We will have to release a special goalkeeper tracksuit pants range now.
Any word on young Morrison staying or going?
Plenty of rumours both ways on Morrison.
Seems Arsenal and Spurs were both in for this Norwegian chap so we definitely seem to be prepared to invest in these players. And it’s likely we do rate Morrison given Kennedy’s comments. But who knows what Bayern are prepared to pay him.
Talk that Arsenal are back with another bid for Tierney.
Lennon was saying he hopes to have a couple of players in before we face Cluj next Tuesday. Widmer is unlikely I’d say as Basle knocked out PSV in their CL qualifier last night.
Looks like it will be one of Young Boys, Slavia Prague, Qarabag/Dundalk/APOEL, BATE/Rosenborg/Maribor/AIK in the playoff round should we negotiate Cluj.
Young Boys looks like the one to avoid there but I think we should be taking care of business otherwise.
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A lot of talk of Simunovic going to Lille. I’m a bit meh about this. If we get £7-8m I’d be willing to let him go if we have a suitable replacement yet. I’m unconvinced by Simunovic so far in his Celtic career to date, he hasn’t been terrible but I expected more. He’s still quite young though and has to potential to become a good defender if he can stay injury free.
McKenna has had a transfer request rejected. Not clear if these things are related or not.
I’m not convinced one way or the other on Simunovic. He makes poor mistakes and is a bit injury prone for a centre back but he’s been paying well recently and looks generally competent.
Yeah. I’d agree on him he has done anything that would make me think it would be a disaster to lose him but at the same time he’s been ok for us.
I would hope if he does go then we move for Pavlovic ahead of McKenna who I think is a donkey.
Please don’t go KT, please don’t go.
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Linked with Rico Henry as replacement for KT.
Another season with another net transfer surplus awaits.
Sigh.
My feeling is that a confidential £25m release clause was written into Tierney’s 6-year deal when he signed it a couple of years ago. Arsenal didn’t properly trigger it initially as they wanted to pay in installments, but I guess it’s been sorted now. He obviously wants to go so good luck to him, he’s been a good player and servant.
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Yeah I imagine that’s the case. The 6 year deal was designed so that we’d get maximum compensation for him and there would be no threat of him running down his contract. We’d have heard from him long ago if he didn’t want to go - I guess with a few injuries, even before he broke into the first team, he’s probably conscious that he’s better off going sooner rather than playing another 60+ games a season.
If there was a clause then fair enough, if we let him leave for £25m then it’s a disgrace.
We’ll never know. But we obviously gave Dembélé assurances and I’ve no doubt Tierney was given the same promise verbally or in writing with a fee mentioned.
The issue is will the board finally put that money to use.
Our wage bill will be reduced massively if Sinclair follows him out the door from last season. We will have had the Dembele money, the Van Dijk windfall, the Rodgers compensation, the Tierney sale, Armstrong too. Where is that money going?
For me as a matter of priority we need a left back and a left winger. We could do with another right back and possibly another centre half though not a priority. I’m not convinced by either of our keepers but I reckon we won’t do anything until Gordon’s contract runs out next year which I can understand.
I think we need to be willing to spend £20m on players before the deadline closes.
I honestly think the biggest problem is getting players who want to play in Scotland. Particularly if we don’t want to break the wage structure. And we have money now, but that’s money for transfers, not necessarily for wages which will obviously persist for longer and cause more disruption with existing players. We already have a high wage bill, some of that is through quantities of players but much of it is because we spend quite a lot of money on wages.
Selling Sinclair allows one of those premium wage slots to open up and hopefully there is more room there from trimming down the squad.
But it’s hard to find £5m+ players who are happy to come and play for Celtic and not earn bigger money than the rest of the squad.
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The way it is now Championship sides are paying far more than Celtic. They aren’t consistently making the groups of the CL either so that isn’t a draw.
Playing in a Mickey Mouse one horse race league for small money and living in Glasgow just isn’t very attractive
The comparison should be with ajax benfica porto and psv
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All at least have one challenger domestically unlike Celtic. Portuguese clubs also find it easier to attract South Americans and obviously a better climate is also more attractive
I wouldn’t see it that way. Outside of the EPL and top clubs in Spain, Italy, France and Germany - our wage bill and available compares favourably with nearly any other side in Europe. Maybe some would rather play in leagues a bit more prestigious but I don’t think it’s a huge issue, I just think that our board is completely risk averse. Thankfully we don’t seem to have followed the loan path this year which I think set us back years in the past few seasons as you will always have to plug holes.
I think we should focusing on developing our youth players and gathering young talent from the lesser European leagues. Some will be hit and some will be miss but there’s loads of players out there who can be bought for relatively little money and Celtic should be looking to make 5/6 of those signings every season. Piatek is a good example, Celtic could have got him for €4m at the start of last season, he was on a salary of €500k, there’s plenty of those type of guys out there across all the European leagues and I think Celtic are well able to compete with the other teams who would be chasing those players.
I think we should be buying players in advance like Shved last season, that Pavlovic guy, why not roll the dice on him and pay €5-6m on him, let him stay at Partizan this season if needs be. There doesn’t seem to be any forward planning, it’s all reactionary.