Nick Hammond joins Celtic, initial trial period.

Hammond convinced West Brom to sign Oliver Burke for 15M.

I have never rated him and was always weary when he come. It’s just confirmed it for me that he is part of the problem. None of this years signings aside from Turnbull have done a thing. I think that’s a lack of understanding of Scottish Football and the type of players we need to play in Scotland. The return rate for players he has scouted has been particularly poor.

 

Think it’s more to do with not getting the targets we were after like mckenzie and even benko embarrassing


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Have to say aswell if lawell brought forward David Marshall on a free and Hammond overruled for barkas on five million then their is some blame their


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Their was a piece in the media saying Hammond thought he was the dogs bollocks


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I'd hope so, since he must have scouted him.
But I mean though, Barkas not showing the ability we know/expect of him, is not on Hammond, that falls on the player AND the management/coaching team.

I think we can all agree on paper Barkas was a valid signing - the price paid is on PL, the inability to get him to fit in to the squad is on Barkas and Lennon.

 

this is bullshit cant you guys see it

its throw the women and children to the wolves first here by the oligarcs in charge

they wont own up to their responsibility for this seasons shenanigans its simple

although desmond is an absentee landlord it looks like the once every 2 to 3 year time for him to come in and make his presence felt by sacking the coach and chief exec

 

Surprised he's the 1st out the door

 

Desmond son meant to be incoming


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The * that needs sacking first is Neil Lennon, this is the * problem the most powerful men at our club cannot see that the * issue is the manager and the cunty CEO who's best pals with him, this * is night & day to congerton and i didn't see Desmond hurry that * out, could we do better than Hammond? Yes, but we need to vet properly and get someone in with a * real good track record, neither hammond or congerton have that.

* sack Lawwell, sack Lennon & then go after Hammond.

 

Since Hammond doesn't negotiate with clubs, I'd tend to agree with this.

 

The Barkas signing certainly looks a big mistake for the fee outlay.

Given Hammond was a keeper in his playing days, you'd assume it was the one position he would be able to find us a decent one of, especially with £5m at his disposal.

 

One of the justifications given by Lawwell for appointing Lennon, apart from the unique skillset of knowing the city, was that he supposedly had an eye for a player.

Find it hard to believe Hammond was signing players over his head. Lennon is just as culpable.

 

It's a strange one because he seems incapable of doing everything you see him doing in any youtube clip from his AEK days. Add to the fact that Stevie Woods has done a good job with most keepers we've had. All a bit not right for me.

 

Based on this season, I'm starting to question how good Stevie woods actually is when we say these things.

We've had a lot of keepers come through the door, the only two of real talking point is Boruc and Forster (3 if you count a fully developed and experienced Gordon).
Both are exceptional talents that honestly, I'd be surprised if they wouldn't have been as good with a different coach.

Woods seems to be struggling to fix what ever issue barkas is having, hazard is 22 and it's actually a worry it's taken to the antics of this season for him to get a shot. Doohan as well same age.

That doesn't take in to consideration the host of other keepers who've basically drifted through our club without a peep over the years.

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Lennon gets players handed to him. I doubt he knows * about any players that come here except for the Scottish lads.

Lennon just signs off on them, the gems and the duds. I don't really like this approach.

 

Hammond can’t escape blame for the Barkas deal.

It isn’t enough to just look at a players reputation and experience - you need to look at their ability and mentality. Thus far, Barkas hasn’t demonstrated either the ability or mentality to be number 1 here.

He’s also partly responsible for the fees. You can’t just recommend a player and leave it to Lawwell to come up with the entire financial side - you need to give him some guidance as to how much the player is actually worth.

 

Part of the issue you can immediately see here is that nobody has any real idea who’s responsible for various different aspects of the game that are essential for the success of the club. Who scouts? How do they operate a scouting system? Who negotiates and who has input into the process? How much insight does the manager have?

We’ve all got various different ideas about how things work, but no real clarity. It’s bizarre to me, as I know a lot of large, soulless corporations who operate with more transparency than we do. Nobody gives a * about these organisations beyond being money making endeavours for shareholders, but football clubs are very different - and in Scotland even moreso. Are you really maximising fan/customer engagement if you operate a smoke and mirrors approach, and only really engage with them at season ticket renewal time? Let us know how things work. This is our club after all.

The absolute most important thing for me though isn’t that we replace Hammond, Lennon, Lawwell or anyone else for that matter - it’s that we look at the process that got them here in the first place and kept them here for so long. The talk of Desmond’s son stepping in gives me no confidence that we’ll take a comprehensive approach to looking at the process itself. That’s not to say he can’t be successful - he can - but as long as the process is broken, as long as the decision making is flawed, we’ll got it wrong more than we get it right. I think our record in Europe over the past decade, and our recent managerial appointments (Rodgers excepted) are evidence of that.

 

the st mirren keeper last year fs Hladky - league experience, cheap and actually a decent enough keeper.

 

Can you imagine the outrage though, SPFL level players being signed for key positions.
Lennon and the coaching staff would still * it up and who would end up getting the blame? Hammond for suggesting a SPFL keeper in our own backyard and NOT scouting outside the UK.

Catch 22 either way.
For me, I still stand by Barkas, on paper is a solid enough and reasonable signing. He hasn't proven to be worth the £5million (yet) and for sure whoever signed off on that value needs to answer some questions (Lawwell namely it would seem on past experience).
But the buck stops with Lennon and the coaches for not getting the best out the guy.

You don't suddenly go from AEK starter, Greek international with European experience and a good CV/showreel, to absolute *.
Specially not when we all know the rest of the club is * poor right now and can easily explain this.

 

the scouting / recruitment end is pretty simple (per say)..

you usually cover your area ( Ireland ) (Scandinavia ) (England championship) etc etc.. the club give positions that are a priority - watch players over a number of games and fill in reports for something such as scout 7 etc which is viewed by all recruitment staff and scouts etc..

I would imagine there is high, medium and low cat players in terms of wages / fees / contract etc and obv the money the club are willing to spend etc. It would up to someone like Hammond to come up with a realistic list for lennon and lawwell. Usually it comes from the club what is priority in terms of players - do you want players who have pace over 20 yards, do you want big strong athletic players, players under the age of 26, players will sell on value etc.

I know in the last 3-5 years scouts all over clubs in England and Scotland have been cut severely (which is bizarre as they are not a great expense), the game is now flooded with agents / wannabe agents who are trying to move on and get players pushed into clubs (usually through close pals and contacts etc), more not than often to line their own pockets.

Alex Ferguson is one of the few managers who understood scouts and their importance and gave them a sense of value within the club.

Coaching can only be a certain extent, players like duffy and hazard are not the 1 in every 10, 1 in every 7, 1 in every 5 or even 1 in every 3 year players class- in Ireland for example those players are snapped up by the big clubs who can offer the best and most alluring contracts (troy parrot - spurs, paddy mc nair and paddy evans - man utd, Gavin Bazunu - man city.

You could flag great players up for celtic but the board over rule and go for the cheaper option, to the outside world the recruitment team get dogs abuse when really they are frustrated to and bite their tongue - has celtic ever had a sporting director ? do they work? could it be something the club needs at the minute?