Celtic Transfers 2024

Michel-Ange Balikwisha looks good on paper linked in Belgium to us. Can play either side on wings. Surely we couldn't be as competent as that and target a decent calibre of player

 

8 champions league games with Scales and Taylor is absolutely terrifying.

For the record I believe Taylor to be more than adequate for SPL and will be a very good back who would still play a few games.

With Scales I think everyone expected him to be worse than be was so people got carried away with it. Teams actively targeted him and in the champions league we can't have it.

 

Business picking up as they say now


Winger and now a GK


Centre back next

 

Fingers crossed

 

If there is any truth in the Dara O’Shea stuff then I would expect something to happen soon. Burnley have a new manager now and we are due to play them in a behind closed door game.

 

Hopefully get the deals done for the weekend

Seems to be that old no news is good news now

 

Welsh, Lagerbeilke and Kobayshi out for £4m- O'Shea and McKenna in for £8m
Johnston, Haksabanovic and Yang out for £5m- Balikwisha in for £8m
Hart and Siegrist out for * all- Schmeichel and Sinisalo in for £3m
Oh and Vata out for £4.5m- Idah and Rojas in for £7m

That is the sort of business we should be looking at doing. 10 out, 7 in.

 

I think people are living in a dream world with a lot of these transfers.

We are very unlikely to spend more than £6 million on one player unless we know they are worth it and they have that re-sell value (e.g. Edouard).

We're not likely to spend more than £25million in a window either and honestly why would the board want to?
Outside of us and Rangers, you'll be lucky if the rest of the league spend £2/3 million between them, why would they spend £50million to win the league and make no major progress in Europe, when they can spend somewhere between 15/25 million and achieve the same? And Rangers being financially * doesn't help us either, as we only need to match them.

I think going forward, we need to improve significantly on recruitment but focus on a few key areas:

• Scottish/Irish/English lower league talent, signing the likes of Lennon Miller, Dave Watson, etc. whilst we can for a few million and loan them back if we need to
• Targeting players in the final year of their contracts
• Signing free agents, I think Schmeichel will be a great deal for a season or two and there are plenty more
• Finding players who are talented but out of favour, e.g. Van De Beek joining Girona for £500k, there will be others especially in the premier league that we could sign for £3/4 million I'd imagine

Ideally, I'd rather we increased our wage budget to attract players at a higher level and improved in those areas of recruitment

 

Good to finally get GK sorted, and it sounds like Bernardo will follow shortly.

Ideally get Idah and Michel-Ange tied up and that's another two positions down. Finish off the month with a LB to challenge Taylor and we'll be looking really good.

Don't think we'll see a CB until mid August, currently have 6 on the books so need to clear out at least 3 first.

 

Let's start getting these signings confirmed.

 

Biscuit tin lid blown right off.

 

That’s it believe * all until it’s done ,Eddie Howe CSC

 

No one has signed yet.

 

Unless both deals somehow fall through, I'd say it's looking good at GK

 

I can understand your scepticism given what’s been served up in terms of strategy over the last 4 windows. The second year under Ange and the first year under Rodgers were exceptionally poor. I think we need to believe that’s going to change, especially now that Rodgers seems to have a far bigger say/influence on what we bring in this time around.

That being said, we spent an absolute fortune under Ange in the first and second years. We spent £23m in the two transfer windows last season. Granted, they’ve usually always been offset by a large sales of Edouard, Ajer, JJ, Abada and Jota but we spent the money.

In the first year under Ange, we spent over £35m. Jota and CCV were £13m, Kyogo and Starfelt were £10m. Then you have Abada, GG, JJ, Hatate, Maeda, Ideguchi, O’Riley and Hart, who were about £13m. They were offset by the sales of Eddy, Ajer and Christie, who we sold for £30m plus, rising to over £35m.

I think the major difference we have here is a manager, known globally to be a very good coach, automatically demands that level of respect within the boardroom. If he’s not getting backed, he can walk away. I think the fact our recruitment team were let go is a big factor in that. It shows Rodgers has far more control.

On the issue of why the club would spend the money. We all want to see a bit of progression in Europe. I think we performed really well in the champions league this season, the Madrid game away aside. If Rodgers can get us playing like that with Liam Scales, Greg Taylor and Lagerbielke, what can he do with a team of players he wants to sign?

We shouldn’t be looking at anyone else in the league and trying to be better than them. We should be looking to improve ourselves and that will naturally integrate into domestic success. Bayern Munich/PSG regularly blow the rest of their league out of the window when it comes to fees and wages. They’re looking to something bigger than just being better than the next best team domestically.

Donny Van Den Beek is being paid about £80,000 a week by Girona. There’s a reason why he was £500k, Man Utd wanted to get his £200,000 a week salary off their books and Girona were the only club willing to give him a decent deal. That was because his transfer fee was so low. That deal is weird as * too. It could rise to £20m, if they make the Champions League continually during his contract.

 

I can't disagree to much with what you've said and I want us to go out and spend and compete with CL clubs. If we aim to compete in Europe, then the league will take care of itself. But based on our history and this board, I can't see that happening as much as I'd love it to happen.

I still don't think we've spent more than £25mil in one window? Maybe we have, but it won't be by much. But we don't need to spend that to win the league. I hope we back Rodgers though and push on in Europe.

The VDB deal does look weird when you read more into it, but there are good players in that position where we should look to take advantage. For example, if we sign the Villa keeper, I think that's a good start to targeting those markets and a shock we might have a progression plan for the keeper position!

 

Both deals fail?

One has only been reported in the rags.

Don't count your chickens.

 

Eh? Both Schmeichel and Sinisalo have been reported in the rags.

If neither are announced by the end of the week I'd be worried, but I think we're finally starting to see some business get done.