GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - FEBRUARY 28: Adam Idah of Celtic celebrates after he scores his team's second goal during the Cinch Scottish Premiership match between Celtic FC and Dundee FC at Celtic Park Stadium on February 28, 2024 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Tonight, the media is reporting that we are on the brink of completing the signing of Adam Idah.
The BBC is reporting a fee of £6.5 million, with potential add-ons taking it beyond £8 million. Meanwhile, Anthony Joseph suggests Celtic might be paying £8.5 million, with further potential add-ons and a 15% sell-on clause.
Now, we don’t know which of these reports is true.
All we know is that this deal looks like it’s about to be done, finally bringing an end to a summer of nonsensical foot-dragging and whatever else the club has been involved in.
I’ve written about this several times over the past few months, arguing that there was a financial point beyond which this deal didn’t make sense.
If we’re paying £8.5 million for Idah, that’s the extreme end of what I ever thought we’d be prepared to spend. And I’ll tell you this: if we end up paying that much, it’s twice what we initially offered and likely represents a sizable increase on what we offered just last week.
Now, I’m not going to knock this signing because I like Adam Idah, and I think we’ve got ourselves a really good player here. But, I’m also 100% certain that we could have secured a better player if we had gone shopping in that upper-level cost bracket.
Here’s what I think this tells us about Celtic and our transfer policy: it doesn’t work. Something is seriously wrong at Celtic Park. We’re potentially spending more on this player than we ever intended, and quite possibly more than is entirely smart.
Don’t get me wrong—I like Idah.
This is a guy I would have signed because we know his qualities and talents as a player. We know he can play under pressure and deliver when it matters most. He will be a great addition, providing strength and depth in an important area of the team.
But Adam Idah’s signing highlights a very serious problem, one I’ll be writing about tomorrow in the context of another transfer story.
It seems clear to me that our scouting system is a shambles. Whoever is responsible for identifying targets and getting them signed is hopelessly overmatched by the size of the job at a club like Celtic. That person cannot possibly still be in that role come the January window.
We’ve watched this drama unfold for more than two months.
Throughout, we were assured that this deal would be done, that Celtic would get what they wanted, and that Norwich would get less than they wanted.
This was supposedly some genius work by the negotiators at Celtic Park. But in the end, all it took was Brendan Rodgers giving a press conference at the end of a game and mentioning Kyogo’s injury, and stating that he expected the deal to be done this week. What was once unthinkable is now being considered, and what was once undoable is now being done. The price we weren’t willing to pay is the price we’re about to pay.
And I ask you, in all honesty, why, if we were going to do this, didn’t we just do it two months ago? Who at Celtic really thinks it was a good idea to drag this out, taking grief from fans like me, instead of just getting together with Norwich and sorting it out in good faith, possibly at a lower cost, and much, much sooner than this?
After two months of token efforts and one insulting offer, it’s finally deemed acceptable to pay Norwich their fee and close this matter out.
If people at Celtic are feeling slightly stung tonight, wondering if we overpaid or thinking that maybe we’ve been unlucky because Kyogo picked up a knock, I can only laugh.
They have only themselves to blame. Their big bluff backfired the moment Kyogo fell clutching that shoulder yesterday. Their poker skills are as big a joke as everything else they’ve tried to do this window. They ought to be hanging their heads in shame.
It was inevitable that they would leave this too late for any possible wiggle room, until we were forced to the table with serious money, panicking about the potential consequences of leaving it any longer.
This is the scenario some of us have been warning about for weeks. I was absolutely certain that we would either end up overpaying because time had run out or that we wouldn’t get Adam Idah at all.
If the deal is done, I’m happy.
I’m happy, first, that we’ve brought the player in because I like him, I rate him, and I think he’ll do a really good job.
But I’m even happier that it didn’t go down to the final day when we finally had to admit to ourselves and to the manager that there was no Plan B.
In that extreme scenario, with the minutes ticking down, we could have ended up paying an eight-figure sum in a blind panic and out of sheer desperation. This transfer window has been an absolute shambles, and the dangers inherent in leaving business until the last minute should now be obvious, even to the most blinkered pro-board fans.
Heads ought to roll for this calamity. But they won’t.
The people at the top of our house will, even now, find a way to convince themselves that they are geniuses after all, in spite of a preponderance of evidence to the contrary.
I look forward to writing a more upbeat piece tomorrow, after we’ve finally got this deal done.
He’s a far better player but as ‘transfer business’ goes this reminds me slightly of the Ryan Kent purchase….
We sold OH and Lawel for £7.5 million if look at it that way its not too bad if Idah was a celtic player and we wanted to sell him we would want £10 plus million for him.
Looks like the board have used the savings on Bernardo to fund the signing of Idah. £12m for the two was the original combined asking price if I remember it right.
The most positive thing is that all four signings so far are Brendan’s signings, which is an improvement on last summer. Let’s see if he gets the other 3 or 4 key players he wants/needs.
I don’t know if there is a mirror in the Celtic boardroom?
Oh there will be one for sure Robert as these old men love themselves well enough to admire themselves in every day…
With of course a balance sheet of £67 million reflecting back at them !
Not a lot of point as vampires don’t have reflections
Personally i don’t believe our board will have paid anything near 9 million for someone who will be a second choice striker, 6-7 seems more likely, however it suits them perfectly well to have that figure being reported.
Where our board excels is in achieving maximum value is players sold. 3m for Lawal! Has he ever kicked a ball for the 1st team? Ibrox mob will be raging to see us make that kind of money from a reserve player so that’s an added bonus lol.
Agree James if we were shopping for an £8m player there would be more to choose from and possibly better than Idah. Whole thing reeks of fear and desperation. BUT he was here last season so we ain’t any further forward atm it’s the same group of players we haven t moved an inch from last season even with all that hoarded money in the bank and more to come from champions league. It’s looking at Best we will be same as last season PROBABLY weaker because Matt O’Reilly could still go . Once again another shambles of a transfer window . They need chased out the building
Its time for all the fans to take a stand to show these bungling halfwits that without us paying for merchandise & tickets, they have nothing!
It’s not about not recognising that in a financial sense we’re in a good place.
After announcing publicly how well they’ve done to gather finances but fail to give the manager what he asks just shows true lack of ambition in a footballing manner…. hey we’re a football club, not a DIY company!!
If fans refused to go to one home game I think a message for all to see what’s what & hopefully bring changes that’s needed at board level!!
FANS HAVE TO TAKE A STAND!!!
Norwich only doing what we’re doing with big Matt. However we should be doing our business much sooner and quicker,btw we still need a couple more. Welcome big Adam
100% Joe spot on
Absolute shambles. Rank amateurs.
If we have paid over the odds,
then MOR sale must be happening…?
Idah has shown some good promise, particularly towards the end of the season.
The Problem at Celtic is Penny Pinching Peter, who now has runny egg all over his face.
This could have been settled two months ago.
What calamity? Norwich played a blinder in making sure they got a Championship fee for an up and coming young player, they stopped us from extracting a loan to buy clause in January and bumped the price up probably to an English and not a Scottish fee. Though of course we took the time to try. Their manager said he wanted to have a closer look at Idah and he couldn’t do that if a deal was done weeks or months ago so really only it’s the impatient that gibberish on repeatedly. Now we still have the time, several weeks actually, to look at others whom we’ve probably been reviewing already for a wee while. Better probably if some of our supporters calmed doon to a frenzy instead of us having to listen to those ever moaning on about how we need need to strengthen our squad like we don’t already all know that. Gees a break and calm yer wallies for a bit and see if we don’t now strengthen the squad a bit more
Maybe you missed the point.
If we were ever going to pay Norwich what they wanted for him we could have done this WEEKS AGO.
So why didn’t we? What are the priorities here?
Dont know if relevant but on news that Norwich just had change at top ,Delia Smith selling out .Could this have been a factor in the delay in them selling him ?
Of course I got the point, it was barked out repeatedly since the end of the season, your & many others’ point btw, but as you also repeatedly acknowledged he was a Norwich player. As with us and MOR/Hatate, they controlled the timing of any deal for their player. Also you acknowledged, as I do, that we’re happy to have the big guy at Paradise and sometimes negotiations take time particularly as the guy probably surprised them how successful a player he turned out to be. Maybe just maybe they were having doubts about whether they should sell him at all
The scouting system it seems is a real problem like you suggest.
My cousin made a suggestion the other day. Why don’t we hire a club representative to negotiate with targets and agents. Henri Larrson would be a great ambassador and could do the job well.
He could use his own experience of playing for Barcelona and Man it’d after he left Celtic. Young players not quite making it yet at the big European clubs could be convinced by our famous number 7 that Celtic could be a great option.
That’ll be one area partially strengthened now that they’ve got him. Ah think he does have somethin tae offer. Tho personally imo, if Norwich didn’t accept a final offer of, at the very most 6 million, it shouldve been ‘fine move on’ long ago and other opportunities looked out. I’m suspectin, now that the deals just about done, this board will actually be quite ‘pleased’ with theirselves and think they’ve ‘done well’ with the spendin and just top that up with 1 or 2 loan deals or ‘prospects’. Tae them, that should please us ‘lesser’ Celtic supporters.
WHEN WE LOOK AT THE PLAYERS WE HAVE SOLD WHAT HAVE WE SPENT ON PLAYERS NOTHING AND WE STILL HAVE 3 PLAYERS STILL TO MOVE ON THAT WILL BE ANOTHER 14 MILLION IN THE BANK SO TRY AND GET MORE PLAYER’S IN START SPENDING A BIT OF MONEY DONT KEEP IT IN THE BANK NOTES CANT PUT A BALL IN
THE NET PLAYERS CAN SO SPEND SPEND
SPEND
Here ,here,well said,but I do welcome Adam with open arms regardless
Norwich got a new majority shareholder today. Maybe – just maybe- that was a factor in the timing of the sale.
Now like you, I think we’ve paid over the odds for a striker only Norwich and ourselves were interested in, but it doesn’t matter what I think- we have persisted in negotiating with Norwich because Adam is willing to come and I’d guess, because our manager wants him as a contrast attacking option to Kyogo, even at this price.
I don’t think we need to invent any other factors to explain this. Both Bernardo and Idah are known to us and can get thrown into the team as soon as they arrive they will be fit and know our style of play.
I am confident we are after other warm bodies too but, as usual, a lot of business will be done late.
Atalanta, a club we have praised as modern and data driven have still not landed Matt. Brentford, another so-called modern club haven’t yet landed our target – the burnley CB O’Shea.
We like to slag our own but this seems to be a common issue for clubs, even ones richer than us with Sky Steroid money.
Think this deal should have been aborted, price far to high for his quality at this moment. Think Brendon just likes his style, so he probably gave board reassurance this is guy he wanted, so deal was done.. in the end . Transfers are not that easy, especially when a new manager is at a club ( Norwich). Only ways to get deals done quick are 1- over pay on wages or transfer fee ( or / both). 2- club wants rid of the player. All other transfers go down to “will” the player give his all if we don’t sell.. will player drop his standards & be worth less in future. Will player be motivated to improve so clubs come back for him in future with higher offer. These are just the glaringly obvious points. There are hundreds more. !! This is why “most” clubs do business close to end of window. If we start chucking higher wages / transfer fees just to get deals done we end up in bad scenario. “Especially” if the player doesn’t impress, you now are stuck with the player on high wages, even tho we are cautious at Celtic we STILL end up with this happening. If you want to see an extreme end look at Chelsea they get deals done. Celtic are not perfect but it’s well run with solid board. They are paid to make hard choices, should they be more open about why they are stockpiling money “yes” but that’s not always possible. Wait till end of transfer window then judge if you have to… For me, I’ll judge them over 10 years cycles , not on knee jerk reactions each window. Last 10 years been very good but next 10 will be difficult in our league. Attracting right type of player for Europe & league is VERY difficult without going down a black hole.
It’s made a hell of a lot MORE difficult by restricting the players we go for to those under 23 earning £5 grand or less a week.
Just as well we don’t do that then.
I’m sorry, but Adam Idah is not worth 9.5 million pounds, nowhere near that figure. He was at best, a squad player at Norwich City F.C. I don’t doubt he’s a good player and he has shown that he can score goals, but, 9.5 million, come on!!
All’s well that ends well, yes we should have got him sooner, but he is in the door and that is all that matters. Pricewise, we definitely paid more than he is probably worth, we made mistakes with the negotiations, but at the end of the day we have a player that Brendan rates highly and whom he trusts to fit into our system and produce the goods, that in itself is worth buying.
Welcome back Big Man, it’s time for you to become an Invincible. 🙂
Maybe for a second think,oh I don’t know maybe we’ve found a perfect fit for our team,He’s done really well on loan and could be a great bit of business in the end up
You’d think from this article(and some others) and comments that Celtic hadn’t won a trophy in 20 years. I wonder how many clubs would want their club run as badly as Celtic is run. And how many clubs would want the rubbish trophy haul over that the Celtic fans have enjoyed over the last 5 years. The board and manager should be ashamed Celtic only won the double.
Most other teams can only dream of the success that Celtic have had(and how well the club is run in recent years(just look at the other side of the city), they are the envy of probably most teams in Scotland and I bet a lot of teams in England. Yes, Celtic are a complete shambles, sack the board. Hail Hail
Oh please. Spare us the nonsense. This site and others celebrated every one of those triumphs.
Our passion for celebrating those triumphs in why we’re on such a downer at those putting future ones at risk.
Look forward to the piece but 4.5 plus bonus clauses as per and thats it we should have moved to the next target. Clearly there was none.
Many may disagree, but when he missed his flight for Norwich pre season, I would have moved on to other strikers. That says a lot about the lads attitude and Norwich fans were right to be raging. If things don’t go as he likes, we may see that attitude at Celtic
I agree the deal should have been done earlier but did we pay what the media are saying or did we not I favour not as I have as much knowledge as anyone saying it was this or that Celtic paid only the guys who pays out knows what the price was do you honestly think that the media know any more than the guy on the terraces the answer is no why you ask simple Celtic as a club are not going to tell these guys anything it is all speculation to try and get a story so do you honestly think that Celtic are going to devuldge anything to these parasites who run our great club down in the media??????
Firstly, I’m delighted we’ve finally gotten this long drawn out saga/signing, just about concluded…but by God, we manage to do things in a very unmanageable way.
We shall probably never know why this became such a protracted saga, but I’m sure we can all have a go at guessing the main reasons & obstacles that were involved or were self inflicted!
With just over two & a half weeks remaining of this window, will the trail left by our snail like transfer dealings, receive an adrenaline boost, to speed dealings up, enhance our chances in Europe, and leave our domestic rivals chasing a vapour trail ?
Or is that just wishful thinking?
The majority of linked names, are not entirely inspiring, and it remains to be seen whether we will get the quality that IS required.
To date, we are still hearing about more possible outgoings than incomings…but we can still only hope that big MOR won’t be one of them !
We shall definitely see!!!
If Celtic had gone in with a reasonable offer in the first place, say 6m, Norwich would probably accepted the offer. We have paid about 3m more than we should have.