celtic plc interim results - 20th Feb 2009

I agree, but when we have cash rich Eastern European Clubs coming in throwing silly money about, then established practices of paying nominal fees for players who have very little contract time left is blown out the water.
I'm sure we would have had a realistic valuation of the player and had a maximum price we were prepared to pay. My point is that the Russians paid over the odds, and we cant compete in that market.

 

Actually we can mate, we were prepared to pay in the region of 2.5 million for Steven Fletcher & REid/Lawell have said we had money available - we just didn't want to spend it on a guy with 4 months remaining on his contract & probably spent the whole time trying to get him to sign a pre-contract.

Huszti is easily worth well over 8 million in todays market, in todays market 2.3 million for this calibre of player IS nominal.

 

if the players worth that kind of cash then buy him instead of trying to * him on a free or another team will buy him,,simple really...

zenit willing to pay for the player showed how much they wanted him now and the fact they were 'nt willing to wait till the summer kinda shows the player how much they want him.....

Im sick of the constant comparisons with EPL wages and EPL transfer prices we dont compete in this market so thats where the comparisons end.....

reid says we can afford a scott brown type transfer so im expecting a 3--5 mil player in summer at least...we'll see when summer comes...

lawwell and co were telling us at the end of last year that funds would be available for january,,come january we dont spend much and certainly not what fans were led to be expected,,now comes the same people spinning yarns of why we could'nt spend money,,its a load of * and i cant believe how many of you have been duped.........

the willing of some people on this site to listen to any bull the club gives them is staggering.......

 

If We wanted Huszti and we had the money we should have bought him,its right now we need players to freshen up the team not the summer,Zenit showed the guy they rated him and that's where he went,celtic dithered and got * all,its a sad day when people find a balance sheet more exciting than the football were watching.

 

OK so if Huszti is worth over 8 million, why wouldnt we pay £2.3 million for him right now? Length of contract left doesnt come into it when theres that much money at stake, Sorry but that just doesnt add up.
Are you saying that the Chief Exec is not up to the job ?

 

The Russian & Ukrainian Leagues pay over the odds for players and offer players very good wages. e.g. Arshavin was on 90k+ a week at Zenith. Look at Danny, an average winger that went between Russian clubs for €30M. A guy with 1 international cap at best. If you think that the EPL is the only league willing to pay well over the odds to get players, then you are wrong.

 

still does'nt justify us failing to pay £2.3 mil on a player we were after,,absolutely pointless post that tries to detract from the reality that we were not willing to pay a transfer fee for the player.........

 

People are talking like Huszti was the saviour of Scottish Football!!

Fact is Celtic didnt believe that he would realistically improve the first team enough considering the cost involved.

As I asked earlier would you like if the board splashed money on players that they werent convinced (they have a scouting network to assess the player, whilst we have youtube) would improve the first team in line with the cost involved?

 

c'mon dempsey ,,celtic never got huszti because if they wanted him they had to pay a fee,,we've lost out in a talented player who would have improved the team..

fact is celtic did'nt want to pay to get him now,,even though they had cash to get players in january....hmm,, so they like us to think....

if celtic were'nt convinced in huszti's talent then why did the club pursue the player???? makes no sense for them to pursue a player who they dont think will improve the 1st team....

 

You didnt read what I said properly, ffs

Fact is Strachan was happy with his squad coming into the transfer window, he stated that publicly.

Now if you think that they are going to pay over the odds for a player they dont really need amidst a global recession and the fact that the SPL is in uncertain times itself regardless of a recession (e.g. Setanta's attempts to find a new investors) then you need your head checked big time.

Also, you interpreted reason has no basis in reality since John Reid, Peter Lawwell & Strachan gave their view on what happened during the window, we dont need a conspiracy theory on how the people that are doing the very best for the club (the financial results of the last 4 seasons proves this) but at the same time are looking to * over the fans and the club to get their bonus this season even if it means * up their bonuses for the next 5-10 years

Also have you looked at the results and the forecast for the rest of the season? Those profit margins are naturally going to erode as clubs make the most of their income during the first 6 months. Our results are good but there isnt any huge margins to get really excited about. But you think we should be splashing out big money on players that the manager, scouts and board arent 100% convinced about.

When you come back to reality, let me know!!

 

without investment in the squad we are going to struggle AGAIN in the cl if we qualify for it.

remember folks its the run in the uefa cup and qualifying for the cl that has enabled the board to wipe out the debts.

 

No, I like Lawell, but I feel he let this one slip by.

He felt that the best was to go for an 8 million player on a pre-contract & get him for nowt.

Zenit thought he was a replacement for Arashavin & paid the nominal fee (which we could afford).

That's his way of doing business, he would sanction the 2.5 million on Fletcher, but not on Huszti - pretty much based on the fact that there was the possiblity of getting one of them for free.

A missed opportunity, I'm sure you will agree - especially when Fletcher was also over priced as we didn't get him either!

 

We didnt need investment in January to win the treble this season though. What you are talking about is done in the SUMMER

The big signings should not happen in January

I dont see why people are moaning so much as I dont agree with spending money to give the appearance of improving the squad.

 

Zenith have how much in their coffers because of selling Arshavin? Remember that he was on 90k a week too and took a pay cut to join Arsenal.

I think you are overrating the player

 

If the board didn't think he was worth going for or he wouldn't improve the squad they wouldn't have been chasing him for that long! A blind man could see that. The reasons why we never actually signed him are speculation but i think probably the possibility of getting him on a bosman is the most likely cause of the delay, hence the board handled the situation poorly imo. It's not like them either.

 

How long were they actually chasing him for? How many meeting were there between Celtic & his club to negotiate a fee and how many meeting were there with the player??

Keeping tabs on players isnt "chasing them" or desperation to sign them

 

What position does Huszti play, is he a winger?

 

Obviously Zenit have more money than us, I'm not disputing that - but we can match 2.3million - we were prepared to spend that on Steven Fletcher.

My point is that I feel we let slip a potentially excellent player, who could improve our squad & provide cover for Naka (which we don't have).

The board were hypnotised by his remaining contract of 4 months & let it cloud their vision by focusing on a pre-contract arrangement, we could have had it done & dusted before Zenit even entered the fray - as they didn't sell Arashavin till late on.

We concentrated on the fletcher situation in terms of funds, I think the board were being naive to think they could get both players for 2.5 million, they ended out with nothing - when one player was sold for 2.3 million - just not to us!

 

I think you're right mate and if we had these two, the league would be in the bag with the CL money next season.