Padjo Lawwell, November 2018
“We try to do our business professionally, privately and in confidence. What we won’t do is get dragged into responding to media or social media speculation or giving a blow by blow account of what’s happened.”
Padjo Lawwell, June 2019
Latest rumours are:
Peter Ankersen (Danish right back)
Amir Rrahmani (Kosovan centre back)
I’m endorsing both players but no idea how valid the links are.
This is an outrageous saga over somebody I don’t even recall seeing play.
David Turnbull’s move to Celtic is back on after a sensational twist in his on/off transfer saga.
The 19-year-old spent the day in talks with English Premier League new boys Norwich City after the Canaries matched the Hoops’ £3million offer for the midfielder.
But despite being impressed by the club and the deal on the table - significantly more than the Scottish champions were offering - Record Sport understands he feels Celtic are his best option from a football perspective rather than financial one.
Talks have now re-opened between Peter Lawwell and Turnbull ’s agent Liam O’Donnell and are believed to have been positive, after the deal appeared dead on Monday.
Sources close to the deal told Record Sport : “David was blown away by the people at Norwich, by what they had to offer and by the pathway they have for their young players. They made him feel really welcome.
“But right now, at 19, he feels Celtic is the right football move for him - and that’s the most important part of any decision he makes.”
Celtic’s interest in looked to have come to an end after a stand off between the club and the player’s agent led to a bizarre Tweet from the Parkhead side’s account, saying the teenager had been made a “fantastic offer”.
The Tweet said: "Celtic was pleased to agree a record-breaking fee with Motherwell FC and we have quickly followed this up with a fantastic offer to the player through his agent.
“Currently, we have been unable to come to an agreement with the player’s agent. Celtic is content that it has made a magnificent offer and it is now up to the agent and player to decide if the player wants to join Celtic. If not, we move on.”
On Thursday, Hoops No.2 John Kennedy insisted the club would not dwell on what then appeared to be a stinging near miss in the market.
He said: "He said: “What we want is for players to be hungry and we also want them to come here for the right reasons, not just financially.
“For a 19-year-old coming from Motherwell who has played pretty much one season, the offer we made was very good.
“The reality is that if players come here and do well, they will be rewarded long term as the years progress.
“It all comes down to a player’s idea of what he wants and the representative who is advising him in that respect.
“If you do well at this club, the world is your oyster and that’s what we wanted to give him, but they chose not to take our offer.
“It’s not one we are going to lose too much sleep over.
The 19-year-old bagged 15 goals for Well in a superb 2018/19 campaign and quickly became one of the hottest properties in the Scottish game.
Nicky Hammond is a magician.
What a bhoy.
I’ve always wanted Turnbull to sign more than anything.
He’s as flaky as a Love Island contestant.
An absolute hero. Celtic to the core. TURNing down more money to be part of history at Celtic Park.
The huns were basking in his apparent rejection of Celtic and are feeling a little silly now. Reminiscent of their celebrations over Scott Brown signing.
Turnball was singing rebel songs on holidays and telling everyone he was signing for Celtic.
Not sure happened but maybe he was cajoled by Agent to look beyond Celtic. Shitty Norwich or Champions League Celtic. He probably wised up quickly.
We thought he was a turncoat but that was bull.
At this rate David Trumbull shouldered billy McKee’s coffin last weekend
I’ll admit to not having seen Turnbull an awful lot or not having overly noticed him in the matches against Celtic but how good is he. The goals and assists stats are impressive but looking at the videos of him, a good few of them are set pieces, shots the keeper should save or deflections and assists are primarily from frees and corners. So I’d be taking those with a pinch of salt.
He looks like someone who is trigger happy, a fair few of his goals are also in the box so clearly he is a midfielder who likes to get forward. The problem would be that we have already got McGregor, Christie and Rogic in this regard. McGregor has already converted to a holding midfielder, not sure he is best there but he’s done well in that role. Rogic and Christie would both prefer to play further forward.
For a 19 year old the stats are very impressive and the what we’ve paid seems fair but I just don’t really see what he gives us that we don’t already have. Is this signing confirmation that we are hawking Ntcham now?
Hastie arguably looks a bigger talent but again it’s a position we are well stocked in and I don’t think he’d make an impact here. I certainly expect himself and Jones to give the huns more of a threat down the wing this season than they were getting from the likes of Candeias last year.
I haven’t seen much of him either. I also had similar sentiments when watching that 2-minute clip of his 15 goals last season. Seems to like a shot alright.
I noticed late last season that a lot of jocko football reporters, pundit types and commentators had started to hail him on social media as one of the best young players to come through in Scotland in decades.
Motherwell fans (based on my unreliable twitter reading) seemed to rate him far higher than Hastie, but there could have been some bias in that as Hastie was refusing to sign a new contract and was being publicly courted by Sevco.
Yeah he does seem to be well rated by Motherwell fans but I never noticed him against Celtic - just his stats.
I do think we have room for him in the team, especially if we use Christie a bit deeper like we did when he and Rogic were playing very well before Christmas and we play two box to box midfielders ahead of one player sitting.
I hope we’re not selling Ntcham. We can’t afford to be losing classy players, even if he is frustrating sometimes. The same goes for Rogic but Rogic’s form has been really bad.
Rogic was in decent form before he went off on international duty and came back injured. I think the fact he came back into an unsettled side and had not played for Celtic for the guts of 3 months had an impact there. I would not be too worried about his form although it was bad when he returned.
Ntcham was more worrying, he was extremely poor for the entire season and seemed to be stuck in a rut he couldn’t get out of. At times he just seems lazy and unmotivated, I’d say he could be quite a difficult character to manage. Technically he’s very good but I don’t like his attitue and he is so lax and casual on the ball at times when far more urgency is needed.
I don’t think it was a conicidence that we played our best football last year when we had McGregor, Christie and Rogic in the team. There was a vibrancy there to the midfield. Rogic suffers from some of the same failings as Ntcham but I think Rogic is more due to being one paced as opposed to a lack of effort or attitude. When Rogic has legs and energy around him I think he is able to show his real class. I would certainly feel Brown will need to be phased out of the team this season, still a decent player and has something to offer but I don’t think he makes our strongest midfield and he was found out in a few big games.
I’d be okay with Ntcham leaving. He was injured when Lennon returned but was then pitched into the derby against Sevco at home at the end of March. He did very well and Lennon was full of praise for him, but then he followed that up with a series of uninterested and casual displays. You’ve basically summed him up - talented but questionable attitutude and very inconsistent. He signed a 4-year deal early last season (after scoring the winner in the first derby) which probably gave him a pay bump and it protects his sale value for Celtic, but he didn’t look focused or motivated for most of the season after that.
I think £12m is probably a good price for him. I’d have no issues with selling him if the money was reinvested back into the squad.
If you look at the way things are now, our wage bill is significantly down - he have moved on around 10 players and Rodgers as well who was probably the top earner at the club. We took £20m odd in for Dembele last August and have probably used maybe about £5-7m of that on Bayo, Shved and probably Turnbull now. We reportedly got a compensation package of around £7m for Rodgers too. There could be a sell on clause with Dembele too.
In essence we should have a famous “warchest” to spend on overhauling the squad this season
The likelihood is that if we sell Ntcham, like the Dembele money last season, not a penny of that will go to the transfer budget. It will sit nicely in some deposit interest account and the board will give themselves a nice pat on the back at the next AGM.
Rangers making a lot of signings. Should be a decent league.
4 in already and another 2 to follow shortly.
They are giving that Aribo lad a £20k pw contract, seem to be focusing on freebies and loans this year but their operating costs must be going through the roof.
I don’t think they can afford Kent and I’d say they will have to move on Morelos or Tavernier. I think they could struggle to get anywhere near what they expected to with Morelos now.
They have a bloated squad, not really too worried about anything they’ve signed. I do think Jones is a decent player for SPL level and Hastie is promising though.
Yeah I agree with that mostly.
Not sure an on form Brown isn’t worth his place in the team but it depends on how frequently that can happen these days. Either way we are well served for midfielders now and have options to play with various combinations of holding midfielders, box-to-box midfielders and attacking midfielders.
I wouldn’t have a problem with selling Ntcham if we had transfers to come in that were using some of that fee. But if it’s sell him and replace with a loanee then obviously nobody wants that.
And I agree that Rogic seems to have a better attitude than Ntcham, though I think Ntcham’s style makes him look more careless and uninterested than he is. Brown used to have an awful habit of putting short passes out for throw-ins that Ntcham seems to share. Ntcham is a more technical player but just seems to have trouble being as consistently careful on the ball as he should be.
I don’t see Rogic being as important in Europe as the other players and that’s what concerns me. Unless he can become more dynamic and better at keeping the ball he seems like he’s always too risky to play against better opposition. And that’s quite a limitation for a guy who is so talented.
I think Brown doesn’t have the legs anymore and he’s not good enough on the ball when pressed. I think it was the home game with Valencia was head in your hands stuff when they started pressing him and he passed a number of balls out of play.
I don’t know what exact role we intend to use Turnbull in. But I don’t think Brown is fit to lead that midfield in the big games anymore. He’s probably fine for the SPL and tricky domestic away games but I would not be confident anymore with him staring the Rangers games and big European ties. Teams will target him.
I don’t think Lennon has the courage to drop him either unfortunately.