Our policy will be the same as the last few years. Our scouting system is top class and we will be looking at untapped markets where we can find players who have the talent and can be coached into players who can hold their own in the Champions league. If we bring £16m in for two players then we'll be spending roughly around £5-6m on two replacements, although sometimes we get too hung up on what we are spending, it's all about the player regardless of price. Trust our scouting system, it's done not too bad lately. . . .lets see how the likes of Thomas Rogic develops, he could turn into a star but time will tell. Oh and good to see Quinny back talking about centre halfs, i seem to remember you telling us Glenn Loovens was the best centre half at the club last season. Welcome back m8.
No problem. I thought Ledley played well last night as well but for me Wilson was superb and our man of the match. He can still be dodgy domestically but in the CL this year he has been superb against top teams.
Firstly , he wasn't up against anyone , I'd still look great up against no one and I'm a veteran now !........... Wanyama was doing the Heavy stuff. If Wilson , and I posted this earlier this morning , had got a bit tighter to Matri he might have blocked the shot. I think Wilson is the worst defender I've seen since Joe Casey ................ He's dodgy ans is Ambrose now ........... dump the both of them.
No wonder he had a good game, if, as you say, he wasn't up against anyone. Heres me thinking i saw him win headers, win tackles and read the game superbly. Neil Lennon says Roy Hodgson was (rightly) raving about him after the Juve home game, i bet he wishes Loovens was English eh?
I'm sure Juve only had one forward up front , so if Wanyama was picking him up , what the deuce was Wilson doing ???? Loowens has played more Internationals than Wilson , so why would you pick a cart horse rather than a thoroughbred ?? I'm sure you'll tell me ............ I'll be back later
Aww Quinny dont start with this Loovens nonsense again Davie Weir wae a zimmer frame is/was a better defender.
Its all very well unearthing the talent, but young talent will always come up short when faced with experience. What Celtic really needs are a few experienced heads who arnt going to be phased by playing the biggest names in Europe and can guide the young talents through. The team as it is held their own well this year but I wonder how much of that was down to just being the underdog. Seeing Bradford get to the final was amazing but they are never going to consistently get to the final stages and that's how I see Celtic going unless you get a few heads in that have been and done it before. Like I said, if Celtic change their attitude from building teams that can win the SPL to teams that can get to the later stages of the CL consistently eventually it will become as desirable a club for players to go to as the higher top league clubs. thus making the SPL more desirable
I watched a La Liga game this season and Loovens tried to header it back to the keeper who was rushing out to clear, the striker nipped in and scored. Straight away i thought of Quinny
We simply can't afford to do that though. This run has been a blessing because it has wiped out our debt but we can't then go throwing silly money at continual progression in the CL. It has to be a balancing act. In saying that, we SHOULD be able to spend a bit more than we have done recently in an effort to enhance the overall quality of the team. What we shouldn't be doing is getting complacent domestically as this will then transfer over to European games and we will become unstuck. This is where good coaching and man management comes in.
If we sell Hooper and Wanyama we could. Lawwell has always stated than any money made will go back into the team and club. We dont need to invest much more in the youth set up or scouting. I think we do need to be looking at bringing in a player or two without the intent of making a profit on them. Not saying go out and splash silly money but enough to help the current squad along.
Exactly. Experience at Champions league level costs mega cash. Guys like Ledley and Samaras will be the experience. Fraser Forster will have learned more this season than he has in the last ten.. . . .we'll continue on the path we are on and i'm glad we are.
Build the club up so we are one day in a position to do that, we're not in that position yet. With experience brings £30k a week wages, they days are gone and it simply won't happen.
Had he just said 'team' he could have been held to his word but there can be many areas where money can be spent. The money spent on the team itself will never be as much as many of us would like but I think more and more fans are now more realistic about the kind of money we should be spending and when you look at the dire financial states of some other clubs there has to be a sense of perspective here. I realise we are nowhere near being in that sort of situation but we have to be mindful of the environment we play in and even consider the possibility that we may never again get into the CL group stage. That may sound far fetched to some but I don't think we can just assume that we will get there again to reap the rewards it brings. I do think the fans deserve one or two 'marquee' signings along the way and hopefully this will happen, although I think we all know that this particular description is wide of the mark as to what we can realistically expect to get thesedays.
Exactly... Doesn't necessary have to be CL level experience, maybe just decent international experience. Just someone the younger players can look at and say..."yeah hes done it before" to provide a settling influence.
We need a couple of years Champions League cash to be in a position to sign the established quality we are talking about. Champions League apart we have lost alot of cash this year.
Not sure we have really. The sale of Ki helped a lot plus we got a fair few off the wage bill. Loovens, eg. If, and it is an if, we sell both Hooper and Wanyama we can expect to bring in £15-20m for the pair. If we do have that kind of money I will be interested to see how its spent. We already pay almost £30k per week in wages (Brown and Ledley at least) and I know we could attract good players for that money. Obviously there are no guarantees in football but I would hope we try and attract first teamers as we dont need squad players really. As long as we dont sell too many of the squad though we should be fine. Although we are portrayed as a selling club, there is not really much evidence to back this up in fairness. Then again, name we one club in the world that is not a selling club. In relative terms, they all are.
We have lost alot of cash m8, mostly on corporate cash. The Ki money basically cleared our debt. If the season ticket uptake is down then we'll lose more and will need Champions league cash to fund that gap. There is no point in having a strategy then spending big to replace players we made a profit on. No experienced player with offers elsewhere will come to the SPL especially right now with no challenge. Trust the scouting system, we can bring in good quality players for £3m. . . .as i've said before though we get too hung up on how much we do or don't pay, it's all about the player. Junhinio was an experienced big name player as was Thomas Graveson. I'd hate for us to spend big then a player flopped and would rather trust our scouts who scour the entire planet every week looking at talent. I take great pleasure watching Wanyama knowing we got him for a pittance and will make a fortune on him. They won't all work out but neither will the experienced signings.
Do you think the ticket prices should be lowered for next season given the way the league is turning out this season?
We definitely need one or two older players to lead by example and be cool heads when the going gets tough. Davie Weir for example did a fantastic job for Rangers in that respect. When he signed for them at 37 (i think) I was almost rubbing my hands at the prospect of our strikers going up against him but he didn't half prove me wrong and was a great servant for them.
