Until some bright and aspiring lawyer points out that the transfer window is a breach of employment law, or insists that it is a restriction of trade, we’re stuck with it. It’s not ideal, and can be disruptive for a club.
Especially when a key player (employee ) is offered a much better deal elsewhere, and he can toddle off without even handing his notice in.
That didn’t happen yesterday, and all of those at Celtic who have transformed the club into somewhere the players want to be, should pat themselves on the back.
Deadline day in January can sometimes see crazy money thrown at average players as desperate managers try to salvage something-their jobs, usually, from the second half of the season.
With a successful Celtic, that usually means Southampton are hanging around, or some other cash rich nonentity ready to swipe our better players leaving us to pick up the pieces and start over.
Southampton are considering a move for Celtic defender Erik Sviatchenko, a report on page 50 of Tuesday’s Sun newspaper claims.
Sviatchenko has impressed since joining the Bhoys from FC Midtjylland in January 2016, but recently lost his place to Dedryck Boyata, prompting interest from several clubs south of the border, according to the Scottish Sun.
This didn’t happen yesterday. For all the press speculation surrounding Moussa Dembele going to Chelsea, with Craig Gordon for company, both players decided they were better off where they were, and no one from the board called them in from the training ground to say there was a taxi waiting.
Finally, it seems, someone has remembered that we are a big club, and we want to keep our better players, because we are aiming to get back to where we belong.
If chelsea really did offer upwards of £30m for Moussa Dembele, then immense credit is due to the board for refusing to be tempted, the manager for making the player want to stay, and most of all, the player for turning his back on it.
He could have been checking his bank balance this morning and seen an increase that would settle a small country’s debt, but instead, he has chosen to stay where he is.
Apparently, he likes it here.
Or was it all just nonsense ? From Sqawka…a website which claims to know about this sort of thing..
Conte has now confirmed that the club didn’t make a move for Celtic’s No.10, with the striker himself confirming as much earlier in the day, he could still be a long-term target for Chelsea, as he continues to develop and improve his game at Celtic Park under Brendan Rodgers.
Football.London went one further, citing chelsea manager Antonio Conte’s response when asked about a bid for Dembele..
“No. It was just speculation.
“Our situation is this. We have the same players that we played the first part of the season. We have Nathan Ake who is a young player from our academy. Then Kenedy and Musonda came back. We are the same players, we haven’t changed.
“I am very happy because the transfer window is closed. Now we can think about the second part of the season. I am happy to work with my my players. I am proud. No news for our team.
“I am pleased to continue with my players, with this squad. Our market is finished and now we have the squad and it is important to be focused on the second part of the season.
“It is for a chance to win the title and be in the Champions League, and for Chelsea it is important to be in this competition.”
In Glasgow, the Evening Times, somewhat gleefully told us…
Celtic received NO formal bid from Chelsea last night for Moussa Dembele, despite reports circulating from French media sources suggesting that the Premiership league leaders had tabled a £40m offer.
Sources within the Parkhead club maintained that there has been no offer for the 19-year-old striker and the player himself took to social media platform Twitter to post notice of his own enjoyment regarding the speculation over his future, with a little help from Hollywood icon Leonardo di Caprio.
Posting a snap of himself in a Hoops shirt with a Leonardo di Caprio Wolf Of Wall Street image below it, he wrote “What else?,” a jocular reference to one scene in the movie where the charcater insists, in the vernacular of the street, that he is staying put.
So was there ?
Who cares, because even if there wasn’t, and that’s very unlikely given the reports from France, such as this from respected journalist Khaled Kharouri..
Info : Chelsea a formulé une offre de près de 47 M€ pour Moussa Dembélé. Mais le Celtic a décliné. Comme il l’a tweeté, Dembélé reste.
( Translation, for none French speakers- Chelsea have offered 47m euros, for Dembele, but Celtic are in decline and Dembele’s tired. )
…one thing is clear, the PR has improved.
Conte’s remarks may well be designed to assure whichever player he was about to dump to accomodate Dembele doesn’t feel like he’s out of favour, as after all, they’ve a league to win.
Craig Gordon didn’t go either, though surprisingly little has been made of how Celtic took a chance on him when no one else did, and he has no intention of leaving for that reason. Even if its not true, I’d have thought he’d say it was to stop people harping on about that time he came up for a corner against Celtic in the last few minutes when at Hearts.
Keiran Tierney, having failed to find out anything about Sunderland in is Big Book of The United Nations figured he would stay where he is as well, at least until his buddy Patrick confirms his plans, and when Erik Sviatchenko failed to take any notice of Danish reports he wanted out as well, then the core of Celts we would previously have expected to lose remained in place.
As TierneyFirst on twitter cleverly shows in the picture that introduces this diary, things are different now.
All in all it was a strange window. Rodgers hasn’t trimmed the squad as much as he wanted to. Efe Ambrose failed to get a move to Blackburn-the management over there weren’t impressed by a distinct lack of enthusiasm from the player, especially when he found out Charlie Mulgrew was there, and made excuses about phone batteries being dead, pens going missing and roadworks on the motorway , which means we’ll get a chance to say cheerio to him as well.
A few youngsters have gone out on loan, and Leo Fasan, unhappy in the development squad, has moved down to Stoke to take the place of that Port Vale keeper who went to “rangers ” in a deal which saw hundreds of pounds exchange hands, with the promise of more later.
Fasan should do well down here, and if he fancies a pint, we’re in the catholic club, Newcastle for our monthly CSC meeting on Monday.
Kris commons is still here, which gives us a chance to say a proper cheerio to him some time between now and May, as is Nadir Ciftci, who , in yet another gleeful headline, this time from the Record..
Word last night was that he was going to Motherwell to link up with the even more cheerful Scott MacDonald, but the canteen staff at Fir Park threatened a walk out at the prospect of the two whingers whinging about the pies.
For the first time ever, we haven’t lost a single established player, which is astonishing.
Though maybe persuading Dembele to stay would have been more difficult had Chelsea seen the results of the scan he got in London yesterday, as revealed by our pish stained source down there, who is definitely not Tierney First, who released the picture on twitter yesterday lunchtime
Thanks to Teirney First for keeping us informed. Its amazing what you can miss, as Celtic Park Matchday MC Tony Hamilton will testify…
#6: “A boy in my class said you were sitting with Neil Armstrong at the game.”
Me: “You’re a rocket.”
In whats threatening to become a tribute to our source TF, we should also offer him praise for his research on Efe Ambrose, as he may well have found the real reason for the players demise, as it appears he hasn’t been fully focused on his football…
With all the ballyhoo about the transfer window, you may have forgotten that there’s a big game tonight.
Celtic host Aberdeen in yet another midweek fixture designed to weed out us southern-and further afield – based supporters who keep whinging about all the home games on our season books we can’t actually get to.
It seems churlish to moan about that given the general sense of well being after yesterday, but it cannot go unmentioned.
The least they could do is give book holders free subscription to the overseas version of Celtic tv so they can watch it free, as I don’t even think its on telly.
The hoops go into the game without-are you ready?- Dembele, Griffiths, Armstrong, and Rogic whilst Aberdeen are on bit of a roll, and will be anxious to regain second spot from their rivals “rangers “, themselves delighted to have resisted serious interest in their players during January, with the exception of one of their reserves going to Wigan.
Got them a fair few quid, I believe….one fan tweeted that the deal was worth £2.7m to the Ibrox club. Including tax.
Sorry for bringing tax up, Alex..
You’ll notice there wasn’t much on social media from our esteemed Scottish sports journalists last night. Apparently some wag sent them a picture backed exclusive and they all went out on the beer…
Still, those of them who still believe in their own club may have a surprise up their sleeves yet, with another off the radar story about to break…
Although to be fair they did secure Bobby Madden on a long term deal, and he’s probably worth about ten points a season to them.
Yesterdays picture…
4
Sevco target hides with agent until window slams shut
And today…. I can;t actually stop staring at this one…it’s, er , remarkable.
Which is how you enter this competiton. By remarking.
