[Link] Kevin Doyle

You've missed the point. Having a core of Celts is not the same as having a core of Irish/Scottish players. It's having a group of players who would run through brick walls for the club and supporters. That's going to be the trait of a determined person regardless of where they're from or who they support.

 

I can't argue with that,I do get great satisfaction with the king himself and plenty others leaving fans suttons,hartsons,thompsons...the list is endless to be fair...

And I'm of the same mind that whenever I've been to the republic/Dublin it's mainly united/Liverpool and actually any English team and most have us as a second team or just like to see us do well,always found and been told from people over there that your Northern Ireland,belfasts,Derry etc are a lot more hardcore celtic..
Abit off topic this and not generalising completely as we have loyal hardcore fans out of the republic anoll if that's not stating the obvious but you get the jist

 

Height of stupidity if we sign Doyle over the likes of Russell. Seen Wolves are after near enough £2million for him.

 

Obviously that statement means we only look for Irish players, just oook at how many play for us just now....

 

Get him snapped up Neily.

 

Not many in the senior side but a lot of out youth is scouted from Ireland, I have noticed. Dineen, McNally, McDonagh, Kellecher, McCabe, O'Connell and George are all Irish. Of course, McNally and George are from the north.

 

Dunne and Doyle aren't exactly gonna strike fear into the hearts of AC Milan, Munich or Real Madrid. This is what we have to try and find over the next couple of months. If an irish player is available in the lower leagues in England we'll get better value.

There are plenty of Irish lads that could do well, but we have to go a helluva lot younger to get them at the price we can afford, not just transfers, but wages.

The tradition of Celts playing here will always exist, it's just a matter of whether we can get them before they end up in the top league. By then, they get valued in unreal terms.

 

Who exactly can we get that would?

 

So Dunne and Doyle wouldn't scare AC etc, but Irish guys from the lower leagues in England would?

 

Not fully disagreeing with you here, but I think Big Vic would give most teams serious cause for concern. We found him (and cheaply), so you never know.

 

Big Vic when we signed him wouldn't have. We made him into the sort of player who could.

 

You're right (imo, anyway), but in a way you're answering your own question: we've proven we can get the odd signing like Wanyama who we can help mature into a player who will give even the biggest teams a headache, given time.

I take the general point you were making though: we don't sign ready-made, top-end footballers. We do, however, have the scouting and coaching systems to develop certain players who are capable of going on to reach those heights.

 

It's amazing to think that we have been a huge part in the development of a potentially world-class player.

 

I agree, and it should give us all great confidence in the system we currently have.

 

Fransisco Sandaza!

 

Bang on what I'm meaning mate.


Anyone who thinks we can sign players that can put the * up Bayern Munich then they're joking. However; if the circumstances are right; we could develop one.

 

I think Padmill, you misinterpreted the point i was making. Irish guys in the lower leagues are younger and not yet made the jump to the Premiership, so we'd be more likely to be able to afford them. They might have come through a good youth development and on the verge of becoming really good players as opposed to being at the other end of their careers.

Signing players that might do well against the top 16 in Europe is probably what we're looking at doing. Tonev and Balde are cheap options that could do well against these teams and it's not a difficult concept to grasp.

We can at least try, there are plenty of good players who could do damage against them and Lenny will want to go further than the last 16. Against Juve we came up 2 players short.

So what happens if we come up against a big powerful defense who are happy to sit in and play on the counter?

You fire a big massive guy like Balde in their that's a lot harder to bully. For sure it's a lottery and a guessing game to predict how a player will develop.

A guy like Tonev has the skill level to go past midfielders. He looks to have the makings of a guy that could unlock defenses at the highest level.

So this is something to aim for. Doesn't mean we'll get them.

We have some genuinely class players already, it's about the finishing touches to the squad. A battering ram up front and a pacy, highly skillful midfielder good with both feet and vision and a good Center half.

I think Johnny Russell hasn't been signed because he's similar to what we have already and it's maybe less likely he'd be able to do it against the massive teams in Europe, up front on his own.

A lot gets banded around about world class players. People might say Asamoah is a world class player.

In the second leg against Juve, i had huge fears about Forest coming up against Asamoah, it took him five minutes to settle and Asamoah couldn't get near him, never mind take the ball off him. And Forest is just a wee Scottish player from Ayrshire, up against a guy valued at what 16-17 million.

 

Not all the players we sign will go on to be top class players. It's just unrealistic.

We've seen that our young squad is capable of stepping up their game for the big occasions, but also capable of letting standards slip for bread & butter SPL games.

Signing a few 'Steady Eddie' type players is what I think we need. Not brilliant players, but good players who've had good careers and can help in giving the team a bit of direction on the pitch.