Stokesy reckons he would have done better than Robbie Keane’s 16 goals in 19 games last season.
I prefer Stokesy to Keano myself but I’d take Robbie too.
Good price. Been impressed with him in recent months and wouldn’t be too harsh in judging him on his time at Sunderland where he was played out of position and was still only a kid anyway.
Welcome back to Ireland Antón.
Talented player is Stokes.Has good bit of skill and good finisher…Would be concerned about his attitude in that he seems to have made some questionable choices in the past and has fallen out of favour with Trap a little bit.If he can bang the goals in for Celtic and continue to perform at u21 level I reckon he will make the breakthrough sooner or later.
are you forgetting his stints at Palace, Sheffield United, prob a couple of others
Stokes hasnt the pace or attitude to thrive at a higher level than the SPL. A better player than Sheridan or Murphy though. Without John Hughes he has amounted to the square root of fuck all in adult football so will be interesting to see how he gets on with a mickey mouse manager.
Care to comment on the Guardian report that compared the level of the Motherwell game at the weekend to the Vauxhall conference?
The first 45 minutes yesterday was a tackle fest, which I mentioned on the SPL thread. I saw the last twenty minutes of Blackburn/Arsenal on Saturday lunchtime and it was very similar to that. You get that away from home in the SPL though – teams raise the stakes physically to try to bridge the gap in quality terms. I don’t have a problem with that approach, and you have to stand up to it, but it can make for poor football.
Celtic played well enough in the second half and McCourt was enterprising when he came on. As I said on the previous page, a striker like Rasmussen would surely have got on the end of some of the balls cut back/drilled in from the by line. It took a penalty to win it because we lack firepower at present; hence the signing of Stokes.
Getting back to the physicality point, that’s one of the reasons the huns have won the last two leagues – they have a sprinkling of good players but they’ve probably had the most physical team in the league so they could cope handily enough when teams try to mix it with them. Unfortunately, Mowbray signed a raft of soft diddies. Lenny will get the steel back in us and he’s doing that by signing a mixture of hard foreigners (Kayal, Juarez etc) and unrepentant Fenians (Stokes, Murphy etc).
Hail hail.
They didnt particulary rate the latter unrepentant Fenian’s performance in the same report. How is Steve Davis doing these days - best player in the SPL?
potentially one of the best Irish players of all time- good decision not to buy him when he was young,immature & a little too fond of the drink- now he has got that out of his system he will fulfill the promise that was so much that wegner bought his parents a house in london to persuade him to come to arsenal
Clever Bhoy!
New Celtic signing Anthony Stokes says he had to seize his second chance
EXCLUSIVE By Peter Jardine
Last updated at 11:39 PM on 30th August 2010
Anthony Stokes admitted on Monday night that a ‘second chance’ to join Celtic was too good an opportunity to turn down.
Neil Lennon will complete a full team of summer signings today when Stokes joins the club he snubbed three years ago.
Anthony Stokes
The Hibernian striker will move from Edinburgh to Glasgow for around £1.2million - with Sunderland also due a slice of the cash for the Republic of Ireland striker.
Stokes turned down Celtic during Gordon Strachan’s period in charge and recently admitted he wrongly ‘chased the money’ when leaving Arsenal to sign for Roy Keane’s Sunderland back in January 2007.
Stokes will undergo a medical today ahead of signing a three-year contract after rebuilding his career with 23 goals at Hibs last season.
Anthony Stokes
Speaking to Sportsmail, the 22-year-old said: ‘The deal is all done and I’m so happy to get it sorted as it has been dragging on for a couple of weeks.
‘I’m delighted to have been given a second chance to join Celtic as I nearly went there before I moved to Sunderland. But, at the time, I really wanted to get the chance to play in the English Premier League.
‘That didn’t work out but, after returning to Scotland, I’ve now managed to get a move to a massive club and one of the most recognisable in the world.
‘It’s all very well just playing football but I want to win trophies and compete for titles and now I will get the chance to do that at Celtic.’
Stokes admitted the speculation affected his performance in Hibs’ 1-0 weekend defeat at St Mirren and that he probably should not have played. But he also claimed Hibs manager John Hughes understood his decision to leave for Celtic.
‘My head was all over the place and I probably shouldn’t have played really, so I’m relieved it’s all sorted now,’ said Stokes.
‘John was superb for me when I played for him at Falkirk and he gave me the chance to come to Hibs and start again after Sunderland.
‘He knows how appealing it is for any Irish player to join Celtic and I’m also a massive fan.’
Celtic could add to their tally of recruits before tonight’s midnight deadline, with Nottingham Forest defender Kelvin Wilson still on the radar.
The conclusion of the Stokes deal means there will be no need for Celtic to try to persuade Hapoel Tel-Aviv to part with £2.5m-rated striker Itay Shechter.
Celtic have never gone through a season without a #7.
Bring me Robbie Keane, please.
Celtic without a #7 is like Home and Away without Alf Stewart. Give me my #7 now, Celtic.
Stokes is done and dusted. Not hearing anything else today other than Curtis Davies on loan perhaps.
I still think we’re a striker short.
Stokes and Murphy up front, it’ll be like watching Sunderland in the 2nd round of the Carling Cup.
With McCourt in a free role behind them. 
A Holy Trinity.
[quote=“Bandage, post: 468811”]
With McCourt in a free role behind them.
A Holy Trinity.
[/quote]If only we still had the holy goalie! 
EDIT
Wrong fucking thread…
This is very disappointing. We’ve a far worse goalkeeper than last season. We’ve sold our most talented, creative player. It’s the umpteenth transfer window in a row where we’ve been crying out for the centre half issues to be resolved once and for all and we may have failed to do so judging by Majstorovic’s efforts in Utrecht last week. Obviously it’s too early to judge him definitively but we needed to get a further centre back signed in addition to him and rid of the likes of Loovens. We’re also awfully short on goal threat now with Keane, Rasmussen and Fortuné gone. I don’t think Stokes, Hooper and Murphy are an improvement. We’ve signed some good midfield players all right but we still lack the desired quality in those key positions of goalkeeper, centre back and striker. This has been evident in all of our games so far this season too. We’ve recouped a good bit more in fees than we’ve paid out also. Unless there’s going to be some late signing fireworks…
Celtic have a competitive advantage in the fact that the deadline in Scotland doesn’t close til midnight while the EPL’s closes at 6 p.m…
The SPL window doesn’t close til midnight so once the Angelus is over, we can go for the likes of Keane and Owen without any EPL club trying to hijack us.
Patience Bandage
I’ve been told that our business is done now though; hence my earlier post/rant.
Brett’s daddy is being interviewed on Club, Sweat & Tears on BBC Radio 5 Live at 7.30 this evening