Yesterday we mentioned an apparent interest in Stoke City midfielder Joe Allen, which can pretty much be discounted due to the transfer fee Stoke will demand, although the man who told me about Bojan wanting to come to Celtic hasn’t said anything about this, so it might be true.
Remember, we only repeat what we hear, and sometimes we get it wrong. Actually, we never get it right or wrong, the people who tell us do.
If we are looking at Stoke City, we could do worse than try to rescue Shaqiri from oblivion, but again, although Stoke aren’t by any means skint, they also want to recoup some of the money they have wasted over the last couple of years.
Another who is on the radar, if we actually have a radar, that is, is Swansea’s Jordan Ayew.. (from the 4th Official site
The director of football at Ghanaian club Berekum Chelsea, Nana Oduro Sarfo said, “Jordan has had offers from several clubs after Swansea City’s relegation last season. He will surely not play in the Championship with them. Liverpool have shown interest in him but Scottish side Celtic and their coach seem to be serious with their interest.”
I believe he may go to Scotland looking at how events are unfolding since they want to meet every demand. They speak English just like in England so he can express himself well in there and meet the expectations in the league.”
This story has been picked up by both the Daily Star and Talksport Radio, so its probably not worth spending any more time on, but the claims from the chap over in Ghana do lend it some weight.
An ex Celt who could be on the move again is the nomadic midfielder Liam Henderson.
According to the Daily Record, Italian side Parma, who have undergone a bit of a reboot, have offered around £1m for him, which is considerably more than Celtic sold him for.
Former Celtic midfielder Liam Henderson set for Serie A move as Parma eye £1m bid
The midfielder only moved to Bari in January but has impressed the fallen Italian giants and they want to sign him this summer.
Parma are a new club, since the previous entity went under, and the Record beautifully skirted around that minor detail, just in case anyone drew comparisons with a club closer to home..
Parma have just secured an emotional return to Serie A – their first since the club was reformed as Parma 1913 when they were declared bankrupt three years ago.
The point about this potential transfer , however, was made by David Wright, on This Is Futbol, where he seemed to blame Celtic for Scottish football being unable to sell itself..
It seems that Celtic, yet again, sold a player for a lot lower than he was actually worth.
The last one, i think, was Kenny Dalglish, so its obviously an ongoing concern.
Henderson was a title winner and a League Cup winner with Celtic and also won the Norwegian league title and cup with Rosenborg.
The left-footed midfielder was also part of the Hibernian team that won the Scottish Cup and given the fact that he has had such a decorated career at such a young age, the Bhoys really should have been demanding a higher fee for him.
Hopefully Rodgers had the sense to include some kind of sell-on clause in Henderson’s move to Bari, which will at least offer a big of consolation to what is basically missing out on a decent fee.
If Celtic had got £1million for Henderson in January, it would really have helped the club to strengthen their defence by boosting their wage budget.
The Bhoys need to stop selling players for lower than they worth, this is why Scottish football is not taken seriously.
And here’s me thinking that the whiff of corruption surrounding the game was what was really putting people off.
Or the media’s lack of desire to talk the game up.
Or the fact that there’s a club who are in liquidation that has been replaced by another which is somehow getting away with pretending its the same club.
But what do I know ?
I know that we shouldn’t pay any attention to the papers if we can help it.
A couple of days apart, and yet another story is debunked by the ones who broke it…( Record )
May 26…
Steven Gerrard ‘targets’ James Collins to solidify Rangers backline
May 27..
Collins not on Rangers radar
That is presumably the same radar that doesn’t register wealth.
There’s going to be a lot of speculation about Celtic bringing in players, and when it doesn’t happen, it will be another stone to throw at the club for our media, who can’t wait to bring us down to the same level as “rangers “, who won’t buy anyone of note.
We’re being linked with players we have no intention of buying, and we will read that the club couldn;t afford them, or tempt them north in a bid to level out the image of our club with another one over the river.
Celtic have already decided who they want to keep, and who they want to bring in.
The key to what Brendan Rodgers is trying to do at the club is continuity, and unless a top player moves on, there will not be any surprise marquee signings.
On the other hand, when the newest Glasgow side fails in its attempts to bring players north during its Summer of Stars, it will be blamed on our league, the money available to our clubs and not the fact that the Ibrox club is a dead man walking looking for somewhere to lie down and die.
At Celtic we have a group of players who seem to have bonded and who want to go on and do well together.
For instance, much was made of an apparent lollygagger-Moussa Dembele- playing up front for us who is merely biding his time until he gets a big move away..
And yet, look at this picture, taken as the pre match huddle broke up before the cup final..
He seems rather keen to me..
The truth is that we have a group of players who even after two trebles are still hungry for more, and its a group that isn’t going to be broken up any time soon.
One aspect of last season was the injury list. It seemed like everyone was taking a turn in the medical centre, although to be fair the decision to outsource nursing appointments may have been a factor..
The management is now concerned about the level of injuries and is looking in depth as to what the underlying causes are.
In short, they believe its a little more than referees being a little lenient with opposition players kicking ours.
All will no doubt be revealed soon..
Ach, lets lighten up…soon be summer..
The Europa League starts for “rangers ” and Hibernian on or around the 12th of July, which is usually a kind of carnival day for supporters of the former.
They might need cheering up, as the list of opponents for their European day out this year is quite frightening for them..
For Celtic, our entrance will be against any of the teams on the right, unless its regionalised, which it usually is, which narrows it down.
Seeded teams coef. Unseeded teams coef. ------------------------ --- ---------------- ------------------------ --- ---------------- Ludogorets Razgrad Bul 37.000 Shkendija Tetovo Mac 3.500 Celtic Sco 31.000 Olimpija Ljubljana Slo 2.900 APOEL Nicosia Cyp 27.000 F91 Dudelange Lux 3.500 Legia Warsaw Pol 24.500 Spartak Trnava Svk 3.500 FK Astana Kaz 21.750 Valletta FC Mlt 3.250 Garabag Agdam Azb 20.500 Víkingur Far 3.000 Sheriff Tiraspol Mol 14.750 Crusaders Belfast Nir 3.000 Malmö FF Swe 14.000 FC Santa Coloma *p And 2.750 Red Star Belgrade Srb 10.750 Alashkert FC Arm 2.500 Hapoel Beer-Sheva Isr 10.000 Sutjeska Niksic Mon 2.500 Rosenborg BK Nor 9.000 Suduva Marijampole Lit 2.000 HJK Helsinki Fin 8.000 Cork City Irl 1.750 The New Saints Wal 5.000 Spartaks Jurmala Lat 1.750 Videoton Fehérvár Hun 4.250 Valur Reykjavik Isl 1.650 FK Kukësi Alb 4.250 Flora Tallinn Est 1.250 Zrinjski Mostar Bos 3.750 Torpedo Kutaisi Geo 1.000
For the draw of the 1st round the 34 teams are divided into 1 group of 10 teams and 2 groups of 12 teams.
The draw for the 2nd qualifying round is made before the results of the preliminary round and the 1st qualifying round are known. Clubs of the preliminary round and the 1st qualifying round are seeded by the highest ranking of the clubs involved.
It all has a sort of sameness about it, but there’s little doubt we’ll have put our emotions through the wringer again before the summer’s out.
For those of you asking about the dear wife and how she’s doing after her operation, i’d like to offer thanks. As you can see from the text below, she’s recovering some of her charm and good nature..
Yesterday, we showed you this..
Caption: Sevco supporters bus falls over, just outside Kilmarnock. A crucial piece of evidence is withheld from the trial.
Today.. we go back in time to a simpler time…
Finally, its goodbye and good luck to one who became one of our own…