Michel-Ange Balikwisha

So it's Antwerp who have taken 13 months to get a deal done for his replacement and not Celtic who have the history of dragging deals out?


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Yes that's exactly what's happened this summer window. The other window he injured himself.

 

You know fine well he got injured last season and ended up out for 12 weeks. We signed Jota in January so the need for a winger was reduced.

It’s not exactly what happened. Antwerp have been trying to get us to buy him all summer. If we had an agreed a fee of £4.5m 6 weeks ago, he would have been here 6 weeks ago.

 

Naw. I dont believe you. Thats no how we work

 

We shouldn’t have been selling Kuhn until we had him tied down then. If that is what actually has happened. Which I don’t think it is. It’s more likely a case of us trying to get him on the cheap.

 

Think it was a bit of both. Probably fully went in 2 weeks ago but they delayed it to finalise that winger. Probably could have done it 6 weeks ago really

That fatbobby strikes again...

 

I don't get all the negativity around this one. Our board have just made the whole deal a complete saga.

The reason people think he's bang average is because an 8 minutes highlight reel is based on about 6 or 7 games and edited on that whereas the general way these videos work is that they are based on 100 games or whatever more and include all their goals, assists, chances created, best dribbles etc. I think the video only shows 2 or 3 or Balikwisha's goals there when he's actually scored 39 professional goals for Liege and Antwerp.

I can't comment on him too much as a player as the footage doesn't seem to be there for whatever reason but his output is good. He has 39 professional goals in 184 appearances. That's a goal every 4.7 games - that's decent for a relatively young player who has had 5 seasons or pro football and plays in a stronger and more competitive league than Scotland. You'd generally expect that to improve that at Celtic, playing for a more dominant team in a weaker league, aligned with him now reaching what should be his peak years.

The fee is very reasonable too and I don't know where the injury probe thing is coming from. Last season seems to be the only time he has picked up a medium/long term injury. It would be like someone saying AJ is injury prone for us.

If you look at his league appearances over the past 5 seasons they are:

20/21 - 32/36
21/22 - 32/36
22/23 - 33/36
23/24 - 33/36
24/25 - 15/36

He had a medium term injury last season that saw him miss a chunk otherwise he's more or less been an ever present in the 4 seasons proceeding that.

The polarising nature of a lot of our fans can be very frustrating at the time, the reality is none of us and I include myself know a great deal about him so let us wait and see how he plays first of all. The YouTube footage is so scarce and limited to a handful of matches that it makes any sort of judgement on it null and void. His statistical output is good, there are a number of videos of his goals for Antwerp on YouTube and he seems to be a really composed finisher which is something I think we need in the final third as we are very wasteful in front of the posts bar Nyrgen I'd say.

I just can't understamd how it took so long though, we all know it's incompetence but its unforgivable. I don't buy the excuse that Antwerp were holding it up. For the past 18 months Overmars and other people associated with the club have consistently opened the door for him to leave and commented on their financial situation and need to sell. There have been various accounts that he wants the move. The fee associated with him has always sounded very reasonable so the only reason I can come to is that we've been trying to haggle the fee down from 5m or so thinking we can save a million or 2 by playing hardball. An absolute nonsense attitude when we look at what is at stake for us, what the manager has been demanding and how much cash we actually have.

Hopefully it will be signed, sealed and done early in the week and he can be involved Sunday next.

 

Why are there no videos of all his goals? He's being seriously undersold with all these videos of every touch in two or three games.

 

Few nice finishes here

 

Surely not. ..wasnt this "a done deal" months ago and we walked away?

 

Donno I'm just sick of negativity. Sign someone and we moan. Think this was a goer 2 weeks ago but they did delay it there end at that point. Probably could have done it earlier, but that'd cost us a few pence more or something.

 

Perfect, now can I have them all stitched together with some * dance tune over the top please?

 

People are entitled to feel negative about the way the transfer window has played out. Especially when our manager has been in the news relentlessly over the last few weeks screaming for players and effectively saying that he's gone at the end of the season unless there is a level of ambition shown. So, fans are allowed to be negative about a lot of stuff.

I get what you're saying, though. It is endless amounts of negativity on here, probably the worst I've ever seen it for a good few years now. I think a large part of that is justified but of course, you get the same posters on here who'll exaggerate the negativity for effect and pretty much bullshit their way to having a dig at the club.

Club needs sorted though. A negative fanbase has been brought on by the boards needless transfer model.

 

There is one statistic more important then all youtube videos: he played 32 games in the champions play-off in Belgium: scored 7 and 3 assists. Which is very respectable for an Antwerp player. Those are the hard games: Club Brugge, Union, Genk, Anderlecht… he consistantly performed in those game. When fit…

He also scored in a cupfinal. If there is one thing he can do, is perform in higher profile games! As long as he stays fit, thats my main worry… cause I dont think he will remain fit. So i keep repeating his fitness.

 

Not in their lineup for today? Injured?

 

Deal agreed with celtic local media confirmed thats why not playing

 

Hopefully Celtic walk away

 

But his injury history seems fine. He had only missed 12 of 144 league games before last season, I'm not even sure if those 12 games he missed were injury related or other selection issues like resting him or suspension or rotation/tactical. He has played every league game this season up until today where it seems he has been omitted as he's off. He had a bad injury last season and missed 3/4 months - that can happen any player but there certainly doesn't seem to be any major cause for concern over his fitness.

 

So he's still not signed lol. Crow would get banned for this thread haha