Alistair Johnston

I can see that too for sure. He is top drawer no question. IMHO nothing short of 25-30m euro before we even blink.

 

It's got to be around there, I can only think of how much we'd need to spend to try and replace him. What a fantastic signing he's been.

 

I think we'd struggle to get into the £20M range.

Just based on how we all thought we'd get that for Juranovic and it ended closer to £10M

I think he's a bit better than Juranovic, but similar age profiles.

Hope he doesn't leave though

 

Seems like the nicest guy off the park but the hardest * when he is playing.

100% the next Celtic captain if he doesn't want away

 

I think we'd need £25million minimum, for me he is probably the best player in the team individually like compared to players worldwide, how many right-backs are as good as him? not too many probably less than 10 i'd say.

I could easily see him playing for Inter, Juventus, Atletico, Dortmund, Bayern, Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool or whoever.

He plays like a captain and is absolutley solid defensively, decent going forward and comfortable on the ball. I fancy him to get the better of anyone consistently.

 

To make him Captain, would be one of the first times an non-Scottish / non-Irish player has Captained the club....if it meant he would stay, then I would tell him that the armband is coming....

 

He's not "staying " long term . Our model is to sell for profit and players are brought in with the mutual understanding that if all goes well they will move on to a bigger league and earn themselves and the club a tidy sum. There's the "moral" issue BR talks about when players move on as they can't turn down an extra 1.5- 2m a year and we shouldn't hold them back from that. A few of our home grown successes are the exception , although KT was too good to keep. AJ will be sold either this summer or the next, the armband isn't going to keep him.here for the next decade. You would hope and pray it's next summer , and we can keep this team together for another season. We typically sell 1 or 2 a season and that works well for us, however we are at the point we have 5 or 6 who will have serious interest this summer . If we can only sell 1 of our big hitters and add to the rest we will be a right good side next year. I fear it will be 2 or 3 of CCV, AJ, Kuhn, Maeda , but hope it's only 1 or even 0. Need to increase the contracts and wages to try and keep players for 3-4 seasons as oppose to the 2 or so we have seen with others like MOR and Jota 1. Kuhn at only 1.5 seasons will be a struggle I think.

 

I cant disagree with your logic - but jeez man let us dream.....there was this non home-grown guy called Henrik who hung around a lot longer than most expected....what's wrong with falling for the club, the ethos....* maybe a player just is happy....(or addicted to Irn-Bru)

 

It’s one thing we will need to keep an eye on going into the summer there are quite a few of our first team players in that natural time to move on phase for varying reasons.

Hatate, CCV and Maeda have been here for the best part of 4 seasons come this summer and all around 27 so coming in to their peak career years, their value in terms of a transfer fee for the club and wages for the player, won’t be any higher in the future.

Kuhn and Johnston haven’t been here as long but again are of the back of their best seasons for us and stock at an all time high. They aren’t getting any younger and both could see them look to cash in on their form.

Having KT signed up to come in for Taylor is great, even better if we could get Schlupp too but with us already needing another striker or left winger depending on keeping Maeda, and if he stays where we see him playing next year, losing more than a couple of the 5 players above would leave us with a lot of work to do.

 

It's why we should've had another striker in and possible winger in January..

Kvistgaarden and Orjasaeter would've taken the load off of the potential exits of a Kuhn or Maeda..

Could even argue we've been very light in midfield, with only 5 centre mids for 3 spots, and only McCowan available to mix it up for quite a while now..

 

Yeah I'd be expecting KT money if not more, he has done far more internationally than the likes of Matt. Would love to keep the spine of the team and push on further in the champions league and bring in a few more quality players. A cb a 6 (Wanyama typle) and 8/10 hybrid (O'Riley type) and the Danish winger/striker and we are * flying.

 

Why?

Sure £10m maybe £12m if a teams really keen seems possible but more than that feels fantasy land.

 

No chance you get KT money for AJ.

1. If we're honest, as good as AJ is, he's not as good as LT was at his best for us.

2. KT was just turned 22 with bags of potential when he left. AJ will be 27 this year and approaching his prime.

£15-18 million maximum I think

 

Pains me to say but you're right and the that'll be the ceiling price.
Clubs pay for potential as well as talent and AJ is wrong side of 25.
Thing in our favour is the long term contract just signed. But if an English team comes calling with a bid of 15mill think we'd accept

 

Seems to me, no offence at all intended, that people throw the "Tierney, Jota or O'Riley money" term around like they think that's the new normal, and not the * exceptional work of a well oiled machine in peak output... Truth is that if we flip a player for about £15-16M after a couple of seasons of great contributions, after an outlay of £3-4M to bring them in, then that's FANTASTIC in every way for us...

I mean, if there's a bidding fight it may go to £20M, but I don't feel that's likely... Good thing is he seems happy, and isn't pushing as far as I know, but I think the £15M is reasonable for him, and allows 2 quality replacements into the squad and cash for the board... Not every deal needs to break records... As other said, the REALLY big ones were mostly people buying for quality, AND the potential for EXCELLENCE!

 

Bang on. Regardless of the price, if he does go, then we will both turn an excellent profit and have had the benefit of him having played for us for a number of seasons.

Exactly what we should be looking to do.

Not sure he will go this summer regardless. I think we have another season yet.