Tony Watt

Good little video that

Lierse seem a real friendly bunch. Chuffed for Tony, hope he does well.

 

I hope he comes back and becomes a success at Celtic.
A real live Scottish striker playing for the hoops.
I like the idea of giving our young players European experience.
He has all the tools and if he can concentrate his mind to the task he can make it.

 

Great finish.

I'll wait to see how successful his loan spell is but I think all of our young fringe players should be loaned out to continental European sides. You can see from that short clip just how much better the standard of football (& pitches) is in Belgium. I think it's already been suggested but why don't we develop a link with Lierse where both parties benefit from loan moves and sharing knowledge.

I'd rather Irvine was at Lierse than Kilmarnock (I heard one of their fans on the radio the other day there complaining because they're helping to develop Celtic's youth players, so * them).

 

He took his goal well

 

Nice finish. Sportscene just showed a headline there in which the Lierse manager is criticising him for being overweight and lazy, apparently.

Watt seemed like he got on fine with the coach over there in his post-match interview, and he scored. So not sure how accurate it'll be. Or why they're focusing on that.

 

yea just saw that there. Strange one. Maybe his attitude in training as I've heard similar rumours about his attitude in training at Celtic but not sure if there is any truth in it

 

I was just thinking how good the No. 14 for Lierse looked in that short clip. Lovely touch, and did brilliantly to set up the goal. Turns out it is ex Feyenoord & Spurs midfielder, Hossam Ghaly.

Looked in decent shape to me, and I'd never call him a lazy player. He might be different in training, but he always does plenty of running during games.

 

What an atmosphere!

Would really like to go over and watch a Liesre game or two.

Hopefully we can form a longer term partnership with them because it seems like a great club.

 

This is one of the reasons I liked Watt. He never stopped running and was constantly pestering defenders. But in the friendly against Liverpool, you could see he wasn't capable of doing it that day. He was blowing out his * from near enough the first whistle.

The Lierse manager is in the best position out of anyone to judge whether he is fit or not, so it's hard not believe what he has said.

 

Just saw his goal. Lovely finish and no doubt he's becoming a fans favourite. Glad for him.

 

Because he was already scoring goals when he was playing for us, wasn't he? He's not some 17 year old who needs toughening up or 1st team experience.

Yet the manager chose to go out and sign Balde and Pukki and send Watt away on loan.

I don't see the point in that. Any benefit he gets from playing in Belgium could easily have been replicated by giving him a chance in the SPL. Surely he'd earned that opportunity?

Put simply, if a player does the kind of business that Watt did when he got gametime for us last season yet isn't deemed good enough to be kept at the club as a backup at least, then chances are the manager doesn't like the look of him.

Watt will be sitting watching us playing in the Champions League against the top teams in Europe, failing to score against the likes of Milan and will probably be thinking "bet you wish you had me on the bench tonight, eh?"

 

I agree Daibhi. I said the exact same. There has to be something up in my opinion, because as you said, he has already shown that he can do the business in the SPL. The fact that he struggled to get much game time last year after Barcelona had alarm bells ringing for me personally.

I definitely think something has gone on, because it certainly isn't a lack of ability that stopped him getting in the first team more often last campaign.

 

You don't think Tony Watt needs experience? That is exactly what he needs, he needs a full season of games under his belt. At 19 years old, bursting through into the first team at Celtic but not quite being the full article yet he was never going to get that. By sending him on loan, letting him experience another culture of football, in a league that has been * successful bringing youngsters through in recent seasons that is exactly what he'd get.

He was involved in our games before he left this season, he has been given a fantastic oppurtunity by Neil by bringing him through at such a young age. He showed enough confidence in him to play him on the greatest stage of all.

And you think he doesn't rate him? This is nothing but to aid his development, give him a full season of football under his belt in a better league. That is something he wouldn't have got off of us at this stage in his career.

 

Exactly.

Any experience he needed could easily have been garnered by playing him in the relatively pressure-free SPL.

There's a reason why one of our top young forwards has been shipped off in a summer where we were short on strikers.

 

We aren't short on strikers though.

Fans have been complaining that we don't use the loan system properly. I think in this case we finally have. We should have done the same with McGeouch.

 

We were before we bought Balde and Pukki though, weren't we? Why did we spend £1.5 million on Balde when that money could have been added to the £3 million spent on Pukki for a striker of higher quality? If Watt had remained at the club we wouldn't have needed Balde, would we?

Watt has already shown that he can score goals at Celtic. Why dismiss him and bring in a guy like Balde who is an unknown quantity?

You think in this case we have? By loaning out a player who I'd have put my money on finishing in the top two highest scorers in the SPL this season had he been given regular starts?

 

you obviously don't know what goes on in his personal life. Apparently he was getting too big for his boots in Glasgow and if sent to an spl team he would still be able to stay at his new house he bought n allegedly * wee birds far his area.

the Belgian teams manager obviously sees a wee bit of what Lennon must of been seeing and has called him with out. As people have said, he might be becoming a fan favorite just like at Celtic due to his barca goal. There for making his ego bigger again but hopefully the manager sorts him out n puts a foot up his * n start acting professional.

I personally think this is the best thing for Tony watt. Stan petrov was saying he would recomend any young player to go out on loan to a team that will play you and build confidence. U need to remember , Tony watt was just a young boy playing for airdrie and got signed by Celtic, earned a nice wee contract from his potential and his performances. But as I said, apparently his ego got quite big n was slackin behind closed doors. Obviously the timings not perfect but we don't know what goes on behind those doors for the most part.

hopefully this loan works out for him, maturing him a bit n that.

 

Difficult to argue with this logic. Instead of signing two good strikers for 4.5 million, we could have signed one *-hot striker for the same money and kept Watt. Would've made sense to me.
I guess the thinking was that Watt needs games to get better, and he wouldn't have done that playing the last twenty minutes of league games or starting league cup games at Celtic. I can see the sense of him hopefully playing a full season at another team and coming back stronger - just hope it happens.
I worry for Dylan McGeouch though. He's not going to get in this team, and without first team experience he won't develop.

 

When Lennon brought him in, and played him in the side, and in the Champions League, that was also when there wasn't question marks over his social lifestyle.

You have to admit Dev, that it was a bit strange the fact he barely kicked a ball after Barca.

I might be jumping the gun, but my honest opinion is that as long as Neil Lennon is Celtic manager, we have seen the last of Tony Watt in a Celtic jersey. Hopefully I'm way off the mark with that, but that's honesty how I feel about it.