romour now is mcnally said to celtic £4 million take it or leave it because we are not messing about anymore good on him http://www.norwich.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=325001
i also would suggest that the 'take it or leave it' offer, if true, will be a final, raised total offer of £5m, not £4m. they will match qpr's bid, otherwise it would be suicide. the club know the player wants to come here, celtic know the player wants to come here, qpr know the player wants to come here. time to stop pissing about playing games and get it sorted, get him fit and firing.
Can you still see the move going ahead, Superjamas? Clubs don't like to be held to ransom - although we're no further forward using conventional powers of persuasion / negotiation than we were in January!
Seems logical, although they can take a hike if they want Johnson, he's worth more than Hooper already!
It's all down to the players agent I expect, probably telling him to hold out for a better offer. All depends on Hooper but I expect he wouldn't want to take a step down to the Championship after playing for Celtic in the SPL.
there's no chance we'd give johnson to celtic! even with Fer coming in, he was one of our most improved players last season and will play a huge part this season
Doesn't mean they haven't tried it. Celtic want a deal in their interest, just as we do, and are no more inclined to be pushed around than we are.
true robbie. hopefully that means no deal i would have thought. they've also got kayal, the guy we were linked with in the winter.
Surely they are though, considering it's likely they will want to cash in on him before his contract is up (seeing as he said he won't be signing a new contract).
They probably do want to sell him given his statement of intent; but there is still the January window and the qualifying rounds of the CL to be played before then. They have signed Balde, but I would imagine they might well like to keep Hooper until January.
Meanwhile, Neil Lennon last night admitted Celtic will be nowhere near their best when they face Cliftonville in the Champions League qualifier on Wednesday. The Hoops travel to Belfast tomorrow on the back of four consecutive pre-season friendly defeats in Germany and boss Lennon said: “It’s so early, it’s a harsh reality of where we are. “We won the Cup Final at the end of May and are back in on June 24. It’s been staggered and a bit disjointed because we have had a lot of injuries as well. “These are the ups and downs you have to cope with during pre-season but I don’t think you’ll see us anywhere near our best for another two weeks or so.” http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-transfer-news/celtic-told-take-leave-it-2054416 They will probably keep him if they have loads of injuries and are on a losing streak!
Possibly Robbie. Could be a risky strategy for them though. I can see him leaving Celtic in this window personally, but I'm really not certain at this stage who he'll go to.
What's the greater risk? A lower price on Hooper in January, or an increased chance of missing out on the greater riches of the CL knockout stage? I agree that everything points to him leaving in this window. I was trying to debunk the idea that Celtic are between a rock and hard place over it. They are not.
Fair enough bor, I hadn't really thought of it like that. I can't say I'll be crying a river if we don't get him (although I do rate him). Hughton/McNally must have other irons in the fire in terms of strikers.
I still believe Hooper will be a City player shortly... several reasons:- 1. Hooper knows we are very keen to have him and will provide him with a platform to play regularly in the EPL - nobody else seems to be offering that 2. Whilst we negotiate hard, we arent a million miles apart on valuation & price 3. I think its very unlikely that we would have agreed the Holt deal with Wigan so early if Hughton & McNally werent convinced this (or something else) was 90% guaranteed, we would have held on for a while 4. Hooper is a good fit in the team Hughton appears to be building and in my opinion would score goals paired with the Wolf - in fact, I think the two of them would terrify a number of defences in the EPL 5. Hughton has provded to be very effective at getting his targets and persuading them to come to City, his purchases (to me anyway) have the appearance of being carefully thought through and pitched just right for each target... who really believed we would win the battle for Redmond & now Fer? we beat off serious competition for both players succesfully and I believe Hughton was key in this process. I'll probably be proved completely wrong here now, but I'd be very, very surprised if Hooper wasnt a city player come the start of the season.
@ Graham Paddon's Boots Agree with that 100%. Which increases the probablitiy that we will both be proved wrong!
According to the Daily Record today (far more reliable than the Daily Fail, IMO) QPR have not made a £5.5m bid, but have: "offered £4m for the striker but that bid includes significant financial add-ons for targets which include a successful return to the top flight from the Championship". There are some big ifs in those add-ons, and it would seem that City could close the gap with 'add-ons' of our own. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...per-Harry-Redknapp-targets-Richard-Dunne.html
