[Link] Baba Diawara

In the MON days we had 3 great strikers in Larsson Sutton and Hartson fighting it out for a place, I dont see anything wrong with having Baba Stokes and Hooper fighting for places in the team if anything competition is good for players you dont want them to get to comfortable in the starting 11 and think their place is always there you need to flight for it each week which will spur them on to get more goals. Same with the defence if a top defender is bought then current defenders will have to be always up to scratch or they would be out the team too imo.

 

+1 its a case of horses for courses, especially in the away games a change of tactics is necessary cause we need more grit in the middle to avoid being swamped by 5 man midfields.
we are not scoring enough goals from set pieces and crosses and this guy could be the answer, i'm sure stokes and hooper would both play well off a target man the same way McDonald did of JVoH.

 

Whats the latest lads?

 

We've been given first refusal and John Park was over there watching him play at the weekend.

 

First refusal? what exactly does that mean?

 

We can say if we want him or not before anyone else.

 

If someone else offers 6mil then we get to refuse to pay it first?

 

Yeah and if we were to have a bid accepted at the same time as another club, we would be given permission to speak to Diawara before the other club.

 

we don't no if this agreement was a verbal or written one. even though their chairman seems a decent bloke, he is under no obligation to honour this if it was a Gentleman's agreement.

 

So this might actually be happening then?

Am I right in thinking that work permit issues scuppered the deal in the summer? If that's the case, we might already have agreed a fee with Maritimo to speak with him in January (certainly fits in with the first refusal stuff).

 

we got the lustig deal done very quickly,so hopefully this deal gets done quickly then move on to a cb,then get rid of some of the dross and if we do might be able to get another player in

 

That would make sense but there have been about 5 variations of how this deal fell through initially , think the general consensus at the moment is that we pulled the deal in August without applying for a permit and there is no agreed price in place at the moment.

 

Chairman doesn't seem to difficult to handle, i think its simple, if lawell will pay what the chairman wants then we will sign baba, if lawell wants to try to do this on the cheap it seems the chairman will just go to other clubs.

 

That article said they want 3m, really? For the top scorer in Portugal? That can't be right..

 

i say go for it, no harm in going into a bit of debt if we must .. whats the worst thats going to happen, we'l possibly win the league? :s

stokes and hooper are great, wouldnt really be fair to write bangura off right now ( even though i feel he wont make it ) but if we buy him and he hits the ground running and is a success, then im sure there will be a squad rotation of strikers till we find our best partnership, be it sammy & bangura, stokes & hooper, or baba

 

Maritimo pave way clear for Hoops deal

Maritimo president Carlos Pereira has confirmed they are willing to hold talks with Celtic about a January move for Baba Diawara.



Hoops boss Neil Lennon has been interested in the £3million-rated Senegalese striker since the summer when a proposed move collapsed due to a failed work permit request.

However, it seems he will test the water again in the New Year with another bid to land Diawara and it seems Maritimo will not stand in their way.

"I have spoken again with the Scots recently and we are ready to resume talks," said Pereira. "We failed to reach an agreement before, but anything is possible now. "

It's a matter of sitting down and talking through our requirements.

This weekend, there were a lot of clubs - including Celtic - watching, not only Baba, but also other players from our team.

"We cannot rule out selling our best assets. If we did, we could run the risk of upsetting the players because of the huge leap in salary they could make by moving."

http://www.setanta.com/ie/Articles/2...l/gnid-121481/

 

hope its true , 3 million also seems like a giveaway for a player like baba

 

If we buy baba one of those four has to be leaving because their is really no way we can keep 5 first team strikers happy with enough game time. In an ideal world we would have 3 first team strikers who we trust and then have youth players such as keatings come in and fill the gaps for cup games and injuries

 

I think he is a must buy, I hope we can get him for 5 Million or less, I doubt we can get him for only 3

 

anyone else think that if the board dont stump up for baba it will be steven fletcher all over again