2013 Transfer Rumours

Rumours a fee has been agreed in respect of James McClean.

I was chatting to his former head teacher the other day.... And coincidentally Paddy's brother in law.

I don't believe the rumours.

 

Evening young lady

There's a chap on our board who has been doing reports on Dutch players.

Seems there are some bargains to be had over there.

I presume that the lure of the Champions League would be a bonus for any international players who would be looking for a new challenge

 

We are somewhere around and about phase 2 of a project to emulate Porto, Benfica and the like. Key to that is Gary Parker who was painting and decorating before he got the Celtic gig. Lennon trusts him as a judge of a player....then there is John Park, football development manager. Essentially a scout with responsibility for implementing changes in the underage structures. He isn't afraid to shop in any market for us. It seems to be the unfashionable clubs and clubs in countries with a less than stellar record o bringing players through.

As a club, we make some mistakes in the market but thus far we have had a decent number of hits. Well above the average I would have thought.

it is like our own version of moneyball. Right now really is massively important to all of this. You are gift, the Champions League is hugely important for us to attract players. We have to accept that we are a gateway club to the riches of the premier league. To show their ability in the CL is the best way to do that.

Right now we are going into a qualifying round having sold our best forward and midfielder and feels like we are gambling on getting the before spending. Very reminiscent of failed gambles of the past.

 

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/latest/celtic-deny-mcclean-and-atsu-bid-rumours-1-3018643

CELTIC last night moved to deny reports that they had made bids for Sunderland winger James McClean and Porto wide man Christian Atsu.

Yesterday afternoon, speculation was rife that the Parkhead club had had a £2.5 million offer accepted for Republic of Ireland internationalist McClean and had launched a £5m move for Atsu.

But a club spokesman issued a categorical “no” when the names of both players were put as possibles for the wildcard signing that Neil Lennon is allowed to bring in before Wednesday’s Champions League qualifier at home to Elfsborg as he seeks to bolster his squad following the loss of leading goalscorer Gary Hooper to 
Norwich in a £5.2m deal which went through on Friday.

And, after Celtic had been beaten 2-1 at home by Borussia Moenchengladbach in a friendly at Celtic Park, coach Garry Parker – stepping up to take the team with Lennon off watching Elfsborg drawing 1-1 at Åtvidaberg in the Allsvenskan – was tight-lipped over possible arrivals.

“I’ve no idea,” he said when the names of McClean and Atsu were put to him. “We’ve got options, I’m not going to say who they are, but there are people we like. I’d say we’d like to sign another two or three – but that’s down to the manager. We have our sights on a few players and we’ll see what happens.”

A crisp free-kick from striker Anthony Stokes puts him in pole position to perform the Hooper role in the absence of any new signings. The Irishman did not balk at the suggestion it could be his gig last night. “We’ve lost a great player and he was great lad around the club as well but at a club like this it

happens and we have to move and other people have to take the burden and score goals.

“I always try and score as many as possible but we are all going to have to dig in and over the last three or four years we have done that. We have plenty of players who can score goals, even from midfield like Kris Commons who gets you 15 to 20 goals a season.”

 

With Hooper though, it was slightly different wasn't it? With a world cup coming up, he wanted to stake a claim for an England place, so he has moved to the premier league. If it had been just about money he would surely have gone to qpr, NOT big bad Norwich, as 'Arry suggests.

It would seem there are some good bargains to be had, and playing to a big crowd and CL football could well be a lure for them and hopefully push you further into the CL.

Good luck for the season, not that I think you'll need it.

 

You are quite right, he could easily have gone for the money and his stated desire to play for England is amongst the things he cites as a reason for leaving.

That is ok, and all the best to him, but it is a big void for us to fill. By taking a gamble on trying to fill it when CL group stages are secure, then there is a risk we'll be stuck with a pile of cash and no decent players. With the Scotch coefficient being a complete disaster we are going to have to navigate the qualifying rounds for the forseeable future.

I think our support is smart enough to know what our model means in terms of signings and sales. But the timing of them is always going to cause us consternation.

I know England is a special case and in trying to be gracious towards us, his comments in respect of playing for England may damage the appeal to players wanting to come to us.... That won't be something that will apply to a large number of players though so it is probably a moot point.

Hooper is 5 or 6 times the player than the one that walked through the door. He'll always have scored goals, but he has developed a lot to his game.

We may not need your wishes of luck to do well domestically, but moreso than last year, we'll need it to get to the group stages.

Hooper certainly doesn't need luck. He is a quality player and I hope he can show all the good parts of his game to you on a regular basis.

 

A lot depends on who you get in the early stages.

As a side matter, what are your views on joining the EPL.

 

I'm open to exploring anything. I would rather improve/ revitalise the game in Scotland and to be a major player in that process.

I was, even up until very recently, optimistic that the game in Scotland could be cleansed of the corrupt clientism that has held sway for so long. That opportunity has now passed and we are where we were with painfully inept governance of the game. It offers no incentive for us to want to stay.

 

He posted YNWA on his twitter machine and the interweb went into meltdoon.

I would like this very much