Don't know much about him but if Reading want £6m for him then there's no way he's coming to Celtic. Would like to see another forward or two arrive with the funds being raised by the sale of Samaras and Murphy (if we're lucky!). Would be good to see Given arrive too. Unless we get ridiculous offers for Izzy or Kayal I think we're quite strong in defence and midfield, especially with the arrival of Wilson and Matthews. Definitely need another forward though.
The Sun said its £20m for long, I recon they'll be about on the button with that. Samaras can't be allowed to leave unless we get pumped out of the uefa right away. I know his goals return is awful but he had a lot of top drawer performances. I've had the Samaras arguement with more fans than went to saville so I don't expect anyone to agree but I'm right.
£20m is what his current manager said he's worth. No more than a flippant remark. Around £4m but I don't think he'll come to Celtic.
£4m they reckon he could be got for - and i reckon well worth it. The boy has real talent and could become a £10m player. He woudl be perfect foil for Hooper. Potentially we could get him in for what money we could sell Sammy and Murphy for. We'd still need one more striker though IMO, and i'd say one more centre half (Big Dan is 34 and Mulgrew for as good as he did isnt the long term answer) Cover for Izzy wouldnt go amiss unless the boy Matthews can play left back?
I watched this guy play in the playoff the other day and he looked like a handy player but not at the £3-4 million that's being touted. I think it's a mistake to be paying the big bucks for the overpriced English based players. Look what Rangers got for their dosh when they signed that Jelavic. There must be players of equal ability around Europe who would be willing to come here and not cost as much as Long will.
Personally I thought he looked a decent player. Plenty of movement, strong but never had many chances. Still a gamble to chuck what would be most of our transfer budget on a Championship player.
I thought Lenny said he doesn't have a budget as such, just a list of positions he wants filled and some names to fill them.
Maybe he doesn't have a budget yet. He's almost certainly got to clear out the likes of Ras, Hooiveld, O'Dea, Loovens, Sammy and Murphy with Hinkel leaving on a free. Hopefully that's a fair amount of transfer revenue of, say around £5million brought in plus who know's what saved on wages. Not that we need many new players in key positions. A keeper, first choice centre half and a quality striker in the mould of Jelavic; tall, strong and technically gifted. I doubt £5million would cover all that though.
Keeper has to be top priority for me (as it stands now your looking at Zaluska back in there, which would keep me up at night), followed by a decent cb.
I don't know what happened to Zaluska once he got to Celtic. He's never looked as comfortable in goal as he did when he was with Dundee United. As for the CB position, I've never seen Kelvin Wilson play so I can't really comment on him yet but I still would like to see Lenny get a good, solid experienced CB in to partner big Dan.
Welcome to the site btw, hopefully we'll get many more Hoops over here and build up the articles on our board. RE the Zaluszka thing, isn't it a bit like big Rab Douglas? Concentration perhaps because for large chunks of the game he's got bugger all to do as opposed to their old teams? P.S. The guy who owns this site is a Tim too.
Cheers for the welcome, Tina. I'm not really sure what it is with Zaluska. I was thinking that perhaps you were right about the ability to concentrate when he's not that busy but then I thought back to the Braga and Utrecht games where he was very busy but he atill looked really poor. In saying that so did the whole team in those two defeats. He's got me stumped that's for sure. Maybe we could make a cheeky wee bid to bring big Artur back! *if Given is a no go that is*
I agree and you are right ; sammi can be frustrating at times but he can also be a fantastic player ; i think he does need a greater challenge to his position...though I also think he would do well in a slightly more withdrawn role as opposed to being an out and out striker.
I think Zaluska suffers from Big Club Syndrome. Some players can make the move to big clubs and it works out for them. Others can't adjust. It's like Webster when he went to Rangers. Good SPL player for Hearts and Dundee Utd. Couldn't defend for toffee at Rangers. Maybe we need to look at Poland again as they seem to produce a never-ending line of decent goalies.
