?
Well your recollection is seriously wrong.
I said there is a number above which it becomes subject to the law of diminishing returns.
Do try to keep up FFS.
I said at £7-8 million there are better options.
There’s nothing complicated about what I’ve said. Ask them what they want. If it’s too much move on.
This is not rocket science.
Spot on, why do we have to go through this with every player we want, even the Bernando shambles, we agreed a loan to buy, however we went back on that and demanded a lower fee, now every Celtic supporter knows who is behind this ridiculous biscuit tin mentality, he is a non executive director and should have no say whatsoever in any transfer dealings, I for one am sick to death with his meddling, it makes us look look like armatures.
It just seems to be another John MaGinn lost cause and look at how good a player he turned out to be!!!!!
Celtic boards should be sacked!!!!!!!
If the money is in the bank bloody spend it
That’s the worst load of rubbish you have ever written James.we all know who was to blame it was mark lawwell not getting the same loan to buy deal as Verona had which was 3.5 million euros. when idah started too score goals and make assists norwich wanted more money celtics offer of £4.2 million pounds was over a million than they were going to get from Verona they knocked back celtics bid and said they wanted £7.5 million because it a British club they think they can rip us off .as for the fletcher and mcginn debacles we know who fault that was Peter lawwell like father like son Peter lawwell was out of celtic for 2years most things ran smooth till his boy came in then he came back
Where do we disagree here? Lol.
That’s pretty much what the article says lol.