Unfortunate for Bayo but he should have seen more football up to this point. Is it two starts he has had in competitive games? He should have had much more than that to make a proper assessment. Hope Shved gets a start tomorrow. I’d be tempted to put Sinclair up front and leave Edouard on the bench for this one. There should be 5 or 6 changes from Sunday.
We’ll keep going around in circles on this one but I don’t think we’ve seen enough from Bayo to be able to rely on him in a game where we need 3 points yet. Tomorrow was probably the next opportunity for that so it’s frustrating he can’t play. He has done well on some appearances but still a long way to go to prove he’s good enough to be playing regularly.
Should be an opportunity for a few changes tomorrow. Could be any one of the right backs but expect Bitton will play anyway and possibly Taylor. Not sure how Johnston is but would be a good game to give him a run off the bench if he’s fit.
Listen if we can’t rely on a £2m striker against a side like Ross County, St Mirren, St Johnstone etc then what’s the point. Lennon had no problem throwing young Frimpong into the side. I can see a lot of fringe players like Ntcham, Shved, Rogic, Bayo etc getting very disillusioned quickly as we flog McGregor, Edouard, Forrest and co in low risk games.
You always find room to have a go at Lennon.
Just because Frimpong is good enough doesn’t mean Bayo is! Surely even you can see that.
He may well be, unfortunately we won’t know more tomorrow because he’s injured. I’d rather win the league than have Shved happy. If he’s good enough he will get chances.
I’m not finding reasons to have a go at him. There are genuine causes for concerns there. You are saying that we can’t afford to give guys like Bayo a go. The bottom line is that we’ll never know until they get a run and there have been plenty of chances for Lennon to let him and others impress.
McGregor has looked jaded at times this season but Lennon will not rest him. Our second XI should be beating St Mirren or Ross County with all due respect.
There’s also the chance now that if Edouard picks up an injury we are then left with a striker who is very rusty and unproven. Bayo should have got much more time on the pitch this season as should guys like Shved, Ntcham, Bauer.
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Bayo started at home to Hearts in the league and was very good that day. Had two goals that were later credited to defenders in a dubious manner.
Bayo has seen enough game time. He even got the Livingston game we were chasing at the expense of Edouard. He’s been mixed. I think the jury is still out but he has had a few chances. I think he’s played more than I would have expected.
Unfortunately he’s injured again when we need him. He’s missed a lot of games through injury for a guy who has played infrequently. Can’t help him or his chances.
If Edouard is injured we don’t have a rusty or unproven backup. We have an injured backup
Bayo is unproven. He needs games to see if he’s up to it and he’s currently our no. 2 striker but despite being here nearly a year, he’s hardly been given a kick. There have been plenty of chances this season where Lennon could have a look at him, very much like Shved.
Rodgers bought him and gave him one minute of playing time. Lennon inherited him and he was injured and since he recovered he’s played here and there. About as much as you would expect for a backup who has his own style that won’t suit every game.
You don’t seem to consider that some of this might be ability related as opposed to Lennon forgetting to play Bayo. Lennon spoke during the summer about wanting to get a striker. That’s a reflection on Griffiths not being reliable and Bayo being unproven and maybe not being good enough. And it’s a huge drop off from Edouard to Bayo even if he does turn out to be competent in the SPL.
I think you’re looking to pick holes where there are none here.
Whatever it is, Lennon obviously rates him enough to have him in his match day squads and bringing him late on when we are chasing something but he needs games to be ready. Bayo is a classic example. We are still in October and McGregor has already has 20+ games under his belt for club and country. He needs to make better use of his squad or he will risk burning out key players and alienating fringe players.
As much as you want to go around in circles, there are quite a few fringe players who should be getting more chances and if they can’t be trusted against the likes of Ross County then they should be released from their contracts. These are valid criticisms and you are allowed criticise some times.
Whatever happened to Patrick Roberts?
By Sam Lee, Kieran Devlin and Michael Bailey 5h ago
8 
A Premier League debut at the age of 17 and a big-money move to Manchester City promised much but four years down the line, Patrick Roberts’ career is at something of a crossroads, stranded on loan at Norwich City, unable to get into the most injury-ravaged of teams.
It is important to remember that he is only 22 years old. To highlight how young that is (at least to those of us on the wrong side of 30), his first memory of watching football on television was Liverpool’s victory in the Champions League final of 2005.
But at the same time, he is always going to be compared to other players of a similar age who have already made huge strides towards a career at the top level of European football. In City terms, he is the same age as Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko, a year younger than Leroy Sane and Rodri. Older, of course, than Phil Foden.
At Celtic, a club he is still passionate about — perhaps even too passionate — he was always regarded as similar to close friend Kieran Tierney, now at Arsenal, and Moussa Dembele, now at Lyon, in terms of talent and potential.
After joining City in 2015 for about £5 million up front, plus a potential £6 million in add-ons, he went straight into the first-team set-up and became close with Raheem Sterling, Gael Clichy, Fabian Delph and Kelechi Iheanacho, an indication in itself of how much time has moved on. He settled into an apartment worth £1 million, bought a new dog, called Fred, and ate regularly at Nando’s and Wing’s, a Chinese restaurant previously enjoyed by many Manchester United players and managers.
Midway through that 2015-16 season, Manuel Pellegrini’s last one in charge, he signed an 18-month loan deal with Celtic, ensuring he would get plenty of opportunities to play top-level football, but zero opportunities to stay and learn Pep Guardiola’s fundamentals.
For some, like Brahim Diaz and Jadon Sancho, that never made much of a difference, but a glance at this season’s Carabao Cup starting XIs shows a pathway for those who are being kept under Guardiola’s watchful eye. Foden, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Eric Garcia, Tommy Doyle and Adrian Bernabe have all featured.
They are each a blend of the skilful and the savvy, of Stockport and Catalunya.
Roberts has constantly shown he has the talent — Fulham plucked him from park football at the age of 13, and his highlight reel is full of fine goals. But in recent years, questions have been raised about his tactical understanding and application.
“I just remember in training going up against him you were always like, ‘Oh no’,” Erik Sviatchenko, his former Celtic team-mate, tells The Athletic . “He was so quick with his feet, so sharp in his turns. For us defenders, it was a nightmare going up against ‘the wee guy’, as we always called him.
“You knew you had to be at your very best. He had this Messi thing — obviously nobody can compare to Messi — but the sliding running, the smooth runs with the ball, coming into the pitch from the right side, curling the ball into the far corner. It’s almost like it was too easy sometimes (for him) to place it into the back of the net.”
It took him a couple of months to get his feet under the table but by the end of 2015-16, he started to make his mark. He was named Scottish Player of the Month for April 2016 and eventually finished the season with six goals and one assist in 11 league games, scoring twice against Aberdeen at the start of May to clinch the title.
That sowed the seeds of a very strong bond with supporters, who over the years had been treated to wonderful wing performances by the likes of Jimmy Johnstone, Davie Provan, Lubo Moravcik and, at his peak, Aiden McGeady.
It is the kind of affection currently being enjoyed by the former City right-back Jeremie Frimpong, who has had a fine start to life in Glasgow and has been taken under the wing of Scott Brown.
Roberts’ form carried on into 2016-17, Guardiola’s first season in England, and he even scored against City in a Champions League tie that December — the night Foden first appeared in a senior squad.
There is a sense, though, that his desire to stay and play for Celtic has hampered his chances at progress elsewhere. He was called up for the England squad for the Under-20 World Cup at the end of that season but elected to stay and play in the Scottish Cup final instead. He has not featured for an England youth team since.
That summer, he appeared to be on the verge of a loan move to Nice, a club on friendly terms with the City Football Group (CFG) but he insisted he wanted to go back to Celtic. City had wanted to vary his learning experiences, but Roberts — understandably, it must be said — had a good thing going and wanted it to stay that way.
His final season at Celtic never quite reached the heights of the first 18 months, however, and was undermined by patterns of niggling injuries, as well as the fine form of his competitor for the right-wing slot, James Forrest.
His two and a half seasons at Celtic were effectively condensed into one up-and-down year at Girona, the CFG club where he spent 2018-19. They have taken a number of City youngsters on loan in recent years, to the extent that the coach who won them promotion to the top flight in 2017, Pablo Machin, made it one of the conditions of his contract negotiations last summer that no more would be brought in.
Ultimately, he left for Sevilla and Girona’s decision-makers appointed Eusebio Sacristan, a former Barcelona defender, to instil a Guardiola-like style of play. And while the fans quickly took to Roberts, who lived with his brother and enjoyed the beaches of the Costa Brava, Sacristan eventually decided he did not impact matches in any meaningful way, and did not understand the “juego de posicion” approach — where positioning is paramount.
While at Celtic, Roberts converted his mazy dribbles into goals and assists, yet he never scored for Girona and managed just one assist. As in his final season in Glasgow, he faced stiff competition for his place after Portu, a right winger, saw a proposed move to Sevilla fall through at the last minute. Roberts had to wait until Portu got injured, and quickly impressed fans with his dribbling and skills.
One fine performance in a Copa del Rey game against Alaves last December sealed that bond. He only played the final 20 minutes but in recording his only assist, he helped to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 victory.
That high was soon followed by a low as he picked up a hamstring injury that kept him out for the best part of the next three months. Roberts is said to always work hard to stay in shape, even doing training away from his clubs, as his frame means he naturally puts on weight more easily than other players.
On his second league appearance after that setback, he lost possession in midfield, leading to Valencia scoring the decisive goal in a damaging 3-2 defeat. Sacristan lost faith in him after that and he started only two more games, yet the fans were still on his side. The loud boos when Roberts was substituted against Villareal were directed solely at Sacristan.
Roberts was seen by fans and media as the team’s most dangerous player but the coach dug his heels in and after leaving him on the bench a week later, he left him out of the squad entirely the week after that.
His time in Spain had petered out, Celtic was off the table, there was no room back at City and Brendan Rodgers, who had worked so well with him in Glasgow, did not feel Roberts would be the right man to join him at Leicester.
Sources close to the winger believe, perhaps with the benefit of hindsight, that Norwich may not have been the best option, and that he may have been better suited to a Championship club who play attacking football.
Norwich have done far more defensive work this season than Roberts is comfortable with, and while the move that could be seen as an opportunity to add a new dimension to his game, Daniel Farke has trusted only him with three substitute appearances in the league so far. He started the Carabao Cup defeat against Crawley but was poor, and when the first team flew to Bournemouth earlier in October, Roberts was with the club’s under-23s. He did not make the squad for Sunday’s defeat to Manchester United, either.
In a sense, he is a victim of circumstance. The sporting director Stuart Webber is a long-term admirer and twice tried to take him to Huddersfield, but Farke trusts the players that got Norwich promoted last season. Even in Onel Hernandez’s absence, the German coach has been content to call upon Emiliano Buendia, Marco Stiepermann and Todd Cantwell in midfield, despite their failure to pick up a point since they did so well against City in September.
Norwich insiders still hope Roberts will make a contribution before the end of the season but Farke would need to be convinced of his suitability and while there is no official recall clause in the loan agreement with City, it could still be discussed if he continues to miss out on match-day squads.
City themselves have moved on. Roberts did go on their pre-season tour in 2018 but did not make any special impact and while he signed a new contract on the day he sealed his loan to Norwich this August, that was more about protecting the value of an asset than anything else.
After a difficult couple of years, though, that value is depreciating and Roberts is in need of a change of fortunes.
Celtic should definitely make a move for him next summer if they can get him for around the £5m range.
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Brown doubtful for tomorrow with a thigh strain, Bayo due to visit a specialist on Monday and might need an operation, Johnston and Griffiths back in training.
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That Richard Wilson chap is a complete bluffer. Seems a harmless sort but he’s deluded.
I don’t believe it.
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New 5 year deal for McGregor.
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Good morning bhoys.
First ever Celtic win on Italian soil.
Delighted we had @Rocko and the late @thedancingbaby representing TFK in the stadium.
Wonderful scenes.
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Just saw the images of the 2 Celtic fans that were stabbed 