ANNOUNCE PATRICK ROBERTS

Ano loving all these pictures from last night, it looks magic under the floodlights.

 

Its Paul the Tim to you pal!

 

I'd be surprised if it hasn't already ... hysteria wise it's beat it by quite some distance

 

I think this one will go all the way to deadline day now. Should have my new F5 key installed by then.

 

Could today be the day he comes home? Armstrong deal announced and this???

 

Probably. City playing hardball?? We're 99.9% certain to be in CL and he's not going to play for city at the weekend instead he could have been back and ready to play Kilmarnock etc

 

Pretty much sums up this whole thread, we really have no idea what's going on Personally, I think it will be after the second leg before this is done. Wouldn't surprise me if we qualify next Tuesday and then this is announced on Thursday or Friday with him being unveiled before the St Johnstone game on the Saturday. The earlier this deal is done, the more time there is for pressure to mount on the board for the next signing, they'll be well aware of that.

 

Exactly mate. We are in a strong position to strengthen now. None of this dragging it out till last day so looks like we had no time to get anyone else in. Roberts hopefully will be done asap and others brought in

 

The board have no excuses not to give brendan what he wants in terms of player recruitment, but they will find excuses! Whilst I would like to see paddy, a CB and LB signed for a good outlay which we can realsitically do turnover could be £150m over 2 seasons with group expenditure £120m over same period we should be spending £15m nett in this window IMO

What sticks in my mind is any time we have made the group stages we havent really improved the squad, now granted on 2 of those occasions we had 3-4 days before the deadline but last year we had a full week after we beat Hapoel Be'er Sheava and we signed Gamboa a guy who couldnt get a game for westbrom, we have only ever spent £2.3m max after qualifying and that for me shows where this celtic boards ambition ends its to merely qualify and fill the coffers, as long as we run at a profit they get a bonus and the realist in me thinks this window will be no different, will be at a max a loan for roberts and another £1m man.

£40m in and £1m out strengthening the celtic way.....

2012 - Ambrose, Miku and Lassad; only fee paid was Ambrose £800k
2013 - Pukki - £2.3m despite media claiming £3m plus
2016 - Gamboa - £1m

Saying all that we still have a 2nd leg to get out the way before we can count the Euros!!!

 

100%. A guaranteed £38m plus a further £9m or so from a potential Van Dijk move coming in over the next two weeks. There's absolutely no excuse for not spending £10-15m on the three quality additions we need. If we can bring in Paddy, a centre back and a striker (I'd like a back up left back too); we'll have an extremely strong squad.

 

The board always seem to come out and say we tried, we didn't have enough time after the qualifiers finished and the window shutting, yet we are constantly being told of players who are lined up should we qualify

 

Even without the VVD money if he moves (which i think he will) you should be looking at least signing 3 permenant players, plus shift Ciftci and Henderson out the door even on loans, you then have a good core squad where the bench is just as good as the first team! Allowing for the injuries i though our bench looked a bit on the weak side the other night but if everyone fit, Benyu, Ralston and Miller arent on the bench really. But you still need your 3 under 21 or under 23 i cant remeber correctly for the SPFL premiership match day squad but Paddy, KT and Ntcham take up those 3 positions straight away, could be a squad of MON proportions obviously not with the exactly same quality but you get what i am trying to say!

 

Aye thats my issue.

 

Aye that is frustrating you can write the quotes for them

We tried couldn't get it over the line
Too many agents involved
Ran out of time
Player move was dependant on selling club signing other players
Fax machine broke
Internet connection was slow had to switch it on and off again at 10:59pm
Jim Farry is involved
Paul the Tim is oan backshift

Heard it all before time and time again!

 

And then it goes to identifying players to be brought in during January to be ready for CL qualifiers and that doesn't happen either because no one wants to move in January.

Imo we need
CB
LB in case Tierney gets injured
RW e.g. Roberts
ST

 

I'm willing to put my car and house on it that we don't even spend half of what you've said in your post, the board can be tight arseholes at times

 

Totally agree with you, I just mean that the VVD money adds to the argument that we have serious money to spend. Effectively we could spend £9m received from Van Dijk then only £6m of the £38m CL fund and that would cover three big signings up to £15m while Lawell gets his satisfaction in banking £32m.

There's no excuse not to spend and improve.

 

I know who I'd listen to anyway mate.