Paulo Bernardo

Plenty players refuse to talk while playing at these tournaments. Why pretend that issue doesn't exist?


Would you be very annoyed if your manager publicly states he wants to see every player in ore season before decisions and your team go on and sell one regardless? Aye you would. Don't pretend it's not the same for Norwich. He'll be here but not for a we bit yet.

 

Celtic are confident that their deal to sign Paulo Bernardo will get done this summer, sources have told Football Insider.

Talks are advancing between the Hoops and Benfica, and all parties are confident that an agreement can be reached.

According to sources, a final deal to permanently bring the midfielder to Scotland is likely to be settled at around the £6million mark.

Football Insider previously revealed that the Scottish club have offered to include a sell-on clause to help smooth the negotiation process


Brendan Rodgers gave the green light to bring Bernardo back to Celtic Park following his loan spell last season

The 22-year-old spent last season on loan at Celtic and played a significant role in the club winning the Scottish Premiership


Considering how quickly he adapted to the division, signing him presents a lower risk factor to Rodgers than buying an unknown commodity.

The Portuguese midfielder played 33 times for the Hoops last season, scoring four goals and providing three assists.

 

Got plenty of evidence of that?

Utd about to sign two players currently at the tournament. Bayern about to sign a midfielder who just got knocked out with Portugal. Juve just signed a Brazilian midfielder who was playing in the Copa America. Albanian goalie just signed for AEK Athens. Sporting signed one of the Belgium CB's. And those are just the ones off the top of my head. There'll be loads.

Must just be our luck that the ones we want have said under no circumstances will they think about a transfer until they're knocked out of the competition.

 

Cos the players we want are waiting for better options

 

You missed a key part of the Idah situation - the player saying he wants to leave. Why did you fail to mention that?

If any of our players say they want to leave, they should be shown the door as soon as a decent offer comes in.

 

Against the wishes of the manager? I'm pretty sure the board will take the managers wishes first. Why do you ignore that?

 

Idah shouldn't be late in the window, but I wasn't expecting him in quickly either.

Bernardo should have been confirmed within the first week of the window not 4 weeks into it and a goalkeeper should be ready by now.

 

A player who doesn't want to be at the club should be sold. I'm sure Rodgers would love to keep Matt O'Riley this season, but if MOR says he wants a new challenge then he'll be gone. Keeping unhappy players is beyond stupid for many reasons.

The Norwich manager giving a stock answer of "I'm looking forward to seeing him in pre-season" the other night means exactly * all if Idah has made it clear that he wants to leave. The Norwich board will know that.

 

Can see Bernardo having a Petrov under O'Neill type breakout season this year. Will go for 20-odd million in a couple seasons.

 

I think so too. I'd like to see players like this come in and stay for longer but at the very least I think we'll make a decent profit on him.

 

Get him home and stop * about Celtic.

 

We cannot afford to buy players of O'Riley's calibre. We can only develop them, like we did with O'Riley himself.

 

To be fair to Bernardo he’s been best when attacking but most often he’s been asked to play deeper because of Matt being ahead of him. Maybe o’riley leaving helps him move forward akin to how Rodgers started playing o’riley further forward this year. Compared to the deeper role ange had him playing

 

To clarify, I don't think he will develop into the same calibre of player as MOR. I'm just making the comparison because the amount we're paying for him in fee and wages suggest he's there to start games rather than for cover. And if he's there to replace MOR, it's a clear step down in my view. Maybe I'm wrong but I think you'd be hard pressed to make the case for them as equivalent talents.

 

If he’s O’Rileys replacement, we start the season weaker in midfield.

He’s not on the same level as O’Riley and probably never will. He’s a good squad option off the bench for me. If he develops a bit more and becomes a first team player, I think £4.2m could be a decent deal.

I’m still not arsed if he signs or not, to be honest. It’s very much a meh signing.

 

Agree with this but also, we won’t be signing a player equivalent to o’rileys quality as that is now at the value of £25 million…. We will of course buy someone we think of as ‘meh’ who then becomes that £25 million player hopefully

 

It’s all about scouting. If you look across Europe right now, there is an abundance of talent that have been signed by clubs around our level or low level of the top leagues, who have midfielders who are as good, if not better than O’Riley.

O’Riley is likely to go for a club record sale. Has he really been the most impressive player we have had in the last 2/3 seasons? I don’t think he is. He’s an excellent player who’s going to continue to get better, as we all know. However, there will be players who can come in and contribute exactly the same way O’Riley has for less than £25m. In fact, I reckon there are a few out there. Who are easily achievable.

A players price is largely dependent on his exposure. In Scotland, players are far more exposed to Premier League than the Scandinavian teams, for example. If we signed Albert Gronbaek, I’d put money on him having better numbers than O’Riley has. He’s just not been exposed to the big guns in Europe quite as much, even though he was incredible for Bodo against Ajax.

 

I would agree that MOR's value is tied to his potential level rather than his actual level, as well as the fact that he probably qualifies as an English player for the EPL due to dual nationality. That adds far more to value for English clubs than you might think.

We could adequately replace MOR with some shrewd scouting and a willingness to spend half his transfer fee on a new player. However, even though this should be realistic for us to accomplish, past history should tell you that's just not how our club thinks. Instead, they'll try to find another £1.5m diamond-in-the-rough. That's just how they operate.

 

It’s not though.

The club are absolutely responsible for the poor recruitment and lack of proper scouting. However, we have spent significant money on players over the last few windows. Nawrocki was £4.5m and Palma was £4m. Bernabei was the same. We are spending decent money on players but the players we are bringing in aren’t good enough.

People focus on the price of a player far too much. I just want good players in. It’s ironic that you mention replacing O’Riley for £1.5m when we purchased him for exactly that price and are close to selling him, 30 months later for 20x times that.

 

I think you're overlooking the part where I mention shrewd scouting as a condition. I would agree that flinging money at an average player is a bad idea, which is why I feel £4.2m and 18k pw for Bernardo is not value for money.

Regardless, I would prefer the club look to spend £5-10m for a player with some pedigree behind them than sign 5 to 10 £1m players from Korea in the hope of them is the next wonderkid. I can't see how anyone could disagree that the former is a better strategy given the size of our squad and where we are financially and in terms of our football.