Anthony Stokes (Threads Merged)

Money talks, even for the mediocre teams in England.

 

good post mate!

If he goes his way and it works out, good for him. But if he fails, I hope we won't go after him again.

 

Celtic manager Gordon Strachan was playing it cool after apparently losing out to Charlton in his bid to bring Republic of Ireland Under-21 international Anthony Stokes to Parkhead.
The Hoops had been interested in the 18-year-old striker who scored 16 goals in a loan spell at Falkirk this season before returning to Arsenal at the turn of the year.
However, as speculation mounted that Stokes had opted for the south London club, whose poor form in the Premiership was compounded by an FA Cup third-round defeat by Nottingham Forrest, Strachan refused to be downbeat.
Asked if he was disappointed that Stokes had not chosen to sign for Celtic, the Parkhead boss said: "No, because we know we have good players here.
"Whether it's through the youth team or, hopefully, buying well, the history of the club shows people want to come here and play.
"People want to come here and win championships, play in Europe at the highest level, play in front of 60,000 people and play with good players with the chance of making yourself a legendary figure.
"If you feel you can get that elsewhere, then fair enough."
Strachan enjoyed a relaxing afternoon at Celtic Park as his side eased through to fourth round of the Tennent's Scottish Cup with a comfortable 4-0 home win over Third Division Dumbarton.
After Paul McQuilken had missed an early chance for the visitors, a double by Maciej Zurawski and a strike by Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink gave the home side an unassailable interval lead.
Hoops' substitute Derek Riordan, who replaced Shunsuke Nakamura at the break, grabbed Celtic's fourth with 20 minutes remaining to round off an expected victory.
Strachan insists the most pleasing aspect of the win was seeing his strikers getting on the scoresheet.
He said: "The positives were that our strikers scored which was a relief and it was nice to see them being congratulated.
"We could have had more but as you seen, Jan was a wee bit rusty. But we put out a top side and we did the job professionally."
Dumbarton manager Gerry McCabe was left ruing the chance missed by McQuilken in the first 90 seconds.
He said: "Paul actually said that Artur Boruc got a touch to it and it should have been a corner.
"If we had scored first, who knows what could have happened?
But then again, we might have just got them angrier.
"But I was happy for the first four minutes until they scored their first goal. When you lose a goal after four minutes then you fear the worst.
"The two goals from our point of view were poor to lose although Celtic had a few chances and didn't put them away. So I can't complain and we hung in there.
"We can't fault the effort although we don't know if Celtic took their foot off the gas in the second half. But you have to remember we are a Third Division side and we are playing a team who are in the last 16 of the Champions League."

 

Coz we don't try and sign every tim in the world who is any good.

Put yourself in the boy's shoes, would you pass up the opportunity for a better pay packet at this stage of your career?

Would i *, and any self-proclaiming tim should be the same imo.

 

Just how big a tim fan is this guy. He comes from Dublin, does he have a soft spot Celtic or is he a dyed in the wool Celtic diehard. There are different levels of supporting Celtic and I think he was probably of the softspot variety.

 

This chance doesn't come often i don't see any point in not taking the chance if he had it. He can always leave if he didn't fit in. We'd better just hope we can get brown and thompson then.

 

Still Hope?

On Sky Sports that Charlton havent been in contact with Arsenal over Stokes?






Is this simialr to the Graversson signin?







http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?hlid=439726&CPID=8&clid=3&lid=2&title=Wenger:+No+Stokes+deal+yet

 

Seriously, everyone here who is getting on this young boy's back needs to take a good look at themselves.

So what if he supports or supported Celtic? He's 18. In his profession, you only get at the most another twenty years out of it. So, he needs to make his money...NOW!

If Celtic offered me eight grand a week, but a team from down south, who even if they do get relegated will be playing in a better league than the SPL in my opinion, offered me 12 grand or 15 grand a week, then i'd go down south. I'm a die-hard Tim, love the Hoops, but in his career he needs to be selfish and let his MIND rule his HEART, not the other way about.

That's the reason why the likes of Dalglish and Macari left us. To get better money and a better lifestyle once they had retired.

So everyone needs to applause this guy for being very sensible in his decision making.

 

Too much sense mate, you'll get hounded out of here.

 

Doubt it mate. Posted these kind of things before. Still here.

 

10x player that miller is, stokes is quallity and i think the goal ratios says so

 

Agreed

 

Good post

 

JohnBhoy67, sure looks like i'm gonna get hounded out of here. Look above at the Dempsey post.

 

had the chance 2 see him play week in week out, dunfermline away the boy was purely amazing

hes playing same league as miller, same opponents,
and scores more for a team imo has poorer players to feed stokes the ball
()and thats the team i support )

 

Well, if this is the case, then lets hope the Charlton deal has fallen through.

 

Just heard on SSN that it is completed.

Edit: Maybe not, I think it may just have been talking about a medical and the deal was nearly completed. Any one catch all of this to confirm?

 

You just keep taking the sensable pills and you'll be ok.

 

Actually when I think more about it, it could have been a case of better money coupled with a guaranteed first team football promise from Pardew. Strachan probably didnt give him that promise.


Him getting the nod ahead of Deeks, Beatts, Miller and Magic wouldn't go down too well.

 

Aye, i'll be fine. It's you i'm worried about, buddy.