Might Pukki and/or Baldé have a future here yet?

In short: Balde is a bit on the gawky side, and Pukki doesn't have the bite required of a top-level SPFL striker.

Neither would go on to overwrite their lackluster history if they were given the opportunity to return to the club.

 

I've been reading the forum for well over a year and a half, so not really signing up only for this but I have to ask how is that evident, exactly?

What I like to rely and base opinions on are facts:
He has scored 9 goals in the Danish league (+2 or so in the cup) and is in good standing on the goal scorer list of the league, well above anyone else in his team (next one has 3 goals), has been 6 times in the team of the week which makes him no.2 in the league in this (league's top goal scorer has 7 nominations) and is appreciated and liked by the manager and the fans.
He has clearly fit in, and when he has played as a striker - not a winger - he has scored 8 goals in the 13 matches with this starting position.

To me this is a very solid season, and best of all, watching most of his games, he has become a lot more decisive, physical and able to play 90min. day in day out.

However I don't think him and Celtic are really that good a fit, I do agree with that. Hope the best for him, and likewise for Celtic but please don't just bash the guy if his facial expressions irritate you..Not specifically directed to the quoted poster, Ronny, but in general.

 

Pukki has never been a goal scorer wherever he has played.

His best record was at Helsinki, where he scored one every other game for half a season. Apart from that he usually scores one every four games or much less.

We play a lone striker and we need our strikers to score goals on a regular basis. Pukki is not that lone striker. Not by a long shot.

So is he competition for Armstrong / Johansen / GMS / Commons / Stokes in our forward mids?

Can't see it judging from his merits so far. He is also 25 and very unlikely to explode into something totally new and exciting.

But then again - Ronny may find hitherto unseen potential in Pukki to exploit.

Could turn into an atomic left back for all we know!

 

Neither of them have a future at us, for one Pukki always seemed fragile and dumbstruck with the physical side to Scottish football, and Balde he's just not got it and wouldn't fit into Ronny's set up so they'll be moved on i hope.

 

Would rather throw Virgil up front for a plan B. I wonder how he'd do as a lone striker...

 

It's a bit funny to compare his stats in HJK in the Finnish league, which - pains me to admit - after HJK and (maybe, big maybe, 2-3 challengers) is just not very competitive on European level vs. for example his time in Schalke which is a bigger and better club than Celtic and most of all the opponents are of a lot higher quality.

Summary of Pukki's career

Spain: Went there young, developped but did not make a break-through.

HJK: Was a good decision to go back, was good in the Finnish league and particularly impressive in the Euro campaign. Good goal scorer and all around striker during this time but the level is not comparable to anything.

Schalke: The club was too big for him at this stage, competing with the likes of Huntelaar for the striker position. However, fans loved him and he scored some nice goals - usually as a sub. Decent goals/minute ratio and good appearances.

Celtic: Weird signing, looks like he wasn't really scouted. He was not going to be a Zlatanesque character if that was the type they wanted. Didn't seem to fit to Celtic's style and Scottish football & the way every opponent plays safe and defends against them, and the fans dislike him greatly. Probably the worst time of his career.

Brondby: Solid season, obvious choice in starting eleven and decent tally of goals.

To be continued.

 

The fans didn't dislike him greatly at all. The facts are he's a talented player, not really ever going to be a prolific scorer but his all round play is decent. He's just mentally weak, timid on the pitch, he doesn't have it in him to succeed at a huge club at Celtic where the demands to perform week in week out are so great.

To be honest he was never the type of signing we were looking for, we were needing a replacement for hooper, who had been prolific and who's all round play was top drawer. and probably our best striker since Larsson, pukki was never that guy, and was probably about 4th choice on our list when we ended up buying him.

 

That's not true. Better league yeah, that's all.

Most Celtic fans know there is a player in Pukki, we just didn't see it often enough. He has ability but as others have said he has a weak mentality that isn't suited for the pressures of a big club.

 

Better players than Pukki have came here and thought Celtic/Scotland would be a walk in the park and failed.

The club is just too big for him.

 

There's nowhere near the same pressure playing for Schalke than there is at Celtic. Never mind when he was supposed to be the main striker, he had decent enough ability but he's mentally weak.

 

Schalke a bigger club than Celtic

 

In what world?

 

Maybe it's then a misunderstanding by me that fans dislike him, but at least reading this forum my gut feeling is that instead of thinking how to get most of him or supporting their player, majority of Celtic fans like to berate him and concentrate on his demeanour which somehow weirdly seems to annoy many. He is just a somewhat quiet, polite Finnish guy a bit on the shy side, the country has loads of them, it isn't really anything special and I don't get how it can annoy so much. To me it is all completely irrelevant, probably cultural differences - I am myself totally opposite of that but it doesn't really surprise me that some people are like that. And if they know how to play football, it really doesn't matter the slightest.

The strange thing is that Guidetti was the opposite in character,and also he got a fair share of haters.

And if the counter argument is that Pukki's character didn't really annoy but he just isn't good enough, then I beg to differ. I don't think he really ever had a fair chance at Celtic. Of course it can be that Scotland just isn't for him, period.

 

Bundesliga > SPL by a huge margin in the real world, and looking at European results I think it reinforces my point.

Also, Scottish league isn't even in the top 10 of Europe. And, furthermore, in UEFA team ranking club coeffiecients Schalke is number 7, Celtic number 55.
http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/club/

It wasn't meant to disrespect Celtic but competitively I just think they are a better European club, and I'd like to see some arguments why they wouldn't be. Celtic has more history and a bigger fan base I am sure.

Anyways, this is besides the point. I am definitely not saying that Celtic isn't a good team or anything.

 

I was defending him on here quite a few times at one point. His heart just wasn't in it, any missed chance, even if we were winning and he was looking to the gods and completely blank..
He never looked happy and sometimes a move/club just does not fit each other. He hasn't helped by the many sort of bitchy articles where he's sort of blamed the standard here and stuff. Take some responsibility pal, man up for a start..

He's a talent, he proved it here as well that he is intelligent, makes good runs and can finish. He's not a Ronny type player for me, and I'll be amazed if he dons the hoops in a competitive game, ever again..

Good luck to the guy though..

 

Come on now, Scepovic has looked absolutely rank rotton at times. There was a time on this forum where everyone was slaughtering him to * along with tonev. Oh and Scepovic has actually only scored 3 more goals than what balde has.

 

It's not character we're talking about when we talk about him being mentally weak. He visibly wilts at any bad touch, any miss, anything he does wrong effects him for the rest of the game until he manages to get it out of his sytsem.

The reason that's annoying is because the guy has talent, he just doesn't have what it takes mentally to cope with the pressure of playing for a club like ours.

 

Not everyone...

He's always had something about hiim and quite a few people have pointed out how good his positioning and movement is. Balde is a very different case

 

First of all, Germany is about 12 times the population of Scotland so comparing leagues and record's against each other on that basis, is unfair in the extreme..
Secondly the fall in standard here will have something to do with us being 10th as a nation in Europe, again a sign of the times and finances that more than anything, have led to our decline as a country..

Still, none of that means they are a bigger club than us though. They are probably not even in the top 6 clubs in Germany. Anyway..

 

^ I am not really a scientist in human behavior, and I doubt many of you guys are either. Maybe it just looks like that but does not affect anything?
It's a huge statement to say that he is mentally weak based on what you think a player should look like after a miss, maybe you just aren't familiar with a character like him.

In any case, he has been sharper in Brondby this season. I haven' registered all his facial expressions, but seen a more physical Pukki capable of holding the ball better on the pitch.