Ex Celts you hate..

If a player has a contract and does not want to leave then there is not a wile lot we can do about it. Right or wrong we have to suck it up. There can be no justification to harassing a player if they do not want to leave the club.

MON may have wanted to keep said players but I doubt it was him handing out the contracts. Whoever it was may have made a mistake but to bully and use negative tactics is wrong from our point of view. I get it, if a player is not needed then we can save on his wage, but it is the way we go about it. In most of these cases it is our club who has wronged the player not the other way around. The Bobo Balde situation is an early example of the boardroom interfering with our football manager as well.

 

slow day on TC today is it?

 

Balde was hardly harassed. He broke his leg and was out injured for ages and when he came back he wasn't in the team anymore, and we simply couldn't afford to have a 33k a week player not in our first 11.

Keane wanted to take him to Sunderland and he said no, he was told he could find another club and he said no. That was Balde's prerogative and he was entitled to do it, but we as a club were entitled to freeze him out because he was harming us at a time when he had other options on the table.

As for the boardroom interfering, Balde had three longish term injuries leading into his final two seasons with us - WGS had two center backs that were fit and had formed a partnership, one of which was his captain, the reason Bobo was not playing was not a boardroom decision. He wasn't in the first 11 anyway, regardless.

 

I think only the most stupid among us would doubt that MON got pretty much whatever he wanted done/awarded contract wise.

Always always always the boards fault.

 

Come on people. Do you not even think there is a wee hint that WGS was told not to play Balde. At the time a youth player was getting game time ahead of him. We were trying to force him out.

 

Probably true og

 

Wait, what age was bobo when he left us? He was still playing regularly in 2005, wasn't he?

 

I think WGS was probably as * off as anyone with Balde as him refusing to leave when he was told he could was affecting what WGS could do signings wise. Added to the fact that he was injured quite a bit and we were offered money for him I can imagine WGS was not his biggest fan by the end.

How come the boardroom only made this decision in your eyes well in to WGS's tenure, after he got injured and fell out the team? Surely they would have told WGS's not to play him from the get go if it was in fact their decision and not Strachan's.

 

He was. He played a good chunk of WGS first season aswell.

 

In fact there is probably some fine primary sources on this very site. I certainly remember not being the only man who thought that Blade should have been in and around the team and that what was happening to him was, lets say political.

 

I recall having a chat with one of our very own Lisbon Lions, told me the way the CLUB treated Bobo was an outright disgrace sinply because they wanted him (and his wage) off the books.

 

I would well believe it. I have no sources direct from the horses mouth but it does not take a genius to work it out. My point is that sometimes our club is in the wrong. If an ex player dares to question certain things then they are attacked on here by a heap of hyenas. Asking questions and finding out the truth is important, no one at our club should be above scrutiny.

 

Yes but your answer tends to always be that it is never the players or ex-players fault but always the boardrooms.

Again, if the boardroom were interfering like you said then Bobo would not have played so many games in WGS first season. It was only after his injuries it went like that.

 

Then how do you answer the fact that when we had an injury crisis and leaking goals from all angles, Bobo was eventually called upon and came in alongside a struggling McManus and played superbly for a few games, McManus fairly upping his game during this short spell......then Balde shunted again soon after, literally never to be seen again.

All of our Seville squad (Larsson aside, and Petrov) Celtic careers faded away into obscurity......I actually struggle to remember whwn the likes of Sutton, Agathe, Valgaeren, Hartson etc actually left?

 

See people are more concerned about questioning me when a poster says that he heard from a Lion that he thought the treatment of Bobo was disgraceful. I am not that arrogant that I think people value my opinion as much as one of our greatest. Instead of catching me out can we not find some common ground that sometimes board room politiciking can interfere with the football side? That is the whole point of what I am saying. If you dare to question certain things then you are automatically hounded.

And I dont always take the players side over the board either. I would be happy if we were trying to get rid of Derk but within reason and without resorting to shady tactics. The key point is though that if the player does not want to leave then there is nothing we can do about it.

And just to nip the smart answer in the bud. The parallels between Derk and Bobo are not that similar. I dont think that Derk deserves a place in the side whereas I think Balde was dropped as a result of back stage politicking

 

Agathe got marginalised, Telfer took his place and Martin O'Neill took him to Villa halfway through his first season.

Sutton was getting injured a lot, apparently didn't get along with WGS and left halfway through the season to Birmingham.

Hartson had a 20 goal season in WGS first season, played well next to Zaruswki. Left for West Brom end of the season.

Valgaeren left 2005 for Club Brugge.

:icon_mrgreen:

 

Sutton went to Villa first, did he not?

I didn't mean I can't remember which clubs they went to, I meant the manner in which they left. Seemed quite hush hush no big deal kinda stuff.

Even Thompson, when he left to go to Leeds, no big thank you or anything for a group of players who got us to our first European final in x amount of years.

McNamara, shunted as well.

 

Birmingham then Villa.

I hated the way we treated Thommo.

 

Ah right

Aye that's what I mean mate, pretty shocking the way we have treated our servants over the years. Doesn't stop on the pitch as well.....happened/happens with people associated and working at the club in all aspects of employment.

 

Said it for ages mate, Lawwell's MO isn't rewarding loyalty.