Reports tonight that the Ibrox club is trying to negotiate with Leicester about the possibility of signing their centre back, Conor Coady, come as no surprise whatsoever. Nor do any of the comments their manager has made in the last 24 hours — about wanting to assess the squad he currently has, about hanging on to their best players, and about the importance of keeping James Tavernier as captain.
What is it they say again? The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Regular readers will know that I’ve long believed they will go into next season with pretty much the same squad they have now. There might be one or two additions, maybe a couple of exits, but fundamentally it’ll be the same core group.
At some point, someone at that club has to take a stand and tell the manager that another rebuild just isn’t on the table. Sooner or later, one of them is going to have to show that he can actually improve the players already there. That, after all, is what you’d call a sensible strategy. That’s what proper football clubs do.
They’re being linked with Coady because they absolutely have to sign a centre back. But that they’re going for this particular one is very telling. It’s a vanity move. It’s a bling signing, pure and simple, because he’s a former England international with a reputation that flatters the reality. And yet the deal is absurd on the face of it.
The guy is 32 years old. This, apparently, is the first brick in the wall of their supposedly new and improved transfer strategy — and so it’s also the first domino to tumble. And once it falls, the rest may come crashing down behind it.
The manager has reportedly dug in his heels on letting one of their midfielders leave. That’s another sign of where this is heading, and where it will go if those above his head allow it to. That the drift has started this early is telling.
Unless someone above him forces his hand, he’s going to want to hold onto everyone — or at least everyone he perceives as a first-team player. The “sell for profit” strategy is, therefore, already being challenged.
Already we’re seeing the first internal conflict between what the manager wants and what the club, allegedly, is trying to build. Bringing in a 32-year-old as an opening gambit suggests that the short-term fix is once again taking precedence.
If the people who run that club are serious about getting costs under control — if they’re genuinely intent on turning the operation into a break-even or even profitable concern — then they’re going to have to start acting like it.
That means saying no to signings like this. No to Premier League wages for fading players with nothing to offer in terms of resale value. No to expensive quick fixes. Because that’s a road they’ve been down before, and it leads precisely nowhere.
Of course, as some of us predicted, there will always be competing pulls at a club like that — a club that has never made fiscal discipline a cornerstone of its identity, and never will. Part of it will always be in thrall to the media, and the media will always cheer for the shiny, the glamorous, the headline grabbers.
Part of it will always answer to a fanbase that doesn’t understand what it means to live within your means, and wouldn’t care even if they did. That club is institutionally wired to crave noise over nuance, the next big splash instead of the next sensible step. It’s why they can talk the talk of sustainability and squad development, and yet end up chasing players who should be winding down their careers.
Am I the only one who looked at the signings they made last summer — all within a certain bracket, all young, all relatively cheap — and thought, “Actually, that makes sense”? That was Clement following the mandate laid down by the board. That’s why he thought he’d be safe in the job. And this new board, if anything, was expected to be even more aggressive in following that same approach.
So if the football department and the board are already pulling in opposite directions, that’s storing up trouble.
The people in charge need to decide what kind of operation they’re running here. If they want a football club run like a vanity project, with shiny short-term solutions and the usual media hype, they’ll get what they’ve always got — brief flurries of optimism, followed by chaos. But if they’re actually serious about building something long-term and sustainable, then deals like this one — 32 years old, no upside, big wages — should never even make it onto the table.
Coady may still turn them down.
But even floating his name as a target exposes the fault lines that lie just beneath the surface of that club. The plan, whatever it is, is already creaking under pressure. And that’s before a ball has even been kicked.
They’re stuck in a bind here James. As Patrick Stewart says, they’re having to fly a plane whilst still building it. Perhaps that’s the reason to target someone like Coady, to attempt to get through the qualifiers before building the plane?
My thoughts exactly Danny.They don’t have a lot of time, and a short term fix to make it through the CL qualifiers is a necessity before implementing a longer term strategy. It might not work, but it is still worth a throw of the dice.
I actually think it makes sense for signing someone like this player.
I would be happy if Celtic signed an experienced CH with England caps to play alongside CV.
Mooy was 32 when he signed and Lubo even older.
One of the regular (and justified) criticisms of sevco is their overuse of recruits from the English leagues. Owing to the bloated premiership, clubs, even lower league clubs in England, pay well over the odds for their players. Both in transfer fees and wages. Any club seeking to prioritise cutting costs on their squad needs to get to know the less fashionable European markets, as well as those from Africa and Asia. Knowing a league doesn’t simply mean you know who is playing well in it. You need to understand the intensity of the games, skillful players with no motor can look like stars in games there is slow build up play and players get time to think. The physicality and technical levels are also important. Propper is technically quite a skillful footballer, but he struggles to cope with “in yer face,” “bite yer ankles” opponents who don’t give him time to play his composed brand of football. Shane Duffy was a decent “backs to the wall” style centre back, but owing to his lack of pace he was like a fish out of water trying to defend on the halfway line while at Celtic. To cut costs, sevco need to shop in the lower budget markets and select players who fit both the managers desired style and the SPFL. An out of contract signing is a good start, but perhaps not so good in the long term if they are going to be paying English (even lower league English) wage levels. They have recruited a director of football and 1st team coach from England. What market do these guys know best? Will it provide good value for money? If the Coady story is true, this project could be off the rails before the wheels start turning.
J
Very good observations
A kinda steady if unspectacular journeyman really…
He should certainly do reasonably well in The SPFL – There again so should Shane Duffy but didn’t…
How long until The Scummy’s demand him to say – “I’m joining Scotland’s biggest and most successful club”
You’ve heard it here first IF The Pathological Liars have the truth for once…
Of course they absolutely are Scotland’s most successful club at CHEATING – LYING – FRAUD – SKULLDUGGERY – FILTHY ARTS !