gershon absolutely
there was also a fella who went from maccabi haifa to Blackpool when they were in the 2010 epl
Was that Brozek lad a Dudu signing too?
Rabu Ibrahim?
He picked up Scepovic too I think and sent him to Israel and then to Celtic. He did Amido Balde too but sent him to Celtic first and then off to Israel I think.
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I presume part of the trade off with these preferential relationships with agents is you knowingly have to buy duds from time to time. Its a bizarre situation for a club like celtic to find themselves in. It’s not like he’s bringing in primo talent above celtics level anyway.
It reeks a bit really
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Looks like the vice champions might be getting this one over the line.
Following the ONE revelation that Liel Abda is on his way to Celtic, the striker, who arrived in London from France, is set to continue from there to Scotland and arrive late at night in the capital Glasgow. Tomorrow (Wednesday) Abda will move to the Scottish club to complete the medical tests he performed in Israel, and if all goes well, he will sign a four-year contract and be officially announced as a player of the vice-champion.
The Scots have already agreed with Maccabi Petah Tikva on all the details, including a payment of 4 million euros for 80 percent of the 19-year-old talent’s ticket. Abda will arrive in Scotland with his agent Dudu Dahan and if he does complete his joining, he will immediately join the team’s training
Buying 80% ???
He may be mighty, but objectively it looks like another in a lengthening line of lads nobody had really heard of on a medium odds spread bet. We seemed overrun last season with people with no fundamental attachment to the club or the city, who couldn’t or wouldn’t even raise a gallop in an old firm game because frankly, they clearly either didn’t care, or actively wanted to be somewhere else. The Celtic board are like some retired middle manager betting a fiver a hand on blackjack on a cruise ship and doing a few long odds Yankees in the hope rather than the expectation that they might either win something or make a few quid.
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Now we’re moving
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One week today, Celtic play the first leg of their opening Champions League qualifying tie at home against Midtjylland. They have yet to sign a player this summer to challenge for their starting XI.
Given the rigorousness of new manager Ange Postecoglou’s tactical and fitness demands, it would be unlikely any player signed over the coming days would be involved in that game or the return in Denmark the following Wednesday, as he would have so little time to work with them on the training ground.
Even if Celtic were to sign a player between now and the first leg squad registration deadline of July 15 (albeit with the ability to add two new players by July 19), if the player was arriving from outside the UK they would likely be unavailable through quarantining anyway.
There is a sharp contradiction at the heart of Celtic. There is growing optimism for what Postecoglou has begun to build on the pitch, early sketches of the vibrantly attacking masterwork he promised in his unveiling interview. It is admittedly off the back of only two pre-season games, a mic’d-up training video, and his eloquence in the media — but there are the foundations of a philosophy and ambition on show that fans can begin to get behind.
But any optimism about Postecoglou is suppressed by pessimism over Celtic’s inertness off the pitch.
In what was previously assumed would be Celtic’s busiest summer and most important rebuild for decades, they have been passive.
So far, they have signed Liam Shaw, 20, and 21-year-old Osaze Urhoghide, both from Sheffield Wednesday of the English third division, on a pre-contract and free transfer respectively. Joey Dawson, 18, has also joined for a nominal fee from Scunthorpe United of the English fourth tier. All three were names on the now-former head of football operations Nick Hammond’s shortlist. Shaw has impressed in his two pre-season appearances so far, suggesting he may be involved with the first-team sooner than expected, but the other two appear not to be at that level yet. None of the three are clear, hit-the-ground-running starters for the coming season.
Ajer is ready to move on, with his Celtic contract only having a year to run (Photo: Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
This is further complicated by Celtic prolonging, or making prohibitively expensive, the sales that were expected to fund their touted rebuild. They have elected to play hardball over the fees for Kristoffer Ajer and Odsonne Edouard. They quoted Leicester City a fee for Edouard that was higher than the £23 million the Premier League club eventually paid Austrian club Red Bull Salzburg for fellow striker Patson Daka.
Celtic told clubs interested in Ajer he was available for £15 million after Norwich and Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen had £10 million bids rejected. Brentford, promoted to next season’s Premier League with Norwich, tabled a bid of £12 million up-front plus £3 million in add-ons over the weekend, but Celtic then stated the defender’s new price was £20 million. It is understood that talks have since collapsed.
Even accounting for Paris Saint-Germain’s 50 per cent sell-on clause on all profits of Edouard’s eventual sale, Celtic would still have made roughly £30 million from parting with their two prized assets, who have been promised moves this summer.
Including revenue generated from Jeremie Frimpong’s sale to Leverkusen in January for £11.5 million (which brings in £7 million because of Manchester City’s 30 per cent sell-on clause), the moves of Vakoun Bayo (£1.4 million, Gent) and Jack Hendry (£1.8 million, Oostende) to Belgium, Hatem Abd Elhamed’s return to Hapoel Be’er Sheva for £800,000 and Patryk Klimala’s £3.5 million transfer to New York Red Bulls, Celtic would have already made around £45 million from player sales this year had they also sanctioned the aforementioned deals for Ajer and Edouard.
Celtic have had discussions with some potential transfers, including Hajduk Split’s Mario Vuskovic and Carl Starfelt of Rubin Kazan — centre-backs who, unlike the trio mentioned above, would arrive first-team ready — but talks have stalled, and even if those negotiations were accelerated and deals hastily agreed, it is profoundly unlikely they would be available and ready for Midtjylland’s visit to Glasgow.
There is aggressive deja vu here.
In 2016-17, Celtic navigated three rounds of Champions League qualifiers to reach the group stage at the first time of asking under new manager Brendan Rodgers. However, there was a dearth of quality at centre-back that nearly derailed their campaign; they fielded a mixture of Kolo Toure, Eoghan O’Connell, Efe Ambrose and right-back Mikael Lustig in the position.
For the 2018-19 Champions League qualifiers, Dedryck Boyata had one year left on his contract and a promise to be moved on, before Celtic rejected a £9 million bid from Fulham. Boyata sat out both legs of a third qualifying round tie against AEK Athens in frustration, which understandably alienated the support and left Hendry to partner first Ajer and then Jozo Simunovic in central defence. Celtic were eliminated 3-2 on aggregate, and Boyata joined Hertha Berlin as a free agent the following summer.
Celtic are routinely unprepared to negotiate these qualifying rounds, but this summer’s upheaval could top everything has gone before. With Ajer and Christopher Jullien yet to play a minute of this pre-season, it would be unsurprising if the starting back four against Midtjylland next Tuesday was the one that began the 2-1 win over English third-tier side Charlton Athletic at the weekend: Anthony Ralston, Stephen Welsh, Nir Bitton and Greg Taylor.
With the greatest of respect to these players, that is not a back line that can be expected to compete for Champions League qualification through the difficult non-champions route, no matter how well-drilled Postecoglou might get them.
As the club have insisted, credibly, Celtic’s wider operational rebuild is in the long-term.
Last week, they uploaded two job postings for recruitment analysts — the first small but tangible sign of future-planning since Dominic McKay started work as chief executive on July 1.
But they have known the scale of the short-term squad overhaul required this summer since the moment they decided to keep Ajer, Edouard, Ryan Christie and Olivier Ntcham for last season to help them chase 10 in a row.
They knew they would all have only one year left on their contracts and that this summer would be the last opportunity to produce substantial revenue from their sales.
They knew that adequate replacements would have to be found quickly otherwise their transfer sagas extend into the qualifiers and potentially undermine those ties with their uncertainty — as the Boyata example from three years ago illustrates.
They knew that they would be going into the summer with virtually no first-team right-backs, and limited options on the wings other than James Forrest and the injury-prone Mikey Johnston.
They knew that if their move to make Eddie Howe the new manager fell through they would have to devise a contingency plan for who would lead their recruitment department following Hammond’s exit. The club decided not to bring in a sporting director or head of recruitment, even in a consultancy capacity, and that has backfired.
Given Celtic’s squad predicament, the prospect of reaching the coming season’s Champions League group phase has been upgraded from improbable to effectively miraculous.
Without considerable improvements to the squad and efficient turnover of wantaway players over the next seven weeks, the challenge of reclaiming the Premiership title will probably go the same way.
(Top photo: Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)
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Great potential for fan songs.
Starfelt begins to fly…
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Given the size of the rebuild required I don’t have a problem with holding out for better money as long as the players are staying involved in the qualifying rounds. It seems slightly unfair to criticise the club for not making signings early enough and for holding onto their players for too long.
I’d like to have signed one or two by now but even if Starfelt arrived last week it would seem too early for him to play next week. But at the same time we can’t wait to sell everyone before we bring in their replacements so please God that’s not the plan.
Domino effect.
Celtic Celtic Celtic
We’re sitting on a pile of cash though and some positions, like right back, needed sorting irrespective of whether Ajer and/or Edouard left. But we may be motoring now.
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Domino McKay 
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Agreed. I made thst same point, albeit poorly. Get signings in and don’t panic about selling to the first decent offer is the strategy I’m advocating.
they already had a version that song that people found offensive
related to the dude that got injured in the malvinas
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He’s exactly the mcjockstrap ultra I have been encouraging the signing of (hopefully)
He looks slightly deranged, and has a Russian name, which is ideal for a centre back.
Hopefully he’s done jail time in Siberia for gangland violence and has gang related tattoos.
Few online rumours that Griffiths will have his contract terminated.