Yeah, was back on the hb just now and the rows are still raging. Some people have let themselves down with their posts. I watched all the interviews/press conferences online there and he spoke decently but I still hold my earlier opinion and I’m slightly disappointed that we’ve signed him. How he took so long to decide between Celtic and fooking Charlton is quite baffling to me also but good luck to him now.
Right, yesterday was as shambolic a performance I’ve seen from Celtic all season. Worse than in Copenhagen (which I recall drunkenly saying was worse than Artmedia even though it wasn’t) and there’s a lot of things to ponder.
I can’t believe I rang rocko after the game worried about whether the title was secure. I was highly agitated and annoyed and let’s just pretend the phone call didn’t take place. After the ineptitude Celtic showed how fooking surreal is it that they ended the day increasing their lead over their main ‘title rivals’?
The defending was absolutely disgraceful. We’ve been hearing now for about 6 weeks that Mick is playing from game to game with a recurring groin injury and is barely training in between times. He must only be playing because of the long term injuries to our other centre backs because he was shocking yesterday, really awful.
O’Dea hadn’t been tested before yesterday; Dunfermline offered nothing on his league debut and Dundee United were already sitting back defending a lead when he came on after Bobo broke his leg. Scott McDonald is one of the best strikers in the SPL and he gave the kid a bit of a lesson if the truth be told. He was caught out positionally a few times but the worry would be an apparent lack of pace. Now there’s no way I’m going to write off the kid after a handful of appearances and he should get a chance to get some game time alongside Pressley if Mick gets a few weeks to rest his groin. But at what big European clubs are there 19 year-olds playing centre back, marshalling the defence and leading from the back? I can’t really think of any to be honest.
Following on from that last point about O’Dea I think it’s imperative we sign an experienced, accomplished and eligible centre half for the rest of the Champions League campaign. Bobo is out, Strachan said last week that Caldwell is unlikely to be fit and Pressley can’t play either. McManus and O’Dea isn’t good enough for the top level and that’s plain to see. A young centre back making his way in the game is going to make mistakes and I think it would be better for ODea to make these mistakes elsewhere (out on loan) rather than in the Celtic first team. Obviously we need him here this season due to the lack of cover at the back but I would advocate a year on loan for the kid next season, similar to what the likes of Stokes is doing at Falkirk. Then he can come back a more assured defender, ready to challenge for a long term first team place at Celtic.
Shocking stuff from Telfer for the goal but overall he’s been competent this season and has been a decent stop-gap signing.
How fooking lucky are we to have Boruc? The double save straight after we scored was world class.
The centre of midfield is also causing a lot of worries. I have consistently defended Lennon over the last few years while many others said his time was up 2 years ago. Even this season I think he had a great spell after the first derby match, into the Benfica home game and for a period after that. But for the last 6 weeks or so he has been really poor and he’s not affecting the game in any positive way at all to be honest. He’s not getting close enough to the opposition to stop attacks, make interceptions or even put in tackles and on the ball he’s slow and laborious, taking the pace and impetus out of our own attacks. Tommy G is coming into form now and I was impressed with his all round game yesterday so it must say something about Lennon that despite his midfield partner playing well Motherwell were still breaking forward at will from midfield into the oceans of space between our centre backs and centre midfielders. Where the fook was Lennon? I can’t see Strachan dropping his captain mid-season so it’s likely that Lennon will play for the second half of the season. Then it will be time for a parting of company; a great servant but his time will be up. Who knows? Lennon has been a big game player throughout his time at Celtic and he might raise himself for one last final hurrah? We do need to find an imposing midfield player either in January or in the summer - that is without question.
Naka is really sublime to watch. We are really lucky to have him.
Riordan did excellently and it was good to see him get a game. I agreed with rocko’s point that it’s good to have a wide player who really gets into the box like Deek seeing as when Naka and Aiden play on the flanks neither of them generally do. He had 3 or 4 attempts on goal, worked hard and displayed good movement throughout and could definitely do a job for us up front. I know Strachan sees him as a left sided player and he played most of his football with Hibs as the left sided striker in a 4-3-3 but he also played up front with Garry O’Connor too in a 4-4-2. Getting back to my previous point I think he’d be excellent in a 4-3-3 for Celtic with a middle 3 of Lennon (until he’s replaced), Naka (fee role) and Gravesen and a front 3 of Riordan (left), Vinegar Hill (central) and McGeady (right).
The front 2 were abysmal yesterday. Kenny Miller was so bad I really felt sorry for him. The period from half time until he was subbed was embarrassing given how poor he was. Celtic getting through to the knock-out stages of the CL and his 3 goals in the process mean that he’s been a relative success but 2 goals in 20 leagues appearances is fooking awful for a Celtic striker. He looked totally bereft of confidence yesterday as did Magic, who continues to disappoint me this season. If we were guaranteed the fitness of Vinegar Hill and could get Stokes in then I would try to get a 1m fee in for Magic while he still has a resale value especially with The Beat coming back and the option of playing Riordan up there too. Another hat-trick for young Anthony yesterday and his 14 league goals are more than the combined Celtic strike force this season! He’s heavily linked with us today and I would take him. You can’t sell a player you have taken on a Bosman in the next transfer window so that saves Kenny this January! But in all seriousness I have admired and recognised his workrate, determination and all that but what use is a striker who simply can’t score? If we can get the likes of Stokes in and another class striker in the summer then I’d let Kenny go.
Things now stand as they did before yesterday’s shambles. We basically need 4 players: as mentioned above a centre back, a centre midfielder and a centre forward. Also a versatile full back who can play on either side would be useful cover for Wilson and Naylor. If we get 2 of these players in this transfer window (maybe even 1) then I’d be extremely confident of beating Milan. Now that we are in the knock-out stages we should go for it and show our ambitions in the transfer market.
We can win the Champions League. Happy New Year.
Good comments Bandage - a few replies if I may.
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I didn’t even bother to check the Huns score during the day yesterday because I was so pissed off with how we threw the game away. Hilarious to check the result at 7 or so yesterday evening and find out they’d drawn at home again. They are truly, truly awful - indeed it’s hard to appreciate just how bad a team they have at the moment. Hilarious.
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The defending was terrible and has been for a few weeks now. We got a roasing at Benfica but there were individual errors there and for the most part we were well organised. That has since fallen by the wayside - indeed Copenhagen away was an example of a shambles that has continued since then.
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Agree fully on O’Dea. Could be a prospect but he’s not ready for Champions League anyway. Good to see Cuthbert getting loan experience at Livingston (easily the higher rated of the two) and O’Dea should probably follow suit. Pace is a worry but need not be a huge problem if he gets enough experience to sort out his positioning against clever strikers.
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Bang on with Telfer. He was poor in Old Trafford too but overall he’s been ok.
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Boruc is nothing short of world class. Hard to think of a better 'keeper playing in England or Scotland - other than Given/Cech.
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Think we may have spoken about this yesterday. I noticed Gravesen putting in a few challenges yesterday, he got on the ball a bit, hit a post, and generally did fine (despite his critics on the HB). On the other hand Lennon didn’t see much of the ball, didn’t chase back and made two tackles in the game that I can recall, one of which he half pulled out of. There was so much room between our centre halves and our centre midfield and that is the space Lennon should be occupying. The beauty of Tymoschuck is he could replace either Lennon or McManus so I’d still be keen on going after him.
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I think it was Farmer who was enthralled from watching Naka against Copenhagen for that 15 minute cameo. He is a proper class act. Credit to Strachan for identifying him and persisting with him when he was a bit lighter last season. Reaping the benefits now.
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One of the reasons I was reluctant to support your 4-3-3 initially was because I felt we were superbly organised as a defensive system. That has gone out the window now so I’m more prepared to consider a formation like that you are suggesting. One concern I have is that there is no ready made replacement for Naka in that system - we don’t have a second central playmaker. I’d be looking at giving it a go though and I think we did play a variation on 4-3-3 for a spell yesterday in fairness to Strachan.
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I would make a huge effort to sign Stokes in this window. He’s the real deal I’ve no doubt of that at all.
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Agreed on that
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We’re in with a cracking shout.
As an aside I have 95% secured the rights to a Celtic-end ticket for the away game in Milan. Obviously I’ll try for more but I did some networking over Christmas and I think it’s about to pay off.
Did you do any follow up work on the 1/2 year season ticket? I saw it advertised on the official site the other day. I’ll ring up on Tuesday about it - seeing we have flights to Glasgow it’d be a shame if we couldn’t get match tickets.
I’ll go out on a limb here and say I’d take Fergushun. I actually think he’s a decent player and would complement Gravesen and he’s not cup-tied for Europe either! It’s fooking hilarious though and the rumours must be true about Paul Le Guen - he’s a hundercover agent sent by the Pope to infiltrate Rangers. They are in absolute crisis and turmoil and it’s superb to watch.
Correction - he’s played in the WAFFA Cup so is cup-tied. Fook it - I’d take him for the laugh anyway.
Possibly even funnier than PLG stripping him of the captaincy and transfer listing him is that Gavin Rae is their new club captain!!! :
That’s like Pearson skippering Celtic, Guiseppe Rossi captaining ManU or Stephen Warnock captaining the Pool. This is great stuff.
i would certainly take ferguson. has a good bit of creativity and is an all round good player. would not spend over 4 million for him though
FAO thepiedpiper - if you’re going to post on the board check that you’re not logged in as me first! Log me out of the computer in Fingal and log back in as yourself.
Sort of promising about chances of Maloney staying:
Maloney boost for Bhoys
By PETER JARDINE
Last updated at 10:18am on 2nd January 2007
Maloney has been linked with a lucrative, free-transfer switch to the Premiership following suggestions that he rejected a 16,000-a-week offer from the Hoops hierarchy.
But the new talks could yet result in Maloney - whose contract is now in its final six months - signing a three or four-year deal to stay in Glasgow.
His agent, John Halliwell, insists his client will not even enter negotiations with other potential employers, as he is now entitled to do. “We will be speaking again to Celtic over the next few days,” Halliwell told Sportsmail.
"I have not spoken to anybody else and, at the moment, we do not intend to.
“Shaun is getting close to full fitness again after injury and we will take things from there.”
Maloney won the SPFA Player of the Year award last May - and completed a rare double by netting the Young Player award, as well.
But double hernia surgery ruled him out of the start of the season and Maloney is still recovering from an ankle injury, albeit he should be fit within a fortnight.
As he turns 24 this month, Celtic would receive no compensation if he lets his current deal run down to its completion this summer.
[quote=therock67 ]
I had mentally noted the lack of capital letters and punctuation alright - that explains it. Celtic llinked to Stokes and Gow (not sure if these have been mentioned previously but couldn’t be arsed trawling back). Would love to see Stokes at Celtic rather than a Championship or sub-standard EPL side, although not if he’s going to play second fiddle to Vennegor.
I’d be delighted with Stokes - and would pay a bit for him. At the moment our priorities are elsewhere though. Strachan is quoted in one of the papers today as saying we won’t be spending money on a forward in this transfer window (quotes below). Doesn’t rule out a short-term signing which could be Stokes on loan I suppose.
Gow is a classy sort of player but I don’t think he’d be able to look as silky at a higher level. Good player and a nice sort of player but I’d be surprised if he made it at the top level - unlike Stokes. If Stokes did come I think he’d play alongside Vennegoor, not sitting on the bench.
But the Celtic boss says his targets for the transfer window would be long-term investments as he relies on his current batch of strikers returning to form and fitness.
“We need players playing and we need to get these players scoring goals, that is the priority at the moment,” said Strachan.
“It has not been fully functioning from the start of the season but we have to get on with it and the strikers who are not scoring must get on with it as well.”
But Strachan has not ruled out bringing in some experience to liven up his goal threat.
“There might be a short-term thing like Dion Dublin coming last year,” he added.
i’d be very disappointed if we didn’t put in a bid for stokes. he looks a class above any of the strikers we have with the execption of jvoh. from what strachan said though it doesn’t look as though we will be going in for him. if we try to get him on loan i think its imperative that we have option to sign him in the sumer (similar to what happened with boruc)
Vague link with Dickson Choto, Zimbabwean international central defender from Legia Warsaw. He’s 25 but that’s all I found out about him.
Hey Bandage what did Celtic say when you rang them about the tickets? Might be worth checking whether they anticipate a sale to Celtic One members who bought tickets for the 3 group matches because the wording on the official site is not clear and not definitive.
Ticket office wasn’t open Monday or today and couldn’t get through yesterday. Will try again tomorrow. Do you have the number that you actually got through on last time? I was using the website number.
Seeing as it’s so hard to get through what do you suggest I do if they tell me Celtic One Club members are unlikely to get a chance to buy tickets? Shall I then try t immediately buy 1/2 yr season books? Probably best course of action is to get them asap imo afaik atm pin b&q suv hiv.
wtf???
Anyway - see what the cost of the books are, I wouldn’t go rushing into buying three of them unless they’re a right bargain. Try and suss out the scal. Game this week is Dumbarton at home so it shouldn’t be too busy. The lucky number I rang was one from the official site - it had 1888 in it is all I remember. It’s on the “tickets” section of the website.
Must be like chasing confirms for you.
Linked with Will Hoskins today
15 goals in 21 games this season.
There is a review of him [url=http://football.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,1946972,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=5]here - can’t read it in work so if anyone can copy and paste I’d appreciate it.
http://www.theherald.co.uk/sport/78019-print.shtml
Strachan target will not be cheap
MARTIN McMILLAN January 04 2007
Celtic have been told that it will take more than 600,000 to bring Will Hoskins, the 20-year-old striker, to Scotland.
The Rotherham frontman is out of contract at the end of the season and has refused a new deal at Millmoor, alerting the attention of the Parkhead side and several English clubs. Gordon Strachan has had the player scouted but Sheffield United, Watford, Nottingham Forest, Reading, Everton, Hull City, and Ipswich Town and all also keen on him.
Denis Coleman, the Rotherham chairman, has revealed the club have already received three bids for their player, but will hold out until someone meets their valuation. “We’ve had two official bids for Will, both in excess of 500,000,” said Coleman. “Both have been turned down and we’ve just got a third offer in.”
Any potential move could be funded by offloading fringe players from the club over the coming days. Alan Thompson has been mooted as the first potential departure, but his agent is waiting for Celtic to confirm their plans for the player before he acts.
Meanwhile, amid a plague of injuries, Strachan has had some relief with the return of Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink. The Dutch striker appeared from the bench in the win over Kilmarnock on Tuesday to make his first appearance in nine games since recovering from a hamstring injury.
With Bobo Balde, Mark Wilson, Gary Caldwell and Shaun Maloney all absent, the return of the former PSV Eindhoven player adds a new dimension to a side who have toiled a little in recent weeks.
“He’s big, not physically big but as a presence and players like playing with him,” said Strachan of the Dutchman. "Jan makes a difference, that’s for sure, but unfortunately, due to circumstances, we haven’t had him recently.
“It’s fair play to everybody else for getting on with it. We’ve had a few big players missing but they have handled it somehow, not beautifully at times, but we’ve managed it.”
Looks like Copil has gone to Hearts - to be honest if that’s the extent of his ambitions we are better off without him no matter what his age. I’ve no problem with players joining lesser sides to get games and experience or whatever but this decision looks motivated by money. That has got to be the major factor in a youngster leaving Romania to join a crisis-ridden club like Hearts.
Hearts boss celebrates Copil deal
04/01/2007 - 13:20:32
Hearts head coach Valdas Ivanauskas today claimed to have beaten Celtic to the signing of Romanian teenager Dumitru Copil.
Copil, 16, will move from Atletico Arad to Tynecastle on a two-year contract.
Ivanauskas is confident the playmaker will adapt to football in Scotland and predicted he would be a good signing for us.
Celtic had given Copil the chance to impress on a trial basis, and he had looked set to clinch a move to Parkhead.
Hearts reportedly upped their offer to the player, and Ivanauskas told the Edinburgh Evening News: I think that this is a very good deal for us. He is just a young player but has very good prospects.
Although he is a young boy a lot of other clubs were also interested in him and so we are very happy that he is coming to Hearts.
We have wanted him for some time so we are very pleased, he will be a good signing for us.
Copil has been dubbed the new Gheorghe Hagi but Ivanauskas is reluctant to draw comparisons with the former Real Madrid and Barcelona player, who won 125 caps for Romania.
The Hearts boss added: I know that some people have compared him to Hagi and we will have to wait and see how he develops but he definitely has quality.
As requested rocko, think I’d prefer Stokes if we’re looking to pay 750k/1m for a striker.
Will Hoskins, Rotherham United
Steve Claridge
Tuesday November 14, 2006
The Guardian
It appears the wait for Will Hoskins to fulfil his undoubted talent is finally over. Having watched him in last month’s win at Bournemouth and again at Peterborough on Saturday, I was amazed to find out that he was 20 and made his debut in November 2003. Two goals on Boxing Day that year, in only his second appearance at Championship level against a strong Wigan Athletic side, had suggested this was a player set to take the game by storm. But the predicted meteoric rise stalled.
Now, at last, he has been afforded the environment in which to thrive. Rarely picked by Rotherham’s two previous managers - on the evidence I’ve seen, not for reasons of ability - he has struck an affinity with the current incumbent, Alan Knill, and signed a new contract in the summer when he could have left. He clearly relishes life with his manager’s support and there have been 11 goals this season.
It is good to see youngsters more than once to judge how they handle themselves in different conditions. He scored a super goal in Rotherham’s victory against Bournemouth in a smart team performance, showing that if you give him the service, he won’t let you down. The game at Peterborough was a very different affair. The team were poor but, in a sea of mediocrity, you still couldn’t help but be impressed by how Hoskins played.
He has a great first touch and is intelligent to the point that he trusts his colleagues to give him a ball that lets him know where his marker is. He was outstanding on the edge of the box when the ball was played in to him, slipping away from the defender in one movement and rattling off shots at a rate rarely seen. He played as high up the pitch and as far from play as possible, only joining in when his strike partner flicked the ball on or teammates were able to pick him out on the diagonal or in the channel. Indeed, the timing of his runs was exceptional and he was rarely caught offside.
At 5ft 9in, Hoskins is still decent in the air but was excellent in positioning himself for crosses. He also has decent pace but, if there is a criticism, I’d like to see him be more selfish in some areas and less so in others. At times he faced players up but didn’t fully commit them, meaning that, when he did release the ball, either his team-mate was denied as much time in possession as he should have had, or that when Hoskins received the ball back there was more pressure on him than there should have been. He needs to offer himself more when people are in possession in tight areas, providing an option off the ball, and make more unselfish runs that open up space for team-mates.
Yet he remains a player that you want to see on the ball as much as possible, and he appears to have the temperament to match the talent. At London Road, even when things were not going his way, he still retained control. At one point I thought he was going to make a rash tackle after being dispossessed, but he hunted the ball down, just as he did with great enthusiasm whenever it was near him. Where have you been, Will Hoskins?
How he rates
Age 20
Born Nottingham
Position Forward
Height 5ft 9in
Weight 11st 1lb
From Trainee
Awareness 8
Bravery 8
Heading 8
Control 9
Value 750,000
Team responsibility 7