Celtic's 2025/26 Summer transfer window: Stage: Pitchforks

Have we actually been linked with a proper right winger? Every link is a LW or even Breum who is more central.

 

They are at a premium but we couldn't wait to push Kuhn out the door.......

 

We didn’t push Kuhn out the door in the slightest. He was sitting sulking in the taxi rank waiting for someone to pick him up.

Our fault here is in not being properly prepared to pull the trigger on his replacement, not on letting him go.

 

Yeah, no problem at all taking the £17m for him when he didn't want to be here, the problem I have is our reluctance to spend that money on improving the team!

 

That is always our problem, we try run a player trading model where we are very active in selling players but not so organised in bringing in replacements of suitable quality in a reasonable timeframe.

 

14th of Aug is the deadline to register for the CL Qualifier, never mind actually bedding them into the squad

 

Plenty time......

 

Dare I say it, I’m not actually convinced it’s a “reluctance” to spend. I think it’s a complete lack of ability to get deals over the line.

I very much get the impression that the board don’t trust our own scouting network (which is ironic considering it’s a result of their ineptitude), but also don’t want to fully back Rodgers with those decisions when he’s almost certainly gone in 10 months. I think if an obvious deal jumps in our face (like KT or Jota), then we’ll happily spend money - we’re just monumentally bad at progressing things ourselves.

 

I think the reason we are not getting deals over the line is firstly because we arent prepared to spend and secondly we are bargain basement shopping which means its less likely Rodgers is going to want the options presented. Most of the names we have been linked with are up for sale but we are not matching the clubs valuation. We have spent the last month throwing out lowball offers trying to get a selection of targets as cheaply as possible. These guys we are / have been linked with will go for the right price. Its understandable in some cases the club will decide the value for money isnt there. But its less and less justifiable to be adopting this approach with such high cash reserves and sacrificing proper pre season preparation. Its like they have imposed a limit of spending a max of 3M pound on player, acting as if we are cash strapped.

When the deadline starts looming, I expect they probably will spend. But clearly something is not working when we have the money and either the manager feels the options are not good enough or thinks they are good enough but we wont actually pay what the clubs want.

 

I think you are right. It feels more and more like a structural failure somewhere in the business rather than an active decision to basically stop functioning like professional football team. We are all looking for logic where there is none, I think something isnt working in the set up

 

PL was a financial controller pre 1994 takeover - I genuinely think he has fears and PTSD of that era.
SO * bent on not letting the scenes of 94 happen again, that he is financially too strict with the club, that it filters in to almost every aspect and decision at the club now.
Unconsciously it may be, not indicating he does this for the funz, but it seems like fundamentally in the club we have failed to take any sort of "risk" in the fear of what could happen to us.

 

Its pointless holding on to a player who wants out the door. But what you can and should absolutely do is tell him he can leave when a replacement is brought in.

Tbf to Khun tho he knows how much we * around and didn't fancy waiting a year or so to be sold.

 

And if the story is correct we knew he was leaving in January and yet with a few days until our first game here we are. Kyogo the second. Shocking planning

 

Aye the problem with that, is that we have * plenty of players over in the past - intentionally or not.
Plenty of players have left the club annoyed with how we have handled things with them.

Much like our youth and inability to utilise them - thus who can blame them for wanting to leave as their first chance - I couldn't overly blame a player for making his mind up and being a bit blunt/determined about it, when likely they have experience and/or know how the club would deal with it.

 

You might well be right but even that is a governance failure. Because we have a CEO and a CFO who should be driving strategy and spending decisions, and a scouting and recruitment team tasked with bringing in talent. These things arent for the non exec.

 

When said non-exec was previously running the club from an exec position for nearly 2 decades - its easy to see how the club could fall in to line with his methods/thinking/worry.
Another issue for us, too many (not just PL) have over stayed their welcome longer than most board members of other clubs and/or PLC companies - think it is 3-5 years most last on these sort of posiitons, we actively have folk 10-20+ years in some sort of position.
That allows for a club(or company) to become stale and stagnant, unable to progress and move forward with the new era, as they get far too comfortable in their positions and the club/company get too stale.
Not saying PL or anyone has done this intentionally, but it can be an outcome of it.


Annoyingly though, in 1994 when the changes happened the idea was for the club NOT to fall back in to the hands of a dynasty family - we have went from the Kellys and Whites, to the Desmond and Lawwells, with a scattering of their pals in to the mix.

 

Spot on

 

Bingo.