Iād agree entirely, also with your post above. Youād just hope that whoever Ange really wants, theyāll back him.
Whether we or not we were, we surely should be in for players of that calibre at that price range. All 3 were gettable for decent fees, well within our range and with plenty to offer to us. The fact they were linked with us and we either werenāt interested or unwilling to pay the price is disappointing.
CELTIC have agreed a fee of around Ā£2.5million for Legia Warsaw right-back Josip Juranovic.
The Croatian is now finalising personal terms and is expected to sign a four-year deal.
But Legia still hope he will be available to face Slavia Prague in their Europa League play-off first leg on Thursday.
The Poles have given Juranovic permission to talk to Celtic and the deal should go through this week.
But as things stand, Legia chiefs expect him to be on the flight to Prague for a farewell appearance.
It comes after Ange Postecoglou revealed Celtic were āvery closeā to making several signings.
The Hoops boss said: "Iām very confident we will have players in before the transfer deadline.
"Itās just a matter of timing and getting things done. Itās not as straightforward as it used to be.
"We are very close to a few deals, I think. We just need to keep doing what we are doing, stay focused and disciplined, and make sure we get the right players in.
āOnce we do, it will help us enormously because we are putting a big workload on a core group of players at the moment.ā
CELTIC are planning a near Ā£3 million swoop for Greek hitman Giorgos Giakoumakis.
Itās understood the Hoops have opened talks with Dutch minnows VVV Venlo for the prolific striker.
Giakoumakis netted 26 goals in 30 league games last season and finished the Eredivisieās top scorer.
But that couldnāt prevent their relegation ā and now club chiefs are looking to cash in on the 26-year-old, who has entered the final year of his contract.
Itās been claimed that Athens-born Ange Postecoglou has also directly spoken to Giakoumakis.
The Celtic boss hopes to persuade him Parkhead is his best transfer option with interest growing.
Postecoglou revealed heās confident of adding a āfewā more signings before the transfer window shuts.
Legia Warsawās Ā£2.5m-rated right-back Josip Juranovic will possibly arrive this week.
Postecoglou is keen to keep on building.
We shouldnāt be interested in every player at that price range just because theyāre available. Itās not disappointing to not be interested in a player. Is Henry the type of player to lead a high pressing game from centre forward? Not sure. Is Ikatura any good if heās joining Schalke with a 4m clause? Possibly not.
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But we need players in those positions with those sort of attributes. They were a good fit for us but we donāt seem willing to invest.
Weāre still in a net profit btw. If Edouard goes in the next fortnight we will end in a net profit and will have neglected to strengthen appropriately. What will that tell you about the board and their strategy?
Possibly not but you could say that about any player. The bottom line is Celtic have the biscuit tin mentality in full flow, yet again.
I agree. I just donāt think we need to get hung up on specific players who may or may not be any good, who may or may not be interested in moving to Celtic and who Ange may or may not like.
We may prefer the Greek striker over Henry. Iāve no idea. We may not rate Itakura at all. And Lovric does seem to like Celtic but who knows if itās mutual or whether heās another Shved or a proper talent.
Shaw - Ā£300k
Uroghide -Ā£150k
Abada - Ā£3.5m
Lawal -150k
Furuhashi - Ā£4.6m
Starfelt - Ā£4.5m
Hart Ā£1m
McCarthy free
Juranovic Ā£2.5m
Giakomakis Ā£2.5m
Scales Ā£600k
Total: Ā£19.65m
Out:
Hendry Ā£1.8m
Bayo Ā£1m
Ajer Ā£13.5m
Shved Ā£1m
Total: Ā£17.3m
Say for argument sake we complete the bolded 3 transfers with zero outgoings, itās a net spend of Ā£2m. I think we will have shrimped on quality. I think if thatās our lot, weāll be short at left back, weāll be short at centre back, weāve a keeper Iām very dubious about, weāll be short in the wide attacking areas.
Maybe not but where are the players in these areas?
We need another centre half of quality
Another left back (Scales is neither of these as an established option btw)
Another wide attacker
We still have to get a striker in (2 if Edouard goes and Giakomakis is one of them for me - I donāt trust him enough to be one)
Juranovic and Scales look to be close to completion.
I also think we would be silly to let Allie McCann slip through our fingers now as well.
I think we should be trying to move Barkas/Griffiths/Bitton/Bolingoli on and getting a few of the younger fringe lads out on loans.
We clearly rate Scales or we wouldnāt buy him. I imagine heāll move ahead of Murray and Bolingoli in the pecking order. Same for Giakomakis. We wonāt be buying another striker as well as him just because you donāt trust him.
We could do with moving Ajeti and Griffiths on but I canāt see that happening. And the lads you mentioned above. Apart from Bitton. Heāll be our centre back cover. Heās not going to be loaned out
Iām really underwhelmed by Giakomakis. Heās another Ajeti for me. I despair if he could be Edouardās replacement.
Henry looked to have far more about him.
Itās another Toney/Ajeti situation, weāve chased the cheap option over the better one.
The problem is we are settling for mediocrity. I think you could ask any scout or football person to have a look at Giakomakis over Henry and Iād say 90% would choose Henry. We are passing up on a better player over the sake of a couple of million, thatās the Celtic mentality to transfers and as good as Ange is or might be that mentality will hold us back and will also frustrate the manager - just like it did with Rodgers.
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Iād agree, but you have to trust Ange judgement, and presume the board are backing that, and you donāt know what heās thinking as he quite rightly plays his cards close to his chest.
Look most of that is wild speculation. Henry might have told us he doesnāt want to move to Scotland. I canāt imagine thatās an unusual occurrence. Or we might not rate Henry (who Iām betting you hadnāt heard of two weeks ago). Or we may think heās a good player but his style of play doesnāt suit us. Ange might not like him. Or his attitude maybe. He might prefer the Greek chap or he may not like either or think theyāre both equal.
If the links are to be believed and we did have genuine interest then itās unlikely the price drove us away because heās not going for more than expected, unlike Toney who was openly marketed to kick off a bidding war.
Anyway itās all speculation. We canāt just assume we moved on to a cheaper option but at the same time believe the stories we were interested in the first place to be genuine.
Whereās atjei gone ? Is he injured or just not getting look in ?
Thatās fine but by all intentions and purposes he was very interested and his representative said Celtic were his preference so all the signs point to him wanting the Celtic move. Celtic are a bigger club with better infrastructures and resources than the club heās gone to.
Heās a carthorse.
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Off the bench for a token few minutes here and there. He played all of pre season and then was dropped when Edouard got fit and Kyogo joined.
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And he released a statement saying he wanted a new experience and left Scotland off the list of countries he wanted to play in. I doubt heād any interest at all.
Again Iād disagree here. Toney wanted the Celtic move over Brentford, that was evident at the time of the deal.
He went to Brentford for an initial Ā£6m potentially rising to Ā£10m if certain conditions were met. We signed Ajeti for Ā£4.5m.
Toney is now probably a Ā£30m rated striker, not far off an England call up. Ajeti is someone we will look to punt on loan or for Ā£3m. To me it was obvious, I said it 12 months ago, Toney is a far superior player. Itās obvious with Henry and Giakomakis to me now. Giakomakis is Ajeti mk II
We could have afforded Toney, but you know - biscuit tin mentality and not a lot has changed. I just donāt get why you have to argue against that consistently rather than acknowledge its existence and the problems it has caused.
You also seem to go with that narrative on that being the reason Celtic donāt buy players.
The fact is that Celtic have a long and consistent history or cheapskating on transfer fees.