[Link] Katlego Mphela

just got me tickets, taking the wean, area 106, never been down that end before looking forward to it

 

really hope all 3 trialists play well

 

Ye, I really want us to sign Pletikosa and Mphela. Not sure about Lacney, never seen him.

 

Judging on tonights performance, he looks decent. Didn't see a lot of the ball, but did well enough and had a header saved. One thing I liked was that he chased everything down

 

what height is he? he didn't look tall as i thought he was. is he a player that can hold the ball up?

 

I think he's 5'11. Supposedly he is quite strong and has decent link up play so he can probably hold the ball up quite well:icon_mrgreen:

 

Posted this in the Musona thread as someone asked me about what my Uncle, who lives in South Africa compared Musona and Mphela, and he seemed to favour Mphela. This is what he said:

Obviously thats just his opinion, he may be wrong, may be right, but surely you cant judge him on 45 minutes of a friendly against Wolves where we played our fringe players, he would get a lot more service when Ki, Kayal, Commons, Izzy are all in the team. Even if you were to judge him on what he did do, I think he was good! Chased down everything has pace, and had a good header saved!

 

Hard to judge over 45 mins, especially when your partner is Murphy, who is now free to leave! Yes, I have freed him. Lenny is busy enough trying to sort a new GK and ST so I've taken this decision for him and Murphy's out! :icon_mrgreen:

Mphela though? Not sure!

Right now, purely on tonights showings, I'd rather spend £2m-£4m on a prolific ST who will do a job and get the goals we need to win the title and ultimately bring CP football next season - whilst possibly helping with a run in Europe this season also...

 

I thought he looked decent in a under strength team, made a good pass and nearly scored.

 

I actually really liked the look of him. The whole team were sub par. A few exceptions but it was basically a whole second team who don't know each other. I wouldn't expect them to play well. If the team that played at Easter Road were out with Mphela upfront I imagine he would've done well.

 

The bit in bold is the key part for me. When you take into consideration the quality of players providing service up front for him last night, it wasn't very good. But when you put him in the same team as the likes of Ki Sung Yeung, a player blessed with great vision and an unnatural ability to pick out a brilliant pass, he's guaranteed to get more goals.

Overall, I thought he was one of the better players in the team.

 

Website quoting one of our guys

Katlego Mphela was unlucky not to score as he appeared for 45 minutes in a Celtic shirt in Wednesday night's 2-0 friendly defeat to English Premier League side Wolves at Celtic Park.

'Killer' is currently on a five-day trial in Glasgow as he bids to seal a move from Mamelodi Sundowns and was handed a place in the starting line-up by manager Neil Lennon. But despite coming close to scoring with a header and putting in some decent effort, the 26-year-old went unrewarded and will now have to wait and see.

Fielding a largely second-string side after kicking off their SPL campaign on Saturday with a 2-0 victory, Celtic struggled to provide many chances for Mphela to show his ability. A bad mistake from new Kenyan signing Victor Wanyama almost let in Wolves early on but Killer's best opportunity came from a corner that was well saved by Wayne Hennessey.

A free kick from former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Jamie O'Hara a few minutes before had put Mick McCarthy's side 1-0 up at the break, when Mphela made way for fellow trialist Milos Lacny. But a disastrous own goal from Filip Twardzik condemned the hosts to defeat.

Scheduled to return to South Africa at the weekend, Mphela may not get another chance to play for Lennon, although most Celtic message boards after the game praised his pace and fans appeared hopeful he may be signed.

"Mphela looks a useful player. Better solo striker option than (Georgios) Samaras, by the looks of it," wrote LisbonLion87.

 

The best of the trialists, IMO. Full of desire and fighting spirit. I'd let him play one more game, but serviced by our best midfield.

 

think we have to have another look at him. i cannot decide if i want him or not.

 

I thought he looked pacy and dangerous, i reckon given the chance he'd stick it in the net no problem! I trust Lenny will make the correct decision though.

 

they should have taken Murphy off and played both the trialists up front together, both looked very quick , just a bit to eager to impress....but would sign both.

 

I thought he looked pretty good, considering he was playing beside Murphy.

£1.5m would probably be a good price, but we need to shift *.

 

I would take him. He has pace and is good in the air. Definately not worse than Samaras.

 

I would sign this guy up. He looked decent last night, he worked hard, can spot a pass and nearly scored. He also has a good goal scoring record for his club & country.

 

Let him play against Inter Milan on Saturday and see how he does. Even if they play their third string, it's still a better team than he'll ever face in the SPL, so we could see how he does against them.