The sudden onset of summer has lead to a sudden onset of something that is a cross between hay fever and pnuemonia, but before thousands of young ladies throw themselves off bridges screaming “Why him ? ” , I’m a bit better now and can see shapes if not features through my streaming eyes.
Something else I can see is a little bit of a trend emerging through the fully flung open transfer window.
It seems we’re back to buy low sell high, instead of using the profits to buy a better class of player.
Of course, the price of a player is no guarantee of quality, especially in the English market, as we have seen on a few occasions recently. But if we buy low , we lose less if they turn out to be duds, a policy which it would be fair to say is the inevitable outcome of spending big on Adam Idah, who we won’t make money on, Auston Trusty, who no one will ever make money on, and Arne Engels, who we might make money on, but not much.
Maybe we need to work on our scouting system, and move away from what has become a data driven industry, and go back to watching players we are interested in, over a period of time, and learning more about them than how many assists they had when their team was already 4-0 up.
When scouting a player, other aspects have to come into play. His personality and background need to be assessed, to see if he can fit in with the rest of the team.
For example, if the team goes behind, how does he react ? How does he handle himself when he’s the subject of heavy tackles ? does he work for the team even when things are going well ?
Has he the desire to win things or would he feel he’s “made it” simply by being in the squad ?
How he reacts to several circumstances, I’ve given just a few examples, is far more important than his statistics.
After all, Adam Idah is an exceptional off the bench player, but has disappointed in the loan striker role when he’s first pick.
It seems the board have adopted a more conservative approach this summer, which may also be explained by this being the last year of the manager’s contract .
Are we saving the big bucks in an attempt to lure another “elite ” coach next summer ?
That’s not to say we’re not bringing in quality players. All of those either signed so far or linked as on the radar look to have something about them, even if it is only potential, which in turn suggests the manager may be here for a while yet, but let’s be honest, after last summer, if you were on the board would you throw another £25m his way ?
Having said that, we hear that A Mr Dermot Desmond has taken to micro managing the actual deals himself, which exempts Peter Lawwell from the blame this time.
However, Desmond is a busy man, and the word from someone who fell asleep drunk near him while the bold Dermot was having a meal is that Idah and Engels ended up being considerably more expensive than originally planned simply because Dermot had taken his eye off the ball and not done what he was supposed to do when he was asked.
In short, a full time deal closer with the authority to sign things off is needed.
Clearly, Desmond no longer trusts Lawwell, never trusted Nicholson, and isn’t sure about Rodgers.
It’s hard to disagree with him on any of those conclusions, but the delay with the two players above has cost him a significant amount of money, so perhaps he should maybe look to get someone to sort that.
Fair enough, he may want to be kept in the loop, but he, or a nominated deputy, needs to be on hand at a moment’s notice to sort this out.
After all, he has a habit of being distracted….
With Benjamin Nygren done and dusted, the club have decided that they need to release more tat to help pay for him…
The new Celtic FC x adidas Inline Training range is revealed today and is available to pre-order before going on sale on Friday, June 27.
All in different shades of green, from a cool mint to a deep forest, you can show your support for the Hoops whether you’re training yourself or simply want to keep comfortable and stylish.
The new kit, as worn by the Celts and backroom staff, includes a range of products from t-shirts and shorts perfect for warm weather, to coats and track pants ideal for layering, all of which look stunning both for training and just staying comfy and casual.
Featuring Aeroready technology to keep you cool & dry when the intensity ramps up, the Training Kits are made with recycled materials and proudly sport the club crest.
Presumably, recycled materials means they pulled the tat they couldn’t sell last summer, dyed it a different colour and put it back on the shelves.
I’ll save you the bother of looking. The shorts are thirty eight quid.
Easy payment terms are available for everything else, but by the time you’ve paid for them they’ll be out of date.
Maybe the club should allow us to lease the gear. Like with cars, they could have a sort of bubble payment at the end if you want to keep the stuff, or just send it back and get a new one every year.
On Monday, we had this….
Caption;
The latest iteration of Doctor Who, now played by Richard Gough, revisits all of his favourite Glasgow lavatories.
Today…..
Let them eat rats.
The physio team wander through discarded Tierney body parts, looking for that new hip
Tory MP’s granted mega-bucks black bags contracts.
Can’t beat that comment
Don’t worry son, the bin men might be on strike but Celtic have signed Peter Latchford
Caption
The 49ers are proud to announce the opening of the new Raynjurz Way at Ibrox.
Neither Idah nor Engels reached the standard their transfer fees suggested. Engels looks a player to me and we will make money on him. We needed Idah last season as a support act to Kyogo and then as a replacement. He is a totally different style of player. Selling Kyogo was fine but not having a like for like replacement was just daft. If the way we play needed a penalty box poacher then playing without one for the run in was daft. Idah hasn’t been a ‘loan’ striker for a year and was limited as a ‘lone’ striker. ( you it started it Ralph)
‘Right Mr Cavenagh, that’s Dave King’s shares in that pile there.’
The new Copland rd creche opens after the 49ers pay for modernations
Good diary with solid, valid points about signing the right type of player. I see the cream buns have got themselves a hard draw in the CL qualifying, mon the green Greek shamrocks!
Caption, John Souttar on his way to training
Ha, loan striker, think you mean lone striker or maybe you know something we don’t!
Caption: Aye, at one time there was a football ground here before the Americans came…..
“but the delay with the two players above has cost him a significant amount of money,” – How exactly ? Is it him bankrolling the club ? So we don´t have the money that we were supposed to have in the bank ? ALSO did we not come out of the window IN NET PROFIT so it hasn´t cost Dick Dastardly a penny ? I do agree (and have done for years) that there should be a separation between the board (who sets a budget – and that is their ONLY involvement) and a Football Department (who decides HOW that money is spent – If they go over then a percentage of any sale say 25% is added to the budget, keeping 75% in the club, together with merch and other deals, keeping the Club itself solvent) In this situation it would shield the likes of Pistol Pete from the “Non Executive Director of Football” and Michael “The Invisible CEO” Nicholson accusations, as they would not be directly involved in any transfer!
Caption : A baby Ally McCoist is shown a visual representation of the amount of garbage he spouts in the first 5 minutes of his commentary.
Caption: Akismet factory tour arrives at the Woof Charlie commets display.
Every workplace is susceptible to snake oil salesmen. In my career I’ve seen countless chinless wonders with their MBA/lean/sigma7/ agile gobbledygook come and eventually go. It’s fitbas turn now with ‘dudes’ presenting graphs on X that prove player’s superiority. Total guff but with all these yooni courses in sports science there you go. There’s plenty of carcasses so lots more vultures. A good manager should smell the Raphael. Get into your car and watch as many games as you can. Hire sensible football men as scouts. A PowerPoint never scored a goal.
“cost him a significant amount of money”
It “cost him” nada, the fans, aye, him sweet Fanny Adams.
Caption: The clear out of the Ibrox playing squad is well under way.
Caption: Mrs Raskin takes her youngest for a stroll in her new city of Birmingham following her husband’s mega bucks move to premiership giants Aston Villa
Caption
“The Freeweelin’ Mrs Zimmerman”
Caption: Out of pic, “Hey, you there, you’re Mark Lawwell aren’t you?”
“Er, em yy-e-ss.”
“Well you can collect all that shit you bought when Daddy gave you a job you weren’t capable of and get it outa sight, PRONTO!”
I really hate this type of shallow analysis with a strong whim of ‘little scotland’ “too wee, too poor, let’s not bother” attitude.
Idah and Engels had between them 30-50 goals and assists, which is a decent first season return, especially when this includes important games in Euro, where for the first time in ages we showed signs of improvement.
The latter was a man of the match many times for more discerning watchers unafflicted by said syndrome.
Even Trusty had his moments, especially the heroic performance in Bergamo, which was necessary after Dortmund, to ensure our campaign didn’t completely unravel.
Kuhn is another higher-level player who gets it in the neck from the same sources, yet his overall performances, especially in Europe are far above the vast majority we’ve deployed in the recent past.
We didn’t spend a penny last year, as usual, we made millions on ‘player trading’ despite a mountain of money available to strength and kick on in Europe.
We had 20 years of buying cheap players, not to improve the team but to hope that a precious few would make us money.
That’s the model, to make money not to improve the team.
To suggest that we should revert to that failed model, is worthy of the most intellectually challenged of the Ibrox Idiocracy.
I truly despair. An approach, used by all successful clubs, at all levels and in all industries, is not for us. Sigh.
Of course, we need to get better at these things eg Idah cost about twice as much as he should’ve but that wasn’t down to the player nor the manager but the same failed executives of the past, who we now want to give control back to. What?
Similarly, data analysis can always be improved rather than reverting to the dinosaur approach of Lawwell and Lennon who didn’t hold with such “new-fangled” ideas.
All successful clubs spend the maximum they can afford, as they know, provided they’ve done their analysis correctly, they will get better players than buying cheaper ones.
Its not rocket science, its industry standard and we’re off kilter.
Our peers should be the top teams in Holland and Portugal, who now buy players for £20m and sell for £50m.
Not one player every few years but sometimes multiple players every year.
2 or 3 decades ago they probably operated at the same level as us ie buy up to £5m and sell for £15-25m but whereas they’ve used that to kick on, we’ve ossified.
We can probably afford a net spend of £10-20m every year without affecting our sustainability and done correctly that gives the best chance of being successful in Europe and isn’t that what all fans want?
Its not particularly visionary but, then again, I’m not sure we’ve even got a Cyclops in our hierarchy.
Enough, already, as the kiddies say. Speaking of whom, I saw a fair few of them sporting various Celtic shirts at the Mo Chara, Kneecap, Palestine demo in London yesterday.
It makes a change from the grizzly old men I usually associate with, although we were the devilishly handsome ones, half a century ago.
Caption “Celtic dispense with modernity and scour Paddy’s Market for bargains”
Too long, too rich, let’s not bother.
That’s an excellently written synopsis, Cha.
Incredible that the monitor has a problem with it.
Maybe it’s the ‘digitally driven data’ response that did for it.
Edminston Drive looking good for its upgrade
The Cha,
Many good, and very true,points.
We have to recognise however that
there is a ceiling other clubs will pay for a player from Scotland.
Idah or Engels just won’t go for the kind of prices paid between clubs in England or Europe.
We’re moving in the right direction, Frimpong, Tierney even Van Dyke and Kyogo
but a long list of players who just can’t cut it.
I agree, the likes of Portuguese and Dutch teams have an in-built advantage given their local talent pools plus colonial heritage.
This means we might never be able to compete with them equally but we should be getting as close as possible, whereas we’re getting further and further away. They keep getting better and we’re pretty stuck in the same routine as 10 or more years ago.
I hate this idea that the value of a player is simply judged by their selling price minus buying price and ascribes no value to what they or the team have ‘earned’ (titles, cups, euro progress and yes even turnover/profit).
In a 4 year period we probably earn half a billion pounds but none of that is apportioned to players to assess their value.
There’s a mass psychogenic illness among fan sites and a substantial number of fans themselves, that simply see players in this narrow, grossly distorted view.
This is music to the board’s ear, dovetailing with their lack of ambition, and for a lot of sites seeming hostility to Celtic Quick News for its alleged board leanings, it is they that set the agenda in regard to how players value is assessed.
Great comment Cha, sans last paragraph. CQN, imho, is shockingly grovelling to Celtic FC’s (PLCs) worst behaviour: An ex CEO is allowed to ‘come back’ as Chairman (if he EVER actually left). That same piece of shit (Chairman) is then allowed to employ someone hopelessly unqualified for the job he landed? HIS SON! and it ended in disaster, Mark was ‘moving on for personal reasons and other challenges’? So, where is he now?
I don’t actually know but hope he’s unemployed for faking in his father’s footsteps and hell mend both of them.
‘Vladimir Putin could attack Britain by ‘blocking out the sun’ as warning issued.’
Does anyone else think they’re just deliberately trolling us now?
You should always block the Sun.
Caption …
A young Mark Thatcher navigates his way through Rochdale life ,
his maw thinks he’s taken a wrong turn …