Was down in the shop there and the Daily Record (rag that it is) had a back page exclusive that Celtic are determined to get Jason Koumas this summer.
I HATE those “source” quotes, generally equals made up shit. Why do they bother with them? If the “source” was close to Lennon then he/she wouldn’t be speaking in the papers. Wankers.
Heard Lennon wants to play at a higher level next season and is looking for a move to League 2 side Wycombe. Fair call I suppose. A guy has to look to better himself.
Poor appendage. Very, very poor.
First rule of the wind up.
Make it realistic.
Shoddy stuff.
Having Kennedy back and playing like last Sunday is like a new signing in itself. Him playing made the whole day for me last week. From the Celtic site:
John Kennedy signs new three-year contract
CELTIC are delighted to announce that John Kennedy has signed a new three-year contract that will see the defender remain at the club until 2010.
Kennedy made his return to first-team action last weekend at Rugby Park after a three-year absence and he was outstanding in the 2-1 victory over Kilmarnock which secured a second consecutive title for Celtic.
After that game, manager Gordon Strachan described Kennedys return as a fairytale, adding its made the club feel really good about ourselves winning the league and having John back.
Celtic Chief Executive Peter Lawwell said today: This is tremendous news for the club. John has shown a real strength of character to overcome the injury problems which he has faced in recent years.
His return to the first-team last weekend and his performance were real highlights on what was a memorable day for the club.
John is most deserving of this new contract and we are delighted he will remain at the club and hopefully play his part in our future success."
Superb news for Kennedy and for Celtic.
twenty-three. good news about contract. looking forward to seeing him get a season under his belt. himself and o’dea could be very good as a long term partnership.
The US surgeon that operated on Kennedy’s knee cried when he heard he made his comeback last week! From The Scotsman:
How Kennedy won his battle of wounded knee
MIKE AITKEN
FROM the sickening crack at Hampden in the spring of 2004, when Ioan Ganea’s miscreant challenge shattered the player’s left knee, to the good humoured press conference at Celtic Park yesterday when he agreed a new three-year contract with the SPL champions, the scale of John Kennedy’s personal journey can still only be guessed at.
Remarkably, the Homeric struggle to overcome personal adversity did not leave a brooding curtain of discontent hanging over such a well-rounded young man. Speaking with easy frankness about those seasons spent on the sidelines, it soon emerged how the stable character of this resolute defender played a crucial role in his rehabilitation.
After spending three years in the darkness of operating theatres, treatment rooms and gymnasiums, Kennedy’s return to the blinding light of Sunday’s championship winning match against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park was the nearest thing to a mythic moment in what’s been a thoroughly prosaic season of Scottish club football.
Handed a new deal which will keep him with Celtic until 2010 just a few days after Sunday’s fairytale return, Kennedy kept a lid on his emotions with more success than the renowned American knee surgeon, Dr Richard Steadman, who saved his career. The specialist had wept this week at his clinic in Colorado when he heard how his former patient had finally returned to the cut and thrust of competitive sport.
Dr Roddy McDonald, formerly Celtic’s club physician who now works for Newcastle United, told Steadman the news. “Roddy said that he [Steadman] was crying because I was one of his patients that he’d spent the most time with,” Kennedy explained. “He’d become emotionally involved because I had to go back to his clinic when it was least expected. If I go over to America in the summer, I’ll take a trip to see him and say my thanks then.”
Although Dr Steadman’s skill has been instrumental in rescuing the careers of Ruud van Nistelroy, Alessandro De Pierro, Ronaldo, Alan Shearer and Craig Bellamy among others, the surgeon formed a close bond with the Scot whose eventual recovery from a brutal injury was facilitated as much by youth as his own skill.
“He told me if it had happened later in my career, then that might have been that,” Kennedy recalled. “Being so young, I had enough time to come back. Even when I had the set-back and needed to go back, Dr Steadman told me I was young enough to be OK. But I don’t think there’s any other surgeon in the world could have come up with the ideas he had to reconstruct my knee. If it wasn’t for him, I might not have been here at this press conference today.”
In the aftermath of an outstanding individual performance against Kilmarnock - which would have caught the eye if the defender had been out for three months, never mind three years - Kennedy was inundated with messages of support and congratulation.
"There were so many telephone calls and text messages saying ‘well done’. I also spoke to a few people at the clinic [in Colorado] to thank them for what they did for me. I promised them when I played my first game after the injury I would send them strips and memorabilia. I didn’t want to do it before, but I’ll do it now.
“The cotton wool stuff is gone. I’m one of the boys again”
“I’ve also spent a lot of time with my family over the past few days. It’s been a massive time for them as well. In fact, it may even have been harder on them than it was for me. Because I always knew inside my own head where I wanted to go and where I wanted to be. They just had to sit back and see what happened. My Mum watched the game on TV. I think she would have collapsed if she’d gone to the ground. She was so nervous. For me, on the other hand, it was so exciting to be back in the team and get involved when that might not have happened again.”
Having only once, in the company of Dr Steadman, watched the tackle which nearly crippled him in slow-motion video, Kennedy says he now has no problem with accepting the cruel hand dealt to him by fate.
"Originally, when I might have had a problem in getting back to full fitness, you can’t help thinking 'what if '. But the stage I’m at now, I can put it all behind me. I’m fit and the club have given me a new contract, so it’s time to leave all of that in the past and move on.
“When I was out, I always tried to stay as positive as I could. Obviously, there are times when you get low. That’s when everyone around me, my family and fiance, my friends and everyone at the club, was there for me to keep my spirits high, to keep pushing me along the road.”
Even when he returned to training, Kennedy was grateful for the honest belligerence of his team-mates. “That’s the way the game is - you get involved in scuffles and tackles. When you cross that barrier, it just happens. I don’t remember one particular tackle. One or two treated me with kid gloves at the start. But there were others who play the game similar to myself and they didn’t take long to come in and smash me. I didn’t have a problem with that. It was how I wanted to be treated. Because I was treated the same, any blocks in my mind soon disappeared. The cotton wool stuff is long gone. I’m one of the boys again.”
He is aware it will not be easy to become a regular in Gordon Strachan’s team as the Celtic manager is well served in the centre-back positions, but Kennedy intends to start challenging Stephen McManus, Steven Pressley, Darren O’Dea, Gary Caldwell and Bobo Balde.
He said: "You never know what’s around the corner, I certainly learned that from my time out. I’ll just push myself and see what happens, there is a lot of competition for places in my position.
“I hope to be in the starting XI next season, that’s my ultimate aim. I’ve given myself small goals but now I’m fit and have to aim for big goals and that means getting back in the team.”
THE CULPRIT
Ganea’s career takes a downward spiral
WHILE John Kennedy has kick-started his career in impressive fashion this week, Ioan Ganea’s days of playing at the highest level appear numbered, writes Scott Coull.
He might not get much sympathy from anyone in Scotland, but Ganea’s career has taken a downward spiral since the Romanian forward inflicted that crunching tackle on Kennedy in a so-called ‘friendly’ international at Hampden Park in March 2004.
Ganea was playing alongside Kenny Miller and Colin Cameron at Wolverhampton Wanderers back then, but he left Molineux last summer after struggling to keep his place in the first team. Never far from controversy, Ganea described then Wolves manager Glenn Hoddle as the “most difficult coach I have ever worked with” after making only 17 league starts in two-and-a-half years.
Ganea left the Midlands and headed home, joining Dinamo Bucharest in the Romanian championship. He returned to form and scored all four goals in a 4-0 win over Universitatea Craiova last autumn. But after that match Craiova striker Michael Baird claimed he had been head-butted by Ganea in the tunnel.
The Romanian lasted only six months at Dinamo and in January he moved across the city to Rapid Bucharest. It already looks like a bad move. Ganea has only scored once for Rapid, who are lying a disappointing fourth in the league, while his old club Dinamo are closing in on the title and automatic entry to the group stages of the Champions League.
After 43 caps, the player’s international career also looks over. Ganea played at Euro 2000 but has not been capped since 2004. He was called up for the Euro 2008 qualifier against Bulgaria last year but played no part in the 2-2 draw. He later accused national coach Victor Piturca of “acting like a woman”.
THE SURGEON
US knee doctor repairs athletes’ broken dreams
THE shirt that John Kennedy wore during last Sunday’s title-clinching match at Rugby Park is to be posted out to the small town of Vail in Colorado this week, marked for the attention of Dr Richard Steadman at the Steadman-Hawkins Clinic, writes Scott Coull.
Steadman will likely hang the strip on the wall of his office (which already looks like a sports memorabilia shop) and Kennedy will find his name in the company of other athletes indebted to the doctor’s healing powers. Like Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, whose shirt hangs there with the words “Thank you for giving me back my dream,” inked on the front.
The most famous knee surgeon in the world has a list of patients that sounds like a Hall of Fame. Van Nistelrooy, Ronaldo, Alessandro del Piero, Alan Shearer, Lothar Matthaus, Michael Owen, and the not-so-illustrious Lee Wilkie have all visited Steadman. So, too, have English cricketers Michael Vaughan, Simon Jones and Ashley Giles, nine-times Wimbledon champion Martina Navratilova and American football legend Dan Marino. Steadman also claims to have operated on every American skier to have won an Olympic medal since 1978.
Steadman, a 68-year-old native of Texas, started concentrating on the treatment of knee disorders and first started working with the world’s sporting elite in the 1970s, when he was recruited by the US ski team.
In 1990, Steadman moved to Vail - a remote skier’s paradise with only 5,000 permanent inhabitants - and was joined in practice there by Dr Richard Hawkins, a specialist in shoulder disorders. “We do have a very good success rate, and with recognisable patients,” Steadman said earlier this year. “It’s not to say I’m a better surgeon, it’s to do with the system we’ve created here.”
Cracking article that.
I’ve been in a cracking mood all week and it’s all down to John Kennedy and Dr Richard Steadman along with Nakamura too of course.
Strachan was at West Brom v Barnsley today.
Maybe Koumas maybe Gera.
Strachan on Sky Sports News there and refusing to rule out the possibility of signing Joey Barton.
i’d love to see us signing Koumas. Exactly sort of player we need imo. What would he cost us around 3 million?
Strachan was saying he’s looking at strikers, midfielders and full backs and not centre halves. Makes sense I suppose. We’ve plenty of central midfielders just we’re picking them in the wrong order at the moment.
How old is Koumas now? Always liked him as a player but not sure what he’s like these days. I think we could do with a bit of pace in midfield (in the cenrte or on one of the wings) and he won’t offer that.
Koumas isn’t that old, only 26/27 I think. I don’t think he’s that good though.
Koumas is 27. Would take him for sure. Good all round midfield player who can pass and tackle.
Yeah I just mean he’s not that young anymore so he’s matured as much as a footballer as he’s ever going to do.
Not sure what role we’d give him in the team. I think we need to revert to a 4-4-2 unless we sign 2 quality wingers and bring Naka inside. Aiden and Riordan are ok wide in a 4-5-1/4-3-3 but they’d need competition. Naka disappears in that formation when he’s playing wide. We need a pacy midfielder either to play on one wing or to play through the middle and get forward to Jan. Koumas is not that.
We’re linked with Jason Roberts in the Daily Record tomorow. Actually like him as a player and think he’s not bad but at 29 he’s not the world class partner for Jan I was hoping for.
I’d settle for Koevermans, Appiah and Koumas.
I’d be appalled if someone like Jason Roberts came to Celtic.
Talk of Viduka returning. He’s out of contract in the summer.
McAllister signs from Dungannon. Also forgot where I read it last week but that young Hibs centre half who was due to join us at the end of the season changed his mind.
McAllister joins Celtic to ease cup heartbreak
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
By Adrian Rutherford
Teenager Mark McAllister will put his Irish Cup heartbreak behind him by signing for Scottish giants Glasgow Celtic this week.
The Dungannon Swifts star, who missed the decisive penalty in the team’s heartbreaking Irish Cup final defeat on Saturday, will complete a move to the SPL champions after they came in with a firm offer last night.
McAllister confirmed that he had spoken to Celtic on Sunday and was expecting the deal to go through later this week.
“I spoke to them on Sunday and am waiting to here back from them,” he said. " It’s an exciting time and it has come a bit unexpected because I haven’t been over for any trials at any of the big clubs. I’d heard a couple of rumours over the past week or so but nothing concrete happened until after the cup final.
“This has come at a good time because I was gutted after the match. It just shows how quickly things can change in football.”
Several Irish League players have already made a seamless transition to Scottish football with Ivan Sproule and Dean Shiels among the successful exports, and McAllister believes it will be a great move.
“I’m a Manchester United fan myself but everyone knows that Celtic are a massive club,” he added. “It’s a big progression in my career and it would be a great move for me. Harry (Fay) spoke to me over the weekend and he said Scotland would probably be a better move for me than England. We have seen a few players that have gone over to Scotland and they are all doing very well.”
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/local/article2522256.ece
Saw the link with this lad last week. Why are we signing lads like this? We have the likes of Sheridan coming through from the youth team but it’s strikers who are the finished article that we need.