Go Ahead Eagles forward Jakob Breum and AFC Ajax Amsterdam midfielder Davy Klaassen play during the match between Ajax and Go Ahead Eagles at the Johan Cruijff ArenA for the Dutch Eredivisie season 2024-2025 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on February 23, 2025. (Photo by Jules van Iperen / EYE4images/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Last night we got one of those media stories that may be true—or it may not be. There’s a lot of ifs and buts in it. Yet Celtic, as a club, should not fail to recognise the danger in that story.
The story concerns Go Ahead Eagles, the club we’re trying to buy a wide player from. Now, we’re not the only club trying to do that.
Our Glasgow rivals are allegedly chasing one of their wingers as well. And while normally I’d dismiss the idea that they’re going to spend £5 million on a single player as pure fantasy, this one contains more than a little warning for the people at our club.
Both wingers are available for comparable fees.
The first question is: who’s the better player? Statistically, it looks like the one we’re targeting is the stronger of the two. But if both are going for similar money, and the Ibrox club is willing to pay the asking price for one, they could just as easily shift their focus to the player we want. And you’ve got to ask—why haven’t they?
I believe this story like I believe in Santa Claus.
The idea that they’re going to splash £5 million on one player, when they’ve already got a bloated, overblown squad and have failed completely to move anyone out, sounds more like someone’s mad fantasy than it does reality.
But what if it is reality? What if they really are that intent on reclaiming the title? What if they are willing to take that kind of gamble, and go for one of those two players at the premium fee?
In that case, we’re done either way—because Go Ahead Eagles have made it abundantly clear: they will only sell one of those players this window.
So if Bruen—the guy we want—is our man, then we need to act now and get him signed before the Ibrox club cobbles together enough spare change to make a competitive offer. Because if they get their man, we don’t get ours. Even if we’re eventually willing to pay the proper fee, we’ll be too late.
This risk has been telegraphed pretty clearly ever since they registered interest in Go Ahead’s other winger. It’s been obvious from the start that the Dutch club would only let one of them go this summer. So, it comes down to who gets serious first—will that be them, or will it be us?
And I’ll tell you something: our board should be having wide-awake nightmares about this.
Because if they move first, then all hell should break loose. Let’s remember, no matter what the Americans might have told the media—and no matter how desperately the media wanted to believe it—they are still a club operating on a shoestring.
That’s why most of their signings have been cheap, lower-league punts from England. That’s why they’ve spent very little, except in those classic “undisclosed fees,” the real scale of which we may never learn.
But if they get their man before we get ours? The media will paint a picture in our boardroom members’ blood. Their club willing to spend what we won’t. Our club is the one sitting on a massive surplus, yet they are willing to go where we won’t. That’s the image that will be splashed across Celtic social media, in glorious Technicolor.
You know—and I know—that the truth won’t matter.
Because, as we’re always at pains to remind this board, what matters is perception. And if we’re perceived to have missed out on a player we wanted because they were willing to spend £5 million and we were not? That’s going to be devastating. It will seriously damage our already strained relationship with the people running the club.
Will it be fair? Probably not. I don’t believe they will spend £5 million—which doesn’t mean they won’t get the player. Will they have bought an inferior footballer to the one we wanted? Maybe. Will they have put themselves at risk by doing so?
Almost certainly.
But none of that will matter one bit to the fans in our stands who expect business to be done—and done a hell of a lot better than the amateurish way we’ve gone about things so far in this window.
In one sense, it seems crazy to worry about this. Worry isn’t even the right word. I’m not worried. You shouldn’t be either. But the people running our club? They should be worried. And they should be taking this threat very, very seriously.
Because if the Ibrox club is willing to push the boat out that far, then the potential for our board to look utterly foolish—slow, incompetent, or whatever other word you want to use—is enormous.
And if by some freakish turn of events this happens, that will have consequences and those at the top of our house are going to eat a cement mixer of shit in paying them.
Lawwell and Co don’t care, they live in a world were we are beneath them, there to pay for things. Rangers to their detriment always push the boat out. Nobody can accuse them of lacking ambition. They spend more than they can afford, we spend nowhere near what we can afford. They are holding us back to keep their beloved old firm close. Shame on them.
The ‘Rangers’ you speak of are dead as dead can be John !
Hi James
There are a number of common threads that I believe lie behind our current transfer inertia. Firstly the board are clearly split on whether to offer a new contract to BR, unwilling to guarantee signings until he signs, BR unwilling to sign new contract until new signings approved.
Secondly not enough of the Board believe that BR is the future for whatever reason. And finally the board think they have enough to hold off domestic competition,qualify for Europe to access the money pot. And it is lack of ambition that will be the clubs undoing. I dont like to think it, far less write it, but we face a serious challenge this season especially from Rangers. We underestimate Martin at our peril and a psychological victory over us at Ibrox in a months time, could expose the lack of cover and an inept close season again. In 2000 nobody other than Celtic fans expected the revolution that has had us dominate Scottish soccer for quarter of a century. We need to be careful that Martin breaks that dominance because of our boards hubris and ‘know better’ behaviour
‘Rangers’ died in 2012 Brian…
Just sayin like !
Incredible how this board contemptously put our support through the exact same scenario, season after season. Keepin us all none the wiser and leavin most of it tae the last minute. They’re money men, with no idea how tae strengthen a team properly and who’s limited ambition stops at domestic and pickin up the millions for CL qualification. And they even gamble with that. Its fkn ridiculous. Every season.
How long are we going to sit on our hands and have the Mickey taken by those at the top table.I tell you if we lose a player to that rag tag mob then I’m finished with these charlatans on our board It could be a bloodbath
What if?
What is this hypothetical pish all about, a nonsense story, and James has even admitted that, but it is still having the effect James intended, another negative piece directed at the Parkhead power brokers?
The board fully deserves criticism, but this is just another cheap shot to keep the pressure on them.
Perhaps Johnny, but it is true they are only selling one of the two wingers, and they value each at £5m. Their board have issued a statement to this effect:
“Go Ahead Eagles chief executive Jan Willem van Dop says they will only sell one of Oliver Antman, the 23-year-old who is a target for Rangers, and fellow winger Jakob Breum, for whom they have rejected bids from Celtic, this summer.” (De Oosttribune)
@ JG. ‘hypothetical pish’ ? Who the fuck are you tae come away wi that. More than capable of formin my own opinion on events, without anybodys influence thanks and shared with just about any Celtic supporter ah know. It’s a pattern we see every season. In spite of huge and growin wealth, they dae just enough tae keep in front of the ibrox club, gamble, don’t strengthen properly for Europe, then only act accordingly when under severe pressure and our own support, have just about had enough. If its ‘hypothetical’, it’s hypothetical based on previous experiences. Even board arse kissers like you must realize that.
“I believe this story like I believe in Santa Claus.” James’s own words.
Hypothetical pish if ever there was any.
I suppose Rangers could gazump Celtic for any signings and not just this one.
Thought Celtic might have gone in for Cody from Leicester.
Rangers will only spend £5m for a player if they sell first or qualify for the CL.
Unfortunately a bit like Celtic.
HH
‘Rangers’ won’t spend £5 million on a player Terry…
SEVCO might well do though !
Johnny greens a helmet
Mmm….a little fart striving hard to be a shite….and failing.
Be careful kevcelt, you’ll be getting called an ABBA,as a couple of the board defenders like to call people who disagree with them,as far as these blog / sites go I’d say 95% of Celtic fans agree with you regarding liewell and his cohorts including desmond who got Rodgers back but seems unwilling to overrule liewell,much like the mcginn and fletcher debacle and the derisory low ball offers that make Celtic look cheap and unprofessional thanks to the board,plenty of time my arse .
So you believe in Santa Clause ivenogoatwan, and this fairy story that James just dreamed up. Good for you if it keeps you entertained. 🙂
It may or may not be reality but it highlights the point you’re trying to make.
Get a wiggle on Celtic and get some quality signings in the door.
I think it would help immensely if someone other than Brendan communicated to fans why we seem to be struggling to get anything over the line or if the club and potential signings are waiting for the outcome of the UCL qualification outcome before putting pen to paper and well before the market closes.
Lol,so what if sevco get the £5 million player and we don’t,what are we the Celtic fans going to do about,jackshit that’s what,the middle of a doughnut.
This board are giving our fans a right good shafting by ripping us off right,left and centre.
Ah hope secco do out do us for that player.
Regardless of whats ‘pish’ and whats a ‘non-story’, and even though there is a transfer month to go, this window so far has been nothing short of a disgrace. We’ve bid an initial £1.5m for Breum who played two games less than Kuhn in what is, pound for pound, a better league. Yet we take in £17m, more than ten times that for our winger? As I write, the mob across the city have just seen off what was probably their most difficult opponent of their three qualifying rounds. It is therefore scary to think that we are still scraping around the sub £2m transfer market. It’s unacceptable on every level.
They are grey and drab old men – And it shows…
Well in this window anyway for sure !