Celtic Summer Transfers 2015

Sport
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[QUOTE=“Rocko, post: 1151943, member: 1”]Boyata deal should be completed today:

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DEDRYCK BOYATA arrived in Glasgow tonight to clinch a four-year deal with Celtic.

The Belgian international will become Ronny Deila’s first signing of the transfer window.

Celtic are set to splash out a significant seven figure fee thought to be in the region of £1m for the player who has a year left of his contract at Manchester City.

The highly-rated Manchester City defender had been linked with a move to Parkhead after talks opened up between the two clubs earlier this month.

Boyata, 24, has been with City for nine years but has never played regular first team football with the English Premier League giants.

He made just 13 starts for City in his nine years at the City of Manchester Stadium and featured six times in all competitions this season.

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Dedryck Boyata has made just 13 appearances for Manchester City

The stopper has been capped once for Belgium, appearing as a substitute against Austria in 2010 but hasn’t featured for the national side since.

Boyata’s father Bienvenu confirmed last night the player would be leaving City but staying in Britain.

Speaking on a Belgian TV show his father said: “He signed for Manchester City in 2006 and if I could turn back the clock, I would not let him do it again.

“He should have stayed in Belgium and evolved at a club there before moving to a bigger club later.

“It is clear he won’t stay at Manchester City and he does not want to stay.

"They want to extend his contract, but he won’t play.

“A certain club has shown interest in Dedryck and has reached agreement with City and it will be made official next week.

What club? I can’t say, but let’s just say he will remain in Britain.”[/QUOTE]
Is £1m a “significant 7 figure fee”? It’s probably one of the most insignificant 7 figure fees I can think of. It’s barely even a 7 figure fee tbpfh.

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Boyata has signed on a 4 year deal.

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Hard to rate him because he’s played so infrequently for City but there are some positives:

  1. He was highly rated as a youngster
  2. They trusted him in some big games when he was a kid
  3. He’s still plenty young and can improve with regular game time
  4. We’ve signed him really early. Looks like a deal that was planned some time ago. Far better than the transfer deadline day madness.
  5. He’s a big physical player

Not making it as a regular at City isn’t that big a problem, but not doing the same at Bolton or Twente on loan isn’t a great sign. He also looks very nervous on the ball.

Youtube video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWxNBA4zqDs

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Linked this evening with Malmo defender Erik Johansson. He’s 26, has 5 Swedish caps, can also play in midfield seemingly. He was shortlisted for Defender of the Year in the Swedish top flight last season.

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Apparently Ronny still hopes to get Dijks. He’s 6ft4 which is very big for a full back, can be play at centre back?

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He has done. Not recently AFAIK but he played both for a while at Ajax I believe.

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Linked with Juan Delgado, a 22 year-old left winger with Colo Colo in Chilean media. He has 2 Chilean caps.

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Bob Kelly kept the tri-colour flying over Parkhead.

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And fair play to Bob Kelly…

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Linked with 28 year-old Finnish striker Berat Sadik today. He doesn’t look great.

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Bird in background looks tasty !!

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I see John McGinn is now out of contract with St Mirren and suing them for the training ground incident where Steven Thompson speared him with a corner flag.

I’d love to see come here, think he would be a great option for us in midfield and suits the profile of players we are interested in, he can be as good as Broony.

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Milan Djuric, a 6ft6 striker who plays for Cesena linked today, only scored two goals last season and we’ve apparently had a bid rejected. I hope there’s not much to this as he seems like a donkey.

Also being linked with Anya, decent player but not worth the £4m Watford want for him. Danny Wilson looks like he is on his way to Sevco.

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Watched a video of him last night out of boredom during the Argentina game. He looks a bit better than I thought he might be but still hardly the type of inspiring striker we might be hoping for. I actually think Scepovic will improve and be a decent option next year.

We’re linked with Marcel Halstenberg of St Pauli in a few papers. He’s a left back, ex-Borussia Dortmund but never made it with them. Dortmund have had a problem with left backs (like plenty of clubs in Germany for some reason) so if he couldn’t make it past their reserve squad it’s not a great sign. That said, Kicker have him rated as their second best player for last season for St Pauli.

Much more promising is our link with Jelle Vossen who has apparently expressed interest in the move:

“Celtic is a club I admire — it is a big and great club.

“When I was younger, I watched a lot of their games in the Champions League.

“Celtic have had great teams and some Belgian players have been over there already. We just have to wait and see what happens and what the future will bring. I will talk to Genk in the coming days.”

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Scott Allan also being linked by a few random punters who apparently were accurate in transfer speculation before.

Think he’s decent enough but we’d really have lots of central options there now in Commons, Armstrong, Allan and Johansen. Think I’d prefer an out and out winger to challenge Forrest, Stokes and GMS if we are getting a supporting attacker.

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Yeah, he is similar to a lot of players we have already and not any better although I do think he’s decent.

We could do with:

1 centre back (2 if Van Dijk goes)
1 left back
1 holding midfielder
1 striker

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I think we could do with 2 centre backs even if Van Dijk stays. I guess it depends on whether Ronny rates either Mulgrew or O’Connell as centre backs. If he does, then fine. But Ambrose shouldn’t be anything other than an emergency defender for us. No point in getting rid of him because he’s versatile and committed and whatever but it’s a huge change in how we play if we have to sub him in ever.

I hope Mulgrew is retained as either a left back or another centre back and not as a holding midfielder. Definitely need one of those, but have a feeling Mulgrew is our cover there with Armstrong or Johansen dropping back if we’re stuck. Not sure I like any of those options.

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We definitely need a natural holding option to replace Bitton or Brown if unavailable alright. Mulgrew and Ambrose should be utility squad players who can cover positions in emergencies but I wouldn’t like to be relying on them. I’d like to get rid of Ambrose but there is too much upheavel in defence at the minute so probably best he stays for this season. Mulgrew is a decent player but more of a stop gap if we have serious designs of progress in Europe. Mulgrew and Ambrose shouldn’t be higher than 4th choice centre back or 4th choice holding midfielder in Mulgrew’s case.

I’d like some genuine competition for Izzy who does have a tendency for patchy form so having someone to keep him on his toes would be for the best.

I do have hope for Scepovic, looked like he was buying into Ronny’s philosophy at the end of the season so he will hopefully have settled.

We have Boyata so two additional centre halves if Van Dijk leaves should be more than enough with Mulgrew and Ambrose able to offer cover here as well.

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I completely forgot about Boyata! :flushed:

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Definitely seems to be traction in the Vossen link.

His record wasn’t too hot in the Championship and Boro passed up on an option to sign him outright as far as I know. If the fee is reasonable (under €2m) then I think we should go for it.

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I didn’t see him play that often at Boro but was impressed a couple of times with highlights of him. Would have been very interested in us signing him last summer and wouldn’t be too put off by one season in the Championship. He had to play on the wing a lot because of Bamford’s form I think.

And I couldn’t give a shit what the fee is. Won’t be any happier if he’s a “bargain” than if we pay £3m for him. Same difference - I don’t think we run out of cash most years, we just have ceilings on what we will pay for particular players.