His versatility was handy and he played in some big games. Not really the level we needed but he was always going to be a squad filler.
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Sad to see him move on. He was decent squad player and presumably on very low wages.
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Hayes is a manager’s dream. No drama, 100% effort and commitment.
He had a decent left foot and a serious engine but just wasn’t really at the level.
As brave a player as I’ve seen in the hoops, some of the tackles he put himself into this season alone were frightening, particularly after he had a bit of a horror injury a few years ago.
I hope he can go and get himself a good move now with a decent contract, he probably hasn’t made a whole lot over his career in relative terms and he’s one of those guys who deserves it.
He was very poorly looked after in the Irish set up when you look at some of the chumps regularly picked ahead of him.
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Not sure he’ll get any better than what he was on (which probably wasn’t much). He seems to have decided himself to leave so I imagine that’s as much about playing as anything, unless he gets a team in the States. He’s a better player than Lewis Morgan anyway.
There were times Ireland were crying out for left backs and he never got a look in. I’d say he’s the equal of McClean anyway.
Gordon, Hazard, Hendry and Ralston also have contracts expiring and will presumably leave.
Then there’s last season’s loan players - Forster, Bauer, Arzani and Elyounoussi.
I wonder if we will try and keep Gordon on a one year deal. Depends on the chances of getting Forster again but it wouldn’t make much financial sense to a prudent CEO to let Gordon leave for nothing and then have to pay a large fee to get a minor upgrade.
Celtic have NOT taken up the option for the final year on Simunovic’s contract and so he has been released.
Relatively surprising decision but he was injury prone and error prone and made some stupid mistakes in Europe in particular. Copenhagen being the obvious recent example but there was an og against Anderlecht, a poor performance in qualifiers last year at Sarajevo and didn’t he concede a stupid penalty once too?
Yeah that penalty was at home to PSG now that I think about it. We were going to lose anyway but it was a lazy and obvious push on Cavani that suggested he wasn’t going to be much of a trier.
Wow. Thought they’d take up the final year option and perhaps try to sell him. Maybe they felt they were burned by doing similar in the past, e.g. not being able to move Sinclair on for a fee last summer after taking up his option. The budget has surely been revised downwards too due to Covid-19 so they might be looking to save on wages and use the funds elsewhere. Or else they just felt he wasn’t up it - in that case it’s quite clinical. Likely a combination of things.
He gave away a silly penalty at home to Killie after Christmas too, but we recovered to win after going behind to it.
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Yeah I imagine all 3 are factors. I’d say we want a smaller squad post Covid 19 with the reduced revenue. We got burned by the gamble on Sinclair. And he had been dropped after the Copenhagen game anyway so wasn’t going to be first choice again.
I don’t recall that. But it seems typical. Ajer is rash too but Ajer’s rashness seems to come from over enthusiasm and is potentially coachable. Simunovic just seems to do whatever is easiest each time.
Apart from that cracking tackle on Miller obviously.
Is it me or do Celtic release an unnaturally high amount of players for free after paying fees for them? Now there’s an element of a big sale of a Tierney, Van Dijk or who(m)ever making it less important. And Celtic do take some punts given the league’s financial restrictions - buying some unproven lads and hoping they‘ll come good and be sold at a profit. But they buy a lot of lads that just seem like shite deals and then they run down their contracts.
Is Welsh worth a run? Didn’t look bad when he played in a back 3 that time. I think Bitton is decent in a back three, either way I’d have been looking at us getting two centre backs in irrespective of Ajer leaving.
Balde, Boerrigter, Scepovic etc were all more or less released weren’t they?
Yeah, they were. I’m sure there are a good few others.
You also get the jocko lads bought from elsewhere in Scotland that don’t make it. They’re probably quadrupling their wages from 2/3k per week to 10k or so when they join. The likes of Jack Hendry. When they flop they have no incentive to leave and go back to what they were on.
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Definitely a fairly frequent occurrence but not sure how out of step it is. I do think there is an element of the current situation about Simunovic. He’d be more sellable if there was a more certain market. But I’d say he’s on reasonable money so wasn’t worth the risk.
Other than getting money for Morgan recently we don’t seem to have a great track record of selling mid tier players. We are at least doing financially well on the big sales these days but we can’t ever seen to offload guys to the English Championship for £1m-£2m.
Ajer has given his agent the road. This is the agent who was publicly touting him for sale.
We’re linked with some squarehead defender who plays for Verona. Can’t see this one happening as their (the media source) valuation of him seems miles off. He’s a regular there, only 25 and Verona are going well. They sold Rhamani to Napoli in the winter market for €15m - Celtic were linked with him last summer. Kumbulla is one of the hottest properties in Serie A and is set for a €30m move this summer so I fail to see why they would offload their other regular defender for £1.4m. it doesn’t add up.
The goalkeeper alternatives to Forster are really scary.
Washed up English goalkeepers like Ben Foster and God forbid… Joe Fucking Hart.
Troyes and Mali defender Kiki Kouyate.
Seems to have a reasonable pedigree and is available for a fee well within our capabilities.