Celtic Transfers 2024

It’s good that the recruitment “team” were punted, but they’re only part of the problem surely?

I’m sure over the years we’ve identified plenty of good players (Castagne comes to mind in Rodgers’ first spell) but the money men have prevented it from happening.

Even the other day Rodgers’ was talking about our structure when talking about MOR. We can change the scouting team, give the reigns to the manager etc. But if the club aren’t willing to spend more money then it’s the same old same old.

The whole Bernardo and Idah saga isn’t a great start. Two players we want and who want to come back. Weeks of it’s done/it isn’t done for Bernardo for a few million quid. And now it seems the Idah deal is further away from happening than it was 3 or 4 weeks ago.

Hopefully it’s a good August. But the club doesn’t really deserve the faith some have, if I’m honest. Need to see action soon instead of the usual platitudes from Rodgers about “I expect us to be better come the end of August”.

 

Sounds like the lead up to and during the January window for me.

Sceptical of this, as we had Kennedy say a few weeks, then Rodgers saying before America, sure we sorted keeper out, but think most expected more by then and it looks every bit like he last January window, worse so than the summer window.

He's shifting his own timeline again.


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Should add to my above, that's not a slate on Rodgers, I'm actually seeing the same frustrations he showed in January, where he had to readjust his own timelines of getting players in.

He's clearly sending message to both fans and board.
He's on our "side" as such.
He's not being backed though.

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Starting 11 isn't terrible to be fair as it stands.
It is the squad as a whole that needs improved.
But that can account for the starting 11 as well.
I'd say you are (understandably) reading too much between them lines.

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For me his clear message to us is we're gonna be doing a fair bit of our work towards the end of the window. Probably knows there's some worries amongst sections of the support before the season starting....but I genuinely believe we'll get almost everything we want by the time the window shuts and be much stronger than last year..

I just do..

 

Personally think we need 3 outfield starters (CB, LB and CM/DM) the latter particularly if O'Riley is sold but arguable a DM needed to prepare us for Europe and only a backup striker so to me it's more starters required than squad players, unless of course we shift a tonne of deadwood out and we look to bring in better rotational players but at this point we need to just get the bare minimum in.

I agree its probably semantics from me with that quote though.

 

Stronger faith than me. But I do agree with the take on Rodgers.
He can read a room excellently at times and a few things last couple weeks has been great to hear from him, he's updating the fans and knows our frustrations.

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See there's lots of us concerned and making jibes about the speed of our business, and it's fair criticism that we could have done more to this point and before Killie, but, if we do get all the required business done and bring in some genuinely exciting players by end of August I'll not be moaning.

Same approach we had towards the GK position with forward thinking and good options to rotate for the other positions needing addressed and we're laughing.

 

A right winger as well mate..

4 for me to go right in by the end of the window..

An fast upgrade on Taylor
An upgrade lefty who's dominant and quicker than Scales
A game changing winger for the right, Kuhn showed promise last night but still doubts over him being the main guy
Could do with an energetic, dynamic, quality centre mid who can play as a 6 or maybe one of the box to box roles

Then need to beed the depth up with say Idah and a youngster. Maybe another centre half if we can punt some and we won't be far off..

 

Yeah I get what you mean with Kuhn, I just think with Rodgers comments about him he probably sees him as the main starter and our tight fisted board have spent similar on him and Yang so unless the latter is moved on loan or punted I think it won't be seen as a priority position - especially with Jamesy showing he can still contribute as Rodgers rates him still.

The other 3 positions are absolutely essential though.

 

I think the scouting team were a massive part of the problem. Look, is there a wider issue with the board and our wage structure/footballing structure? Yes, I believe so. Does it directly impact the money we spend/where we spend it. I'm not 100% sure. It may do. I just believe it's a recruitment issue. If Mark Lawwell asks his scouts to identify players at 23 and under, who are available for under £4m, with international experience around £15k a week or below, I think that's on his head.

By the way, I think you could win a league and progress in Europe within the parameters we were rumoured to be looking at above. It's why scouting is so * important. You look at some of the deals that went down last season, for teams in league of a similar size to us and you could easily improve every single position in our squad. The problem is we didn't scout well and we didn't buy well. I don't think the parameters are the problem.

I didn't see the interview with Rodgers, regarding Matt O'Riley. He is never going to stay here, though. Not for £60k a week. So, it doesn't really matter how much money the board are willing to pay him because it's never going to be enough. Look at the teams that are interested in him. Madrid, Atalanta, Inter, Leverkusen... there are some very high profile clubs, in the top leagues, at the top end of their leagues who want to buy Matt O'Riley and us being able to match some of the salaries that may be on offer for them would still not be enough to convince him to stay. Ironically, you're kinda highlighting my point over good scouting when you mention O'Riley. We bought him for £1.5m, from the 3rd tier in English Football. He's definitely not on a massive salary, or wasn't when he was first signed, and 2 and a half years later, he's likely to leave us for a club record sale. To a huge club. That is what young, proven players will look at when they see what can happen if they perform well, here. We need to continue to sell players like O'Riley.

I've already agreed with you on the Bernardo deal. I think it should have been done by now and every day it seems to inch closer but to not have it completed is disappointing. I believe the club made the correct decision in negotiating the fee, that ultimately caused delays. I think the delays have went on too long and they need to get the deal completed as soon as possible. On Idah, I think it's different. Norwich are clearly grandstanding and laying on a narrative in the media that he's a vital member of their squad for the promotion push. Clearly trying to drive his price up. Celtic won't get involved in that sort of pish. They'll wait. They know that, behind the scenes, Norwich are willing to do a deal, Idah wants the move, Norwich know Idah wants the move and it's now seeing who blink first. I've already said in the Idah thread that it wouldn't surprise me if we started seeing little soundbites coming out from the usual suspects in the MSM that we are looking at alternatives. Norwich want £8m, we won't pay that but I do think there will be an agreement as we get towards the start of the season. Norwich play their first game on the 3rd of August so they'll want that deal sorted before too. Again, the manager clearly wants him and he seems happy to bide his time to get his man. We get someone else in, who Rodgers didn't favour and the same fans who are telling you Idah isn't worth £8m and to move on will start using the 'board aren't backing the manager' patter, when the alternative to Idah turns out completely *.

It was a clear mistake Ange made when it comes to the Korean strikers. We clearly wanted Cho, we were trying to convince him to come and because of the Ange attitude of 'move on if you have to convince someone to come here' we ended up with Oh, who clearly wasn't good enough. I'm not saying we wait around forever but it's a balancing act. You move on too fast, you risk ending up with * when a little bit of patience can pay off.

The club need to show that they are serious about backing the manager. When it's all said and done, this time next year we will either be praising the window or complaining about it. No one will remember when we signed players because it's not really that important for me. Good players will adapt. As I said before, some of our best signings have came on the last day of the transfer window or right before we started the season.

 

He's going to have an unreal season. Telling you.

15+ goals and 15+ assists. BOOKMARK IT

 

Rodgers comments to me just again show why we need someone running the football side of the club.

Rodgers has always been a top coach but has never been great at the recruitment side and that isn’t meant as a dig at him it is more about maximising the impact of our resources.

Rodgers if you get him players with talent will get the best out of them and improve them. That sentence it’s with “Michael and Chris” speaking about recruitment really irks me and screams of inefficiency.

You have a company CEO and CFO out doing deals, there won’t be many places where that is the case in well run companies. The CEO should be setting a vision and have their management team geared to deliver that vision, they would set parameters. The CFO keeps an eye on the purse strings and optimises how things are done financially, they would be involved in setting the budget for player recruitment and the wages.

To me that is where both those roles should stop in terms of involvement with player recruitment and someone should be there on the footballing side to take that vision and work within the parameters to deliver on it. Yes they may lean on the expertise of those two individuals about deal structure and legal commitments but it shouldn’t be those two driving it. It has to be someone dedicated to going out and getting what the team needs now and in the future in the door.

To have your CEO and CFO working on all your transfer dealings just seems insane to me given the other aspects of their job they will have to fulfil. To me our approach is backwards you have the manager saying this is what the football team needs then you have the non football side out trying to get it in.

I genuinely think one of the best things we could do with our big cash pile is go recruit USG’s Director of Football, who happens to be an Irish/ South African. He has experience of buying under valued players in a busy market and working with data led recruitment. He has also worked with the likes of Tony Bloom from Brighton when he was involved with USG.

It isn’t going to happen but it would be one of the best investments we could make as it would allow us to find a left back and left centre back that we could attract and who would fit in our parameters and then likely be sold on for big money so everyone was happy.

 

Reign it in, Columbo...

 

Has the process earned our trust in the last 3-and-a-half windows?

 

3 ways to think about the 'long meeting' between Rodgers and board members

a) BR just wanted an update that the well planned, well executed process is all going to plan
b) BR is frustrated by lack of progress and so demands to know, in detail, what's been happening and what's going to happen as well as consequences of not delivering
c) Board are reporting to Rogers that some previous targets aren't possible or are delayed etc and they need his input on alternatives or where to focus next, they then have a very productive discussion, the plan is updated and we are still on track for end Aug.

There's clearly a split here on which one is true
For me a) is short phone call with b) and c) requiring the long meeting
I'd love to think it's c) but recent history suggest it's b)
Time will tell.....

 

We've heard all this before from Rodgers.. yawn.

 

This over the 3 and a half windows where we've finished each season's league with either a league/cup double or a treble?

Has it been perfect? Absolutely not.

Does the manager and above deserve AT LEAST till the end of the window to do their business? Absolutely.