Gary Hooper Update

I sincerely hope he stays put.

If he goes to Southampton for the money being talked about, considering how overpriced everything is in England, it will be a steal.

The last time Hooper played in England, he outscored £35m Andy Carroll (who played for the team who ran away with the 4th best league in the world(sic)) while playing for Scunny.

Southampton will probably be in the premiership next year - I hope they are, Adkins seems to have them playing nice stuff but we'll be in the Champions League next year.

Any non-insular Englishman knows that the CL is the bigger stage

 

^YES CL is a bigger stage, Europa league is a bigger stage too. The 'fourth' ranking is on average attendances over the season of all the leagues. Serie A etc have pretty low attandances where EPL and Championship have large attendances at quite a few clubs even in L1. The SPL would have higher than Championship if half the teams were as well attended as Ibrox and Parkhead which have incredible stats.

 

"he won't be coming here for anything other than Adkins"? ...I would find the prospect of playing in the prem with an upwardly mobile club far more attractive than the SPL ...as surely Celtic and Rangers' owners would afirm

 

I think most people my age or older recognise the romance and history of Celtic. They are one of THE global brands and that holds a lot of sway. Add to that Europe which we are realistically some years away from and we will have to work very hard to pull a star player form one of the old firm. A reserve or out of favour player maybe but not a star player. Start at 10x bigger than us and work up from there.

Maybe in 20 years we can hope to have achieved things and become that sort of size and attraction. I don't think the 'playing against poor teams' comes into the equation. Its the 'playing for' that is attraction, not the 'playing against'. You don't move to Liverpool drooling over the prospect ofplaying Stoke, Wigan (or Saints)!!!! You move there because they are Liverpool. a big famous globally known and supported club. Same with Celtic

That is why I say the only reason he would come (if we bid high enough) is because of the Adkins linkup.

 

Celtic = tinpot club in a tinpot league.

Hooper should jump ship asap if he ever wants to play real competitive football.

 

Joe Ledley didn't. Mikael Lustig didn't. Paddy McCourt didn't. And maybe Gary Hooper wont either.

Maybe if you learnt a little bit of humility and realised that not everyone thinks the EPL is the centre of the footballing universe as Sky would have us believe then people wouldn't think of you as arrogant.

 

I have to admit saTan that's got me beat too. It's lovely down here.

I can fully understand the Celtic fans annoyance but why would we put in another bid if we didn't think there was a chance of this happening? There must be some sort of dialogue going on with the Celtic board and it seems to be along the lines of "come back with a better offer".

 

ridiculous statement. Tinpot club with 60,000 fans each week?

 

Why? Because we declined your first two offers? Are you really that arrogant that you just can't face the fact he's not for sale or that he simply doesn't want to leave?

 

What the ****?

Bidding for a player is arrogant now, is it?

 

When we've played in two European Cup Finals we can dis them. Until then respect. Ask a foreigner to name Briish teams and Celtis would be in the list. Behave

 

No, being dumbfounded at the thought that a player wont leave Scotland to join an English club is arrogant.

Did you actually read what your fellow fan wrote?

 

Hopper

If he moves, it'll be for three reasons I can see

1 - More money - the lure of the Abu Dhabi Corporate Debt League lures plenty of players away.

2 - England call-up - If Hooper wants to play for England, he could win the European Cup with Celtic and still not get a look-in.

3 - Adkins - He's played for him before and he seems like a manager who gets his players respect - I'd be tempted to say that Neil Lennon exudes more of this than any other manager, though.


The "upwardly mobile" bit is good - the chances of going up and coming straight back down are pretty high, statistically but teams like Norwich have shown that a bit of tactical nous and some decent players will keep you up - usually aligned to either home form (Swansea) or away specialists (WBA some seasons).



I'm writing nothing off - Hooper's a young man and who would deny him the chance to bank some cash while he's young as well as the chance to play in his home nation in the most highly thought-of league in the world. If he wants passion, history and something to tell the grandkids about, he'll stay at Paradise.


One other thing that no-one's mentioned that Southampton have over Celtic - he won't be a target for SPL hatchetmen and would be able to leave his house without fear of being attacked by rabid idiots.

It's a lot of grief playing in Glasgow -but, if you want hero status and the chance of cups and playing in Europe, Paradise is the place.

 

No, hopefully not arrogant but just wonder why we would keep coming back with bigger offers if we were getting a straight "don't bother" from your board. I don't want to cause a stramash here.

 

You've had two bids - both rejected. After the 2nd bid, Lennon, when asked about it in a press conference, said that Hooper was not for sale and JOKINGLY made a comment about him being worth £35m.

Until there's a third and improved bid there's no reason to believe that there is any continuing dialogue or that the Celtic Board is in some way encouraging Southampton.

 

I wholeheartedly agree.

 

The only bloody reason they get into the champions league is because they play in a boring league with no competition.

Which they also struggle to qualify for as well they wouldnt even be in the top 3 in the championship and they get crowds of 60,000 because fans have nobody else to support.

 

Fair play to this

It's easy for us to get bitter when a lot of English fans write our game off without watching it and we lose out when bidding for players when they get more money in the Championship to play in front of 15 - 20,000 every week (not you guys and West Ham - the majority of the rest of the league).

I really hope he stays - his link up play on Saturday after being out for a while was outstanding - if he goes, you guys have a belter on your hands.

 

Heard it from a reliable source? If you're relying on making stuff up to try to prove your point then you need to try harder.

 

I take it all back their fans seem like a good bunch from what they have posted on here.