Particularly when 5 of those are on loan deals for youth team players or cast offs. It shows us what their strategy is - wait until late and to see what players clubs and agents are trying to discard. The vast majority of these players were not scouted or pursued, they arrived on their desk in the last few days from agents.
Our squad is going to be a bit of a mess. We are only going to be able to register 24 for Europe. 7 of those are McCowan, Ralston, Murray, Forrest, Doohan, Tierney and McGregor.
That would mean we then have 17 spots available to fill. We currently have 16 on hand for those spots but we are apparently going to add up to 5/6 more today/tomorrow which means 5 of those players wonāt be able to registered for Europe.
I honestly donāt see the point of us signing that gammon from Feyenoord as a RB. Donovan is doing ok there now, AJ should be back in a few weeks and Ralston is there in an emergency. Why are we holding on to Ralston if he is now 4th choice right back? I donāt know whatās happened him in the last 12 months but heās a shadow of the player he was. Saw someone put a photo up of him under Ange and one from this season and he looks about 2 stone heavier. It doesnāt look like fat either, it just looks like he has been eating the weights over the past 2 years. Surely our ftiness coaches should just telling him to do cardio and sprints?
The same applies for McCowan, he will probably be relegated to 8th choice midfielder at this stage but elevated up for Europe where he might have to come in out of the cold and play.
These two need to go if thatās the case and just trust youth players to make up the numbers in Europe. Tbh, I donāt think McArdle or Kennedy can be far off McCowan now anyway or whoever our youth team RB worse off than Ralston at the minute.
We seriously have to start making substantial contract offers to our best youth team prospects as the level of our Scottish trained players is abysmal at present. We need to start paying what SPL clubs are demanding for the likes of Bowie, Mulligan, Lennon Miller etc
That point on the homegrown quotient (is that a word?) is well made. If you need 8 out of 24 homegrown &/or locally trained players on your UEFA list then those lads need to be contributors, not just taking up slots when clearly not good enough. I guess you can game it a little with a career third choice keeper like Doohan, but thatās a single slot & the likes of Ralston & McCowan are just blockers at this stage. Theyāre taking up spaces that should be filled by genuinely promising young players &/or decent signings that donāt tick the homegrown/local box.
I was reading a while back how Brexit has changed the playing field, as English clubs canāt pick up the best schoolboy talent from outside the UK until these lads are older. Hence itās prompted a renewed focus on Scotland for players under the age of 18ā¦& thatās possibly why bigger EPL sides are raiding the SPL for 15/16 year olds. I see some young Celtic centre back who captains Scotland U16s just signed for Liverpool & will go into their U18 squad. But thatās not to give Celtic a pass - theyāre typically slow to react to protect themselves. Plenty of reports of poor communication with young players & families, lack of defined pathway, general drift on setting & monitoring targets for players, formally checking in with them etc. Thereās probably the salary angle too, which you referenced before. Not sure youāll get away with keeping your brightest talents on old school apprentice wages & hoping theyāll stick around.
Itās all a bit of a mess internally across the board. Itās a club operating way below their potential in so many different areas.
Thatās fine and well but Celtic youths a lot of the time are leaving for EPL academies where itās more difficult to break into the first team. Doak is really the only successful one and he was only a fringe player before being papped out. In other cases you have boyhood Celtic fans who would probably be more comfortable in Glasgow with their family surroundings etc.
So it brings it down to the base reason and thatās money and this is where the board fail badly. We have the money for fancy light systems and to pay Michael Nicholson 900k. We have the money to punt of Tilio for Ā£1.7m, Kwon for 800k and Yamada/Inamura etc but we donāt have to money to offer decent terms to our top young talents. The huns are actually beginning to tie down their highest rated youth players now - that Kyle Glasgow lad is a Portugeues underage international and had loads of interest down south but they managed to get him to sign on with the,
What did Liverpool offer Doak to sign with them? Iād say it might have been 10k a week max and a healthy enough signing on fee. What would Celtic have offered? Maybe 2k a week. Thatās why they leave. Vata and Kelly didnāt leave for the the bright lights of the English Championsip, they left because Celticās offer was derisory.
If you offer your brightest youth talents a 4 year contract at 5/6k a year and 100k signing bonus then it works out at 300-400k a year. Pocket change but our board operate youth football like an apprentice system and thatās been outdated for 20 years. We have more revenue and money than any Championship clubs but they value our youth players far higher than we do.
Lotomba going to be a permanent transfer. He can play left back too apparently. The likes of him and Johnstone are from the Adamu, Mvuka, Cvancara mould.
Yep, Iām not disagreeing with your point. Or to paraphrase lapsed forum legend Kevā¦youāre actually agreeing with me. Just saying the board havenāt reacted to the changing landscape at all. Theyāll do well to point to example of Forrest/McGregor/Tierney progressing to first team 10-20 years ago & think teenagers & their families will place more importance on that pathway* than far stronger financial packages on offer in England with assorted extras to sweeten the deal such as facilities, accommodation etc.
*are these really precedents if theyāve happened so long ago & not been backed up?
Itās another example of the board not adapting to the modernisation of football whether it be recruitment, transfer fees, fitness etc etc.
Some Italian journalist reckons the Gineitis deal needs to be done today. Said clubs are close to agreement but fixed part of the payment will need to increase for Torino.
I think this deal will collapse. Too much to do in too short a window.
Signed yesterday:
Sorensen - central midfielder from Parma on a season-long loan with an option to buy.
Signed today:
Johnstone - goalkeeper from Wolves on a season-long loan.
Mhueka - striker from Chelsea on a season-long loan.
Still to come today but very much expected to be completed:
Van den Berg - central midfielder from Ajax on a long-term deal
Emenalo - left back from Chelsea on a season-long loan
Lotombo - right back from Feyenoord on a permanent deal
Still working on but not sure if itāll get done:
Gineitis - central midfielder from Torino on a long-term deal.
The fees for Hatate (Ā£6.5m) & Kenny (Ā£3m) & potential add ons are fair & represent the general uplift in fees across the board. It makes it all the more baffling/frustrating the board spends months haggling over Ā£1m-Ā£2m gaps in valuations between us & selling clubs. We needed Gineitis & others for the LASK tie but we wouldnāt budge on the fee in time, even though weāve recouped more than weāve paid again.
Iād be shocked if the Gineitis deal gets done at this stage. We have to register our squad at 11pm so I canāt see any way heās officialy a Celtic player before then.
I think this is like the Dolberg deal last season, we are going through the motions to show we tried but without being serious about getting the deal done.
At the end of the day it looks like about 7-8m of net profit in this window. Pathetic with so many areas not addressed or having kids or has beens/never weres in to cover key positions.
A few sources saying the Gineitis deal has collapsed - clubs still not in agreement on fee or fee structure & mixed reports about whether personal terms were agreed either.
So itās another summer where more money has been recouped than spent & the cash pile gets higher. Cash thatās sitting there & not being put to use.
Instead of buying players ahead of CL qualifying to make progression more achievableā¦this is typical Celtic in the final days of a summer window after another failed CL qualification attempt.
You go from a potential first choice keeper in Toth to a loan for Johnstone. You let Sigur join Toulouse & grab Sorensen on a loan with an option & you donāt stump up the cash for Gineitis, the identified Engels replacement, but sign a youth player from PSV instead.
The Gineitis thing was as obvious as day. It was optics. They never really wanted him as he cost money and we donāt want to spend money. The who final week of the window has been embarrassing.
We took more money than we spent pre LASK and we took in more than we spent post LASK.
Loans were order of the day as transfer fees mean spending money.
I think itās the correct call on Jota. Heās after resuming training from 18 months inaction so we have to be careful with his return and his game load. If Emenalo proves himself to be reliable at LB he should be getting starts in the domestic games between the Europa League ties to rest Tierney.
We can make one change to get squad pre matchday 6.