Before @thedancingbaby time but we’ve got rid of charlatans before
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Celtic were briefing the media last night they aimed to sign 4 players today - Dolberg on a permanent deal & another striker on loan, Tounekti on a permanent deal & another winger on loan. 10 minutes to go & no signings have been made. They’ve sold Idah but retained Yang because of inability to conclude signings. Latest is a move for Kelechi Iheanacho after a series of rejections since Dolberg chose Ajax. Sevilla have just cancelled his contract so talk is he could join on a free outside the deadline. Tounekti might be confirmed later tonight but don’t think anything else is imminent.
Dermot Desmond has really packed it.
Are Lawwell and Nicholson gone?
As things stand, the striker options if you regard Maeda as a left winger are Shin (2 J League goals last season), Kenny (youngster whose main experience is in Éire with Rovers & Shamrock) & Osmond (no senior football appearances). Never mind comparing to Celtic forwards of the 21st century - Larsson, Sutton, Hartson, Samaras, Hooper, Dembélé, Edouard, Kyogo etc - the current frontline is probably weaker than several SPL clubs.
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When a rat gets into a house, some folk would say burn the house down. You don’t. You get the rat out.
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An absolute shit show. Unbelievably incompetent.
Agreed. They make united look well run
Edgy @Little_Lord_Fauntleroy especially in the middle of a Lawwell crisis
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Wtaf
Celtic downsizing
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Ironic how typically Scottish they are when it comes to spending money!
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Sure they’ll win the league up there anyway.it’s all the wan.
Jesus that’s a disgrace.
I’d not be so sure. The Huns just spent another 10 million on a striker. I reckon they’ll take us handy.
It does look to be more a case of downsizing than incompetence, no sign of ambition at the club whatsoever.
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I’d say it’s both.
The Dolberg deal for example. Now maybe he wanted to stall and see what options materialised but either you get the deal done immediately, or you move on given the time left in the transfer window.
Nobody else who was even remotely linked represented any sort of ambitious move though. Again I think that’s a combination of crap scouting, leaving everything too late and definitely an element of “living within our means” with a couple of rejects loaned from the EPL. And even that didn’t work out.
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Celtic looking for Paul Green type diamonds in the rough now?
I’m hopeful we can get one or two from Dubai Irish when they finalise their squad.
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I hope the new bhoy Tounekti is decent, & it’s nothing to do with him, but he was obviously a good bit down the list of wingers & they ended up paying £5.5mn for him. That kind of fee would have secured one of the first choice targets a couple of months ago pre CL qualifiers - Breum, Forbs, Orjasaeter etc - but they were intent on lowballing selling clubs & missed out on all of them. He also seems to be a left winger - same as Balikwisha & Maeda.
The striker situation is genuinely shambolic following on from Kyogo’s January departure. I saw someone comparing it to Rodgers’ first spell & saying it would have been akin to, say, selling Dembélé (Kyogo) in January, selling Griffiths (Idah) in the summer & not signing Edouard (Dolberg, or any proven striker) at all & expecting Sinclair (Daizen) to play upfront & provide the goalscoring threat! Even on Sunday Rodgers said he had no explanation for the club giving Idah permission to travel to Swansea for talks & a medical before the derby. He said they needed at least one striker, two if Idah left, & they didn’t sign any!
There’s an absentee landlord in Desmond, a staggering lack of ambition & competence on the player identification & trading side & relationships between the board/finance types & the football side headed up by Rodgers seem to be completely broken. Not only have they failed to build on last season’s positive campaign, they’ve taken a few large steps backwards. Standing still would have been disappointing but this is another level. Like I’ve said I was totally fine with Idah moving on but there’s context too…with Kyogo, Kuhn (& Jota) gone they’ve just released another raft of goals & not bothered to replace them.
So now it’ll be scratching around for Iheanacho & other lads who are currently without clubs. It’s all a bit Carlton Cole, Colin Kazim-Richards. Celtic can be potent when everyone is pulling in the same direction - before @thedancingbaby ’s time but you saw it when O’Neill came in, there was Ange’s first season when things started to click & even the first half of last season. But that’s been replaced with a mix of apathy & anger because of the board. The team is stale now, there’s a lack of goals & creativity (0 goals in c. 230 minutes v Kairat, & c.100 minutes v the huns) & the atmosphere around the club is fairly toxic. I’m expecting some turgid stuff in this cycle of Sunday/Thursday football over the next few months. I know people glancing in will probably laugh (what is it? 13 out of the last 14 titles) but I think it would be a decent achievement to win the league this season now (cc @ChairmanDan). They’ll need to slog away & 1-0 a good bit with Liam Scales carrying the club on his back.
The deadline to register players for the entire Europa League group phase is tonight but the likes of Iheanacho could conceivably hang on for offers from Turkey & places whose transfer window remains open for another while. I’m not that pushed at this stage, I might not even watch the next game on 14 September on the telly.
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