Paulo Bernardo

* sake did this no done yet

 

I’ve actually found it the other way round, I think he puts a shift in and is reliable and tactically very good but would like to see him show a bit more quality at times.

That stretch over Christmas he did and he looked a top player.

 

It’s this for me, I feel like he technically plays within himself when attacking. He showed in the cup final he has it in him to drop the shoulder and drive forward but doesn’t do that often enough for me. The same with his ball for Idah at Ibrox clearly shows he has it to play good forward passes but takes the easy option.

 

I know it's their job to get the best deal possible and it's one of the few things I trust the board to do; but for a deal where the player wants to come and the club want to sell to take this long is starting to get annoying.

I'm not saying they shouldn't be doing it, they definitely know better than me whether all this haggling is worth it; but as a fan, it just feels frustrating.

 

They've reduced the initial fee by 45%... I'm pretty sure they would say it's worth delaying for a month or so over that sort of negotiated figure.

 

Two things, though.

The first is that we don't know the details of the deal yet. For example, I wonder if we are getting a reduced fee in exchange for a bigger sell-on percentage for Benfica.

The second is opportunity cost regarding their time and attention. Even the best structures in the world have finite bandwidth and our pathetic structure would best be described as having very limited bandwidth. This is a massive summer for us and there are so many positions that need to be addressed. This is a deal that could really have been a slam dunk TBH. While they've been haggling over this, it's been taking time and attentional resources away from doing other deals that might be more important.

As I said above, I simply have to trust that they are allocating time and resources to the various deals wisely and I don't deny that they will know better than me how to do this; but it does leave me feeling frustrated.

 

I think there probably will be a increased sell-on percentage. That doesn't really matter right now, though.

The club will see that they've reduced the fee NOW by 45%. They've probably added an extra 10% to the sell-on so say they're entitled to a 30% sell on, like they had with Jota. Let's be honest, it's very very unlikely that Bernardo goes for anywhere near £25m. So, he's got a bit of a ceiling, in my opinion anyways.

If he goes for £15m, that extra 10% is only an additional £1.5m. However, Celtic will still benefit from that, given they would be selling someone for over 3 times what they paid for him. I'd agree more large sell-ons with clubs if it gave us the ability to sign better players. We gave Benfica £9m of the Jota sale, as well as the £6.5m we paid for him. They made a fortune off us and we still have a fortune in the bank. Agreeing larger sell-ons only matters if we go to sell the player for big money and that then benefits both clubs.

We will be working on multiple deals, right now. It's likely Nicholson/McKay/Rodgers remain in contact with Norwich, Adam Idah and his representatives, as well as Benfica and Bernardo and his representatives. Then, he will be talking to Rapid Bucharest about the Siegrist deal, he will probably be taking calls from agents who want their players to come here or he will take calls from directors of football at other clubs who want our players.

People are so ill-informed when it comes to buying a player. Could/should we be doing things faster? Probably. However, as has already been said, the players we want are likely to have loads of suitors and you either wait for the player the manager wants, trusting your ability to convince them that this is the place you play your football or you move further down the list, eventually landing on a South Korean nobody who might come good. Yer fans kick off and you're back to square one, hoarding * players on decent wages and unable to get them moved on.

 

Flabbergasted that there's still supporters on here DEFENDING how we operate in transfer windows.

Defending our shambolic transfer policy with nonsense presumptions that Rodgers and Nicholsen are on the phone trying to buy two players to maintain last season's squad is absolute delusion. Or is busy trying to offload a keeper who sits on his * 9 months a year so we can't go out and spend actual money on a left back. It's * Sevco level incompetence.

There ZERO excuse for our transfer policy. None. Zip.

The board are quite literally sitting on tens of millions of pounds and taking MONTHS to iron out details for players who don't actually improve upon last season's squad. Arguing over a 2m difference for a Norwich player who they clearly don't want to sell, when there's a superior player available for the same price on our own league is * shambolic.

We've been linked with * all IMPROVEMENTS in MSM, and we once again find ourselves at the * end of the window, awaiting the final scramble for loanees and unproven players from the * end of nowhere, which will see more millions spunked away on pish.

Unbelievable people still find ways to justify this *.

 

Regarding your first paragraph, you make some fair points and I guess you are probably right.

As regards your second paragraph, you seem to have missed my point entirely. Of course we are working on multiple deals at the same time, who would ever say otherwise?

With respect to your 3rd paragraph, well yeah, there's some truth in that; but other clubs in similar leagues seem to manage to move faster at least some of the time and I don't think it really applies to Bernardo as he's already made it clear he wants to come here. At the end of the day, if we can't move quickly on a deal like this one, when can we?

 

I liked your post, because I think it's an excellent one; but personally I think Idah would be a better signing than Miovski. That's the one part I disagree with.

 

Spot on with the vast majority of that.

Bernardo and Idah really should be simple. Neither of them are worth waiting until the mast minute of the window to get. Bernardo maybe, but 100% we can get more value for money when it comes to signing a striker.

Anything over £5/6m for Idah and we should walk away. If Norwich are refusing to sell, then fine. Move on.

We’ve only had a couple of years to identify loads of left backs who would be an upgrade on Taylor. Shouldn’t be a difficult task.

 

What a load of utter nonsense.

Firstly, I'm not defending the board and I have been one of the biggest critics of the board on here for many a years. In fact, I was relentless last year after the shambolic summer transfer window. The summer window is one of the reasons why we have a bloated squad, full of * nobodies on long term contracts and large salaries that we can't get rid of. You completely missed what I was trying to say. There are multiple people that we will talk to when it comes to a transfer and that will be going on for multiple different transfers, both outgoing and incoming.

"We've been linked with * all improvements in the MSM".... whit? O'Shea, Tesserman, Balikwisha, Schmeichel, Sinisalo, Jake Clarke Saltier, Wilfried Ndidi and that's just the first page on our very own transfer rumours. As usual, spouting utter * pish. Conveniently forgetting that Celtic try and operate silently and quietly, when it comes to the majority of their transfers. The MSM will know what they know. Just because there is little to report, doesn't mean we are actively talking to players no one has even mentioned. A bit ironic that you accuse me of defending the board with "nonsense presumptions" while presuming that we are looking to add loan and unproven players only.

The board and the manager decided they wanted to negotiate the fee down for Bernardo, a decision that was backed by many Celtic fans. Some felt he was worth the £6m, others didn't. The manager and the board felt he wasn't worth the outlay. You simply don't overpay for players because you have millions in the bank. There's a reason why it's important to buy well. Getting Bernardo for nearly half the fee that was agreed is buying well. It takes a few extra weeks? So *? Genuinely, what does that even matter. Aye, it's better to have players in early but genuinely, what does it really matter? Jota, CCV, GG, Bernardo, Idah... all signed on the last day of a window. Good players will adapt in any situation.

"The * end of the window"... there is still just under 6 weeks to go. Are you having a laugh? The window has been open for just over 5 weeks. We aren't even into the second half of it. But hey, don't let facts get in the way of your wee rant.

"Sevco level of incompetence"... genuinely scary takes from some on here.

 

What are you basing the claims (see the parts of your post I have bolded) on that the manager "felt he wasn't worth the outlay" and that the manager "decided he wanted to nergotiate the fee down for Bernardo"? I note that that you stated these claims in the form of hard facts, so I presume you're not just basing it on vague comments by Rodgers about his involvement in transfers in general.

 

Very likely the fact that we've went to negotiate a lower fee for Bernardo instead of paying the agreed outlay of £6.5 million?

It's not rocket science, he wasn't worth that, if we can get him signed for the reported £3.4 million, that's good business.

 

They 100% have been negotiating it down because they didn't feel he was worth £6m. I don't know how anyone can argue against that point. If they wanted to pay £6m and bring him here they'd have executed that clause and done so. No negotiations would be required, the clause is in place as part of the loan agreement. Being slow to move is not the issue here.

And anyone that argues we should have just executed the clause and paid twice as much is completely mental. This is a bit-part member of the squad, even if it dragged until August 31st, we'd be fine. Think about what you're saying, pay nearly double to have Bernardo off the bench a few weeks earlier than otherwise. Mental.

I loathe the way the club often treats transfers but they absolutely did the right thing here. And if it all falls through, they've still done the right thing because he's worth about £3m, not £6m. If we spent £6m and he couldn't make the step up to a starting player, we'd all be up in arms and rightly so.

 

Waiting for someone to tweet that a fee has been agreed and terms are all but done.

 

Again?

 

Specifically the manager, as opposed to the board members who are negotiating the deal.

 

After enjoying a successful loan spell at Celtic Park last season, TEAMtalk understands that a permanent deal for Paulo Bernardo has been fully completed.

The 22-year-old Portuguese midfielder joined the Benfica academy back in 2010 and he made his professional debut for the club in 2021

After racking up 26 senior appearances for the Portuguese giants, he spent last season on loan with Celtic where he won the league and Scottish Cup.

He made a total of 33 appearances for the club across all competitions and he chipped in with four goals and three assists from midfield.


TEAMtalk sources have confirmed that all of the paperwork was signed off between Benfica and Celtic last night ahead of Bernardo’s £3.5m move to Celtic Park.

The midfielder is set to have his medical in the coming days before the transfer will be officially announced by the club.

It’s understood that Bernardo himself is buzzing to join Celtic on a permanent basis after enjoying his loan spell at the club last season.

A deal of around £3.5m should also represent good value for Celtic, given Bernardo’s age and potential sell-on value in the future.


Rodgers will certainly be pleased to get this deal over the line as the Celtic boss was impressed by how Bernardo adapted over the course of the season.

“I’m delighted with the emergence of Paulo. There is an agreement with the club, an option for us to activate that if we want to do it,” Rodgers told reporters.


“He came in and gradually he has learnt the principles of our play. Leading into the Rangers game last month I knew he was going to start and we wanted to give him a run of matches. He’s been fantastic.

“And he has got an old head on young shoulders. He’s a top professional. I can see him emerging and growing now as a person, feeling more confident amongst the players.

“He now has real clarity in how we play and how we work – and you see his game flourishing. He’s been excellent and I expect him to get better

 

He does seem like the type of player that flourishes under Brendan Rodgers. Will be very happy to see him back at Celtic and on a longer term deal. Just not happy that I am convinced the board will sell O'Riley shortly after and look on Bernardo as his replacement which fits in right with their thinking and refusal to aim higher for us as a club.