Summer Transfer Window

Abidal will be MLS bound I think

 

There's a part of me that could see him going back to France with PSG.

 

Lawell knows their is cash to be made developing players, and i would stick to the £500,000 to £2million structure we have in place. Sure it means it's a risk, but realistically we don't need to spend big to secure the league, or the Champions' League group stage.

Let the guys in the big leagues spend their money and we'll try and get the players that we like. Even if we don't get them, we know Russell and Mackay-Steven would be enough for next season. If we wanted a bench warmer as back up for Forest, Ojamaa could be a good guy off the bench.

A playmaker with two good feet would be nice and a center half. Maybe that's worth spending a bit more on.

We'll get a few players and a few will leave, but i honestly think we don't need lots of players, or to disrupt the pay structure to get them. For sure we will miss out on some good players, but even that sometimes works in your favor.

It's about making sure the money keeps rolling in, not out. If Hooper goes another striker comes in. Who's to say that needs to be a big name signing?

 

We need to progress eventually.

Porto started with these sort of fees, bringing in guys for a couple of million pounds and stuff like that.

But the more money they brought in, the more they spent. They've brought in top names like Lucho Gonzalez, Joao Moutinho and Steven Defour in the past couple of years. They bought a cracking full back too, Danillo, who cost £13m. He'll go for much more eventually.

Similarly, Ajax are lauded for their buy cheap, sell big strategy, but it's not always like that. Miralem Sulejmani cost £17m, Demy De Zeuw £7m and Luis Suarez for £8m.

The more money we bring in, the more we'll hopefully spend - the bigger fees attract better players. I'm not saying a £4m player is definitely going to be better than a £2m player... but you have a better chance and it gives the manager a better chance. You can't tell me there isn't a couple of £5m players out there Lennon would LOVE to sign ? If it all goes well we won't be operating on £1m buys forever.

If we brought in £30m this summer, £15m should go on players - my opinion. No point in selling Wanyama for £10m and trying to replace him for £1m.

 

Spot on mate! BBJ was saying on Sportscene that we shouldn't buy to replace but buy to enhance.

Would be silly expecting a £1m player to replace Wanyama (I know it can work but it would be nice to replace him with proven talent).

 

Expect to have a budget of £10 Million BUT I do not expect that to get spent.

I would assume £6m will get spent in all honesty. Im sure the scouts have already spotted a few gems (hopefully).

 

That in bold is exactly my thinking on the matter as well.

 

That is exactly the crunch, it will show the ambition of the celtic board on how we operate in the transfer market this summer.

Before in oneils season after the uefa cup final we didn't invest.
In strachans seasons we didn't push the boat out after we qualified for the second last 16.

After both of those momentous achievements we didn't progress, we regressed, the same cannot happen this season.

 

I could see us spending around 10m if we moved a few players on.

However I really don't think we'll spend more than 4 million on player.

I would rather Wanyama and hooper stayed and we just brought in a couple of players, don't see that happening though.

Our scouting has been top notch recently hope we find a few gems this summer. World class players can be found for cheap these days if you look in the right places.

 

Can't see us spending a lot of money this summer but I really hope we get a decent defensive partner for Kelvin Wilson and a target man! Think stokes and commons (and hooper if he stays) would reap the rewards of having someone knocking the ball down to them.

 

Set aside £10m for new players, I would say. The money that was made thanks to Lennon guiding us to the last 16 of the CL should be re-invested in the squad and not quietly slipped in to the pockets of Desmond/Lawwell.

Balde - £2.5m.
Russell/Griffiths - £1.5m.
Two experienced centre backs - £6m (£3m each possibly).

That would be us sorted for the qualifiers, assuming we can also keep hold of Hooper and Wanyama. What an amazing squad we would have. By far the best since the 2002/03 season.

 

The lack of investment in the squad in the last couple of seasons.

The money must be going somewhere, and it's clearly not going into the squad. I'm aware that they have other projects to fund, such as the youth academy etc, but how long have we been crying out for an experienced £4m target man? Or an experienced £4m centre back?

 

Fortune - £3.5 million? - not long ago was it? - think we made a loss. So you can see why they are hesitant to spend like that. :smiley-laughing002:

And, we had a bit of debt until recently, however now we have paid it off (the first time we have been debt free in about 13 years). Now we can hopefully invest more money into the squad.

Happy days for Celtic eh ?

 

My posts may sound like I'm having a go at Lawwell and Desmond... they're not intended to sound like that. I like the way the club has been run in the last few years. It has been largely successful as we know, from winning 3IAR under Strachan and then doing what we've done so far under Lennon.

But I don't see what harm it can do giving Lennon that bit more cash next season to see what he can do. What if that extra £6m for players gets us to the quarters or the semis of the Champions League next season?

 

Would be good and certainly show the Scottish MSM how dominant we are, flexing our financial muscles.

As they say, you have to speculate to accumulate. Celtic should do this every now and again. Don't see a better time to do this than now.

 

Spot on.

 

This.

Surely every penny brought in from transfers should be re-invested.

I am 99% certain that if Hooper goes, Lennon and Park will find a better striker and still make a profit. If they can find gems for £1m/£2m imagine what they could do with £5m/£6.

 

Really good point, you guys .

£6m wouldn't be enoight yo get us to the QF or SF IMO.

 

You never know... we got to the last 16 with a squad largely consisting of freebies and bargain buys.

Ledley and Matthews were free, Commons was £300k, Mulgrew was free, Hooper and Forster were £2m, Wanyama was £900k... some quality signings there for what is not much money in modern football.