Not Actually that Crucial a Summer as of August 2023...beginning to now think everything isnt fine!

If these reports are to be believed, it gives me the fear some of the names mentioned.

 

With Jota leaving, can see us now aiming for five players that would be capable of starting. With others coming in to strengthen the bench.

GK, DL, MC, AML, AMR.

 

There simply has to be 1 or 2 possibly 3 big ones in the door there is no chance we would stand for this and they know that.

 

Record been on the social media watch



It's a new month and there's a palpable sense of transfer season being ramped up.

Clubs are returning to training and Celtic are under Brendan Rodgers' watch once again will be aiming for a sizeable impact in Europe. For the Irishman to get Parkhead rocking under the Champions League lights he has set a mandate of quality over quantity. And his funds will only be boosted once Jota says goodbye for Saudi Arabia in a £25m deal in the coming days.

It's a shock to punters but former boss Ange Postecoglou made sure to warn followers of the club not to get too attached to the heroes of his Treble-winning side. But what comes next? It's clear the champions are seeking quality. The deal for Marco Tilio has been rubber-stamped and now it's on to the next targets for Rodgers and the Celtic board. Record Sport runs the rule over the names in the mix and how things stand.


Carlos Borges
His stats in EPL 2 for Manchester City appear something out a cheat code with 29 goals and four hat-tricks. And that is a winger with a boatload of assists to boot. But the path to prominence under Pep Guardiola in the first team is a challenge for any player. And it appears the 19-year-old Portugal youth international will likely leave the Etihad either on loan or a permanent deal with a buy back option included. Celtic fans have championed his cause with Jota heading for the exit door as a potential replacement for their star man who is on the verge of joining Al-Ittihad. But Borges' suitor list is bulging with Palermo, Norwich, Nottingham Forest and Leicester on his trail. A wanted man.

Jota
And back to the aforementioned Jota. His final days as a Celtic player are here as he gets sets for a money-spinning transfer to Saudi Arabia. Record Sport understands the deal is all-but rubber-stamped and Sky Sports state talks in the coming hours will centre around the initial fee and the structure of payments. But Celtic are landing £25m which equals the fee they received for Kieran Tierney when he left for Arsenal in 2019.

Kieran Tierney
Talking about the Scotland international and it's the rumour Celtic punters hope comes true. From bookies odds tumbling to reports the 26-year-old is all ears to a potential Parkhead return. It's the type of mouthwatering rumour punters love. But will it come off?

Several reports south of the border claim Tierney is seeking clarity from Arsenal over what comes next. It appeared towards the end of last season an exit was in the works, however, belief Mikel Arteta could switch to a 3-5-2 and cooling interest from Newcastle opens the door to an Emirates stay. But Celtic fans would love it if Tierney and the team he supports were to reunite again.

Fabian Rieder
Social media has been set ablaze on Saturday evening by the name of Fabian Rieder. The 21-year-old Young Boys midfielder is all-action and has earned glowing reviews for his displays with his club and Switzerland's U21 team - where he is starring against Spain for his national team. Whatsapp's must be on fire with Twitter on the ropes but Rieder is trending in the Glasgow area despite Elon's desire to keep punters on the outside looking in after his madcap mandate on how many tweets users can view.

 

It’s mad to think when this thread was made how different things were to now.

Ange was the manager and we weren’t expecting him to be off.

We thought we may lose a Abada and maybe one other first team player but mainly shipping out deadwood.

It now seems like we may lose a few in Jota and Hatate but interestingly Abada seems to have been heavily involved in the kit launch, not that is any real indicator of anything other than it won’t be a done deal he goes.

It now looks like our midfield is going to pretty much be rebuilt, with Mooy retiring and Hatate possibly away; also supposed to be serious interest in O’Riley and Turnbull only having a year to go on his deal, I imagine it would be extend or be sold. I don’t think we will lose both Hatate and O’Riley but if we are signing a big powerful centre midfielder for cash and links to Rieder, Vera and Jashari I wouldn’t imagine any of them are coming to be back up.

Jota being away is a major surprise but I wonder how that might play into Rodgers thinking of the shape of the team. I hope there is something in the Tete rumour as he looks a talent at a cut price. It is also clear from Rodgers comments when he joined Leicester that he rated him.

Another winger who I think Rodgers would be good for and could be an interesting loan to buy would be Jens Peter Hauge from Frankfurt. He was brilliant at Bodo/Glimt and looked promising at Milan before he went to Frankfurt and it hasn’t worked out there. Hence why suggesting loan to buy with him but he is definitely pacy and powerful and knows how to score and create. I could see him being the Rodgers 2023 Scott Sinclair.

Is it tomorrow the team is back? If so I wouldn’t be surprised to see some movement on the likes of Scales, Urhoghide, Shaw, Montgomery, Welsh, and others like that. Soro turning down Panithinakios seems strange unless he has another option lined up or it may be just negotiating a better deal for him. Either way I doubt he will be here come the end of the window.

It has gone quiet on McCarthy being linked to MLS and there was also some rumours about Hart having an offer from there too.

Back on the original point it definitely seems like it’s going to be a busy summer window now.

 

Celtic could sell

Jota, hatate, turnbull & a few fringe players, frimpong moves on from & we get our cut. If KT moves that's more from the pie!

Spend £60m this summer and still end up with more cash at bank and a huge profit in a year's time due to UCL qualification

Unlikely but possible due to finances what you reckon @Foley1888

 

One of the reasons I'm not really bothered about transfers into the club so early into a new season under a new manager.

Is because I just don't believe Rodgers would be coming back here, further risking his reputation sinking to new lows after Leicester and fail to have Celtic retain the league title.

If that were to happen his career at any meaningful level is done for good.

There is also no way, the board whether some of them are new faces or not, will want to come even remotely close to repeating a capitulation that can compare to Covid season under Lennon, otherwise all that lovely revenue that's come flooding in where they have no doubt got some tidy bonuses from, comes to an almighty screeching halt.

By getting Rodgers back in, the Board and Rodgers are taking a massive gamble with fans patience and will be well aware they could easily be seen as once again, taking that financial support as granted if the board start resting on laurels now.

There is as much on line now in terms of both financial and reputation as their was during covid season that neither the Board or Rodgers can afford to a slow start to season, Rodgers will not be given the same grace as Ange if things don't start well with on pitch results.

I'm not expecting we go out and spend £70 million on 5 or 6 players...even if we did have the additional top up of funds by cashing in circa £45million+ on Hatate and Jota potentially going Saudi.

But we absolutely should have the facilities all in place now that with our resources, atleast compared to domestic rivals, we should be in a position to replace ANY talent that leaves and subjectivity win the league at a canter (imo that is 10 points or more).

However European success I don't expect anything at all this season...if we are lucky in the group draw maybe we see some great home wins but I don't expect to be doing anything after XMAS in Europe this season.

 

Surprised theres not a hint yet of us looking at a keeper and that and a quality centre back to play along side carter Vickers is a must as well.
Would love us bringing in 5 players of a 6 million bracket or more to stay dominant in our domestic league and give us a more of a chance in Europe.

 

John could bring in 5 players in the £10m bracket and not make a dent in the cash if jota, frimpong, Tierney and turnbull move on

 

A fair amount of variables involved but could be possible.

If we look at what we know.

- We got £5m for Ange

- we will get minimum £30m-ish for CL participation and ticket sales.

- Jota is going and we will bank between £17.5-22.5m once Benfica get their cut depending on the fee. Any add ons would come later.

What is likely
- Turnbull and fringe players like Soro, Scales, Urhoghide, Welsh and possibly others will be sold. You would think we would want minimum our £3m back for Turnbull, others who knows but say £5-6m from those sales.

- Frimpong is going to leave Leverkusen it’s just a matter of for how much. I have seen figures from £33m - £50m, truth is it will probably be somewhere in between we get 30% of profit so worth £6.5m-£11.5m roughly

- we will be making decent money from our Asian tour, again only reason I put this in likely other than certain is not sure how much it’s worth seen figures from £6-10m mentioned.

What might happen but more uncertain

- another big player sale or two. We have heard Johnston, CCV, Starfelt, Hatate, O’Riley, Abada and Kyogo all have interest in them. I think it’s unlikely we make it through the rest of the window without losing at least one or two of them. I will be very pleasantly surprised if both Hatate and O’Riley are here. Abada is meant to have a lot of interest as has Starfelt. I think we might end up with another £20-30m of sales from two leaving.

- Tierney gets a move from Arsenal, this looked certain but interest seems to have cooled a little. If he goes for £25m-35m we are meant to be due 15% of the full fee, so £3.75m- £5.25m.

- Will we look to try get some money back for Bernabei? If we are signing another left back, will we try recoup as much as we can from Bernabei before he stagnates for another season? In terms of how much it’s worth, no idea.

So on the assumption from an OPEX side of the business we maintain an income to expenses gap similar to this season with Ange compensation and Asia tour displacing the COVID insurance and Sydney Super Cup, then an OPEX profit of £10-15m is likely again (unless our balance of wages majorly shifts).

So breaking even on a £60m spend would likely take £45-50m of sales and sell ons being realised so Jota, Tierney, Frimpong, Hatate, Turnbull and fringe players we would likely achieve the £45m at least so is a possibility but as I said a lot of variables.

 

So in short


We're * loaded.

 

Yeah, the real two questions are how loaded will we be and then how much of that will we reinvest?

Our interims which were prior to the sales of Juranovic and Giakoumakis and buying Oh, we had about £60m in the bank but a net player trading (what are still due vs what we owe to others) of close to -£10m, so say at least £50m of surplus to add to all the above variables.

Personally I am hoping this is us adopting the Salzburg kind of model where. We accept we will lose some of our stars but look to replace them with the most exciting young talented players we can attract. Supplement that with some good experienced solid pros like McGregor, Kyogo, Taylor and I would even put CCV in that camp as he seems a mature player and is so consistent to maintain continuity and we have the makings to continue dominating domestically and being CL regulars/ hopefully making some in roads in Europe.

I think the tie in with the Austrian 2nd tier club could be invaluable there. See if we can get some of the replacements for the current first team in at 18 and out there playing a season or two to get ready maybe with another loan to an SPFL team or better thrown in, we could really take our model up a few levels.

 

Should start taking more shape over next few weeks.

How many more will we be bringing in to make the champions league squad??

Do you think Holm or Tilio will be in it?

 

* * me off that we every time we get something good started we never get to see it flourish to its maximum.

Ange - GONE

Jota - GONE

Mooy - GONE

And with speculation surrounding Kyogo, Hatate, Abada and Startfelt it could well get worse before it gets better.

Yes we brought Rodgers back and yes he'll surley have assurances surrounding the budget and all, but we've been selling players for huge sums for years and have we ever properly reinvested it in building a team for Europe?

So far we've bought a kid from Norway and a kid from Australia. No disrespect to them but we aren't going to pull up any trees in Europe filling the team with that sort of quality (not to say they won't turn out to be quality)

It's about time our board started shelling out on higher quality players who are ready for Europe. They odd project thrown in is OK, but we need ready made replacements, not hopeful stabs.

 

Thought we would be strengthening this summer but looks like it will be a case of trying to find replacements for players who aren’t easy to to replace.

 

I think we will strengthen overall..

We may have to spend big to replace a Jota or it maybe a case of having to have a couple of different types to replace Jota's quality....but I'm confident we will have a stronger first team and bench by the time the window shuts..

 

I hope so mate but could be tricky if a few more are way. Like Kyogo, Hatate, Abada potentially leaving and Jota and Mooy away already. All hypothetical atm buy your talking 100 goal contributions a season there probably, maybe more. Jota and Hatate looked the most assured at European level too along with Kyogo having a great EL campaign the season before last.

I don’t think we can afford to sell both Kyogo and Hatate now with Jota gone. One of them but would prefer they both stayed.

 

I can't think of a window where we've sold/lost 5 first team players

Mooy
Jota
Abada
Hatate
Kyogo

I can't see any way in which we allow all to go..

We're flush with cash
We don't need to sell
We have all of them bar Kyogo on long term deals

Maybe one of Kyogo/Hatate will go and Abada but no chance all go..

As I say, we were already flush before the window. Have just made a record sale. More champions league money. Clauses from Frimpong and Tierney as well no doubt coming in. Japan/Korea tour. Turnbull and some fringe guys going for fees..

We haven't flexed our muscles at all yet. We will. We're in our best financial footing probably in our history right now. As fans we want it now and I get it, especially after the manager going and some key players....but bit of patience required. We've allowed ourselves by winning the league and having no qualifiers to take our time and get exactly what we want in. The windows basically just opened..

 

I just hope we give Rodgers the money to spend and don't scrimp on replacing Jota and whoever else leaves.