Celtic’s pursuit of our alleged number-one target, Mathias Kvistgaarden, is now over, according to Sky Sports journalist Anthony Joseph. The only surprising thing about this story is that it has taken us so long to get here.
I know we do things at a snail’s pace. That’s been evident for years. But how long have we allegedly been pursuing this guy? Eighteen months? Longer?
And in that time, we’ve had plenty of opportunities to make a bid at a price which would have been considered reasonable. But the geniuses at Celtic waited until we had sold our top striker and were therefore clearly in the market for a replacement. Worse, they waited until the last days of the window to make a real move.
Now – shock horror – Brøndby are holding out for the highest possible fee—and why shouldn’t they? We’re the ones who sold our star striker before bringing in a replacement when it was shriekingly obvious to anyone with a fraction of sense what the result of that was going to be.
We’re the ones who made a mess of this. How do we expect other clubs to behave? They know the state we’re in here. They know we’re down to the last couple of days, and that’s our choice, not theirs. That’s a situation we’ve created, and it was blatantly obvious to many of us how it would play out.
Thiss a position we put ourselves in, it’s not down to them.
Our pursuit of this guy—if he was truly a striker we wanted all along—has been a farce. Almost every transfer window has had some story about him. He was identified when Mark Lawwell was still here.
Nothing about how we operate makes the slightest bit of sense.
All I know is this—if Kvistgaarden is so highly rated and we wanted him that badly, you don’t leave it until now. You don’t wait until the closing stages of a transfer window to make your move. The window has been open for 31 days. Thirty-one days. So naturally, we left negotiations until the last minute. It’s a joke. And anyone who didn’t foresee that Brøndby would treat us exactly like this when we sold Kyogo over a week ago is a fool; it’s increasingly evident that’s the whole of the Celtic board.
My faith in a positive outcome here has cratered completely. Especially if Joseph is right and the valuation is only £2 million apart. Two million pounds. We could pay that out of the petty cash and not even notice. But instead, our board is nickel-and-diming, convinced they’re world-class poker players. Again.
And as far as this talk about possibly revisiting the deal in the summer goes, don’t embarrass yourselves, Celtic, by trying to sell us on this jam tomorrow rubbish. We’ve heard it all before. Kvistgaarden has been on our radar for nearly two years, and we’ve had plenty of chances to get him. Do I believe we’ll go back for him in the summer? Absolutely, categorically, no.
Because all his value has done is go up in the last two years. And if we really had him as our top target, we wouldn’t have messed about the way we are now. After he fires his current club into another Champions League campaign, they’ll either want to keep him, jack up the price again, or some other club—one that doesn’t mess around—will swoop in and take him. He will never pull on a Celtic shirt.
This whole thing is an absolute farce. It’s a red-faced embarrassment. And for those still hoping for a miracle ending, I think you’re going to be disappointed. I thought the summer window was bad enough, with the way the club left everything until the last possible minute, but this is worse. Because at least then we knew who we wanted and the deals were nearly done. This one looks like desperate flailing for last minute solutions. It’s mortifying especially as this one was straightforward. This one was easy. And all we’ve done is weaken the squad overall.
If you still have faith in these people, you have more of it than is good for you. Don’t hold out hope that we’re suddenly going to get the player this club needs and we, as fans, deserves in the final days of this window. If this board is playing games over £2 million when we have over £70 million sitting in the bank, then it’s a joke.
And the joke’s on us, and on those who just days ago were praising these people for “pulling off a dream window.”
In that time, we’ve lost our left back target until summer and now the striker deal has fallen down over money, as if we’re skint.
Anyone still up for making the Invisible CEO chancellor of the exchequer?
Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images
James
I am surprised you are surprised. This is an extractive board led by transactional people who think their sole duty is to ensure a very generous cash flow. And I get that COVID scared them about loss of revenue – but they seem unable to stand by the capitalist axiom – speculate to accumulate. One year on we are in danger of allowing trophies to slip a last gasp grasp at Idah saved their bacon. And here we are again, the league is not guaranteed, and the cup will be difficult. Remember the Ibrox club have scored 9 goals in three games against us. I am old enough to remember when Kelly [Robert] amatuerishness got in the way of our progress until Stein arrived. Now we have an arrogance that the board think better than the manager. Frankly I think we will be lucky to hold onto BR after the end of this season
The amount of happy clappers ladt week now realising the shitshow of selling our number 1 striker was gross mismanagement.
I’d thought we’d stopped being so naive yet here we are AGAIN.
Has Rodgers been over ruled by the board over Kyogo,what club would sell there number 1 striker mid season with no replacement ready after knowing for months he wanted away.PISSED RIGHT OFF
£2.5 million is roughly the gate money from the Bayern game. This board are charlatans, selling top players without a replacement is amateur hour. Every club we approach knows we are desperate and will price their players accordingly. Peter and his placemen have cost us time and again, they don’t want to push on, happy to be dominant domestically but to afraid to spend on next level players.
Thought it impossible after the summer window that they would mess Brendan about again but here we are same old same old, every transfer target turns into a saga the worst run club in Europe bar none and by the way we’ve chased Kvistgarden for so long if we did get him the expectation on him would be through the roof with a lot of fans expecting the next Gerd Muller all thanks to our star studded board.
Beyond embarrassing and totally negligent. Last hope of the manager extending his stay has also now gone too
Brendan now quite within his rights to do a midnight flit again in the middle of the season, who could blame him. I’d be gone if I was in his shoes.
We refuse to move too far ahead of the side across the city. It really is obvious now. Something stinks
There’s no question we need another striker but there is also no doubt that it is difficult – look at Spurs thinking they had done a deal only for the player to say no. Transfers are a circus everywhere- Aston Villa just lost a striker to Saudi despite having a top 8 UCL finish.
I don’t go with this separation of decision making regarding Kyogo and having a replacement on board. From a footballing perspective BR would have had a say as would Tisdale. For me we need at a minimum an experienced striker for Bayern and the same player to help develop Idah over next 5 months. And if that then means we buy time for a summer transfer so be it.
But we also need LB or CB cover and a proper CDM.
We have needed a CDM for over a decade, why do you trust these accountant’s?
It’s no only farcical. If they lose out on a proven striker and bring in a cheap loan option, it absolutely fuckin stinks of greed. What’s happenin here ? Are Lawwell, Desmond and Co. tryin tae make as much money as the can, before they sell up or somethin, by screwin every drop of money they can out the support (just a thought) ? Dae they think bringin in ‘old favourites’ will ‘win the support over’ while other very important areas are neglected ? Maybe even, as some of us feared, Idah’s goals against AV, has ‘convinced’ them there’s nae need tae spend big, or bigger, on another striker. Somethins far fkn wrong. It would be gamblin massively with our season and there’s absolutely nae excuse.
So good is this guy that no other big club has bid for him and you want to chuck another £2m on top so as to moan about over paying for him in a weeks time. Anger management classes are available. We are in a good enough position if the striker at all cost falls through. Conspiracies what would you do without them? So much hatred against the board, though some of the complaints have some validity, that you guys will literally use any falling acorn from the sky story to your advantage. A couple of years back a great many of our supporters wanted to see GG utilised more. The irrational love of Kyogo led to his passport abroad and then he just abandoned us for a relegation club in France. Larsson quality I think not. I’m well pissed at the guy for that. 2 geese don’t make a summer, no more than 2 seasons don’t make a Larsson. Many are demeaning our legend striker for a misguided point. We’re equipped to see us through and go again though I would add the window’s not closed yet. Regardless we have enough. HH
We might have enough but the point is we are coming out of the window weaker than how we started it despite being in a position, financially, to strengthen.
‘Regardless we have enough’.
You having a laugh.
In case you missed it, here it is in Capital Letters.
WE ARE WEAKER NOW THAN WHEN THE WINDOW STARTED.
One striker left at the Club, Idah. Forget Kenny & Cummings, they have not been tested at even SPFL level.
The sole remaining back on the books, Taylor is exiting on Freedom of Contract level in approximately 35 hrs time.
We have signed Tierney on Freedom of Contract terms, wow, but he won’t be here for another 6 months.
Using Scales as cover for LB is ludicrous as he is also the cover for Trusty & CCV.
We have signed a winger that hasn’t played consistently over the last 18 months.
Not only has the invisible CEO & his puppet master Lawwell confirmed the Boards lack of ambition in European terms but they have seriously jeopardised our League Title Campaign AND hamstrung our chances of success at the European Cup qualification rounds.
Aye, but we’re’World Class in everything we do according to our Chairman & Board. The
Yes James, we are certainly paying attention, as we have done for numerous windows, and over many years.
It is very prudent, and a tad foolish, to presume or assume that our board will emerge from any transfer windows, in a decent light.
Firstly, what is our manager making of our shambolic approach to transfers? I very much doubt he is complicit in any of this, as our penny pinching approach, scuppers any possible progression!
They continue to embarrass BR, and stick two fingers up at our fanbase, and our hopes of building on, a position of real strength.
Although, we should never really be surprised, why are we stockpiling cash, instead of continually speculating, to accumulate, on the park?
There are rumours of DD wanting to sell up, and our board’s fiscal approach, would certainly lend credence to that.
It now looks as if we shall end this window in a weaker position, than when we entered it, and if that is indeed the case, it is a dereliction of duty, gross negligence, incompetence and a completely dismissive attitude towards the thousands of fans who keep feeding their overflowing coffers.
I sincerely hope that I am wrong, and that we will still bring in at least 2-3 quality signings before the close of play. However, even though I’m an eternal optimist, I’m not sure my positivity will stretch that far.
This board must realise that our fans may overlook our occasional shortcomings on the park, if we are beaten by superior opponents with greater resources..but we will not tolerate their arrogance or being dismissed, when the chance to progress is there, and we refuse to strengthen.
That is the complete definition of selling us short!!!
What more can we say ! HH
If he (Kvistgaaden) was identified by Mark ‘Sonny’ Lawwell then all I can say is…
Get him to actual fuck –
He’s liable to be another useless ‘project’ and an expensive useless one at that as well !
This is madness, not 1 club has bid for this guy, so he can’t be that amazing. Brondby are entitled to increase the price as the potential selling club, but equally the potential buyer are also within there rights to say no , we have a price and we don’t think he is worth that. People just want to have a go at the board for the sake of it. They paid over the odds for Engels, who has hardly done a thing to justify the price tag. The decision makers will have a price they think this guy is worth, and they are within there rights to say no, we look elsewhere.
Transfers in general have been abysmal. That lies with the board. Why employ a man who can identify potential players and chase a player prior to his arrival and no other players identified.
The board are looking across the city only.
The window is not closed yet & we defo need LB cover & a striker but not just for the sake of it. A pointless signing would well be pointless. We have enough if not but they, the searchers for players of good quality, will have to get their finger out early in the summer window if not. On this occasion I don’t believe the hired searchers are the board
If anybody thinks we have enough up front to ride this season out and progress in CL they in cuckoo land. The midfield will be under more pressure to get the goals, with pushed up full backs leaving room on our flanks and one missed pass can put us in trouble. The board have messed up the last few transfer windows and had better get their fingers out. We are reaping what we sowed with them. Lawwell should have stayed away but his ego is up there with the pyro maniacs. In the words of the Manic Street Preachers; if you tolerate this then your children will be next.