The Scottish PL discussion thread

eirebhoy

http://celticfc.net/news/stories/news_010607093949.aspx

However, morning newspaper reports linking Celtic with a move for Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler are completely untrue and ill-informed.

PauloMN

eirebhoy wrote:

Chris Killen puts a few minds at rest:

"They've (Celtic) put one of their players on the transfer list. There's still another 5 or 6 strikers there but I've been told a few are going to be on their way out."

I think it's fairly obvious that Miller and/or Beattie will be gone. I'd wonder about Zurawski as well - I wouldn't like to see him go at this stage - he deserves more time.

PauloMN

odonnell wrote:

yeah i bet his heart bled green and white when he scored the goal that lost yaes the league in 04/05! hehe

The boys a mercenary - same as the rest of that lot (said in seething tones of despair)

Of course I'll admit I was cursing the little f*£&er on Black Sunday, but sure it was our awful play that got us into that mess. :mad: I swear I'm not still hurting over that.

So when IS Murray Mint going to spend a few quid anyway?

eirebhoy

PauloMN wrote:

I think it's fairly obvious that Miller and/or Beattie will be gone. I'd wonder about Zurawski as well - I wouldn't like to see him go at this stage - he deserves more time.

Yeah I agree. Beattie and Miller have definitely played their last games for Celtic imo. 1 of Zurawski or Riordan will be gone too. My guess is Riordan. Strachan still rates Zurawski.

Vennegoor
Killen
New Signing
McDonald
Riordan/Zurawski

Dempsey

Miller, Beattie, Zurawski aren't doing enough for me and I cant see them improving enough to merit them staying longer. I'd cut loose of these 3 when the opportunity arises.

Killen & McDonald are good finishers and could improve alot with a better team and setup around them. Celt have stigma about signing good SPL players, but regardless of past failures when buying other SPL players, i think McDonald will step up but injury could see Killen flopping completely

odonnell

PauloMN wrote:

Of course I'll admit I was cursing the little f*£&er on Black Sunday, but sure it was our awful play that got us into that mess. :mad: I swear I'm not still hurting over that.

So when IS Murray Mint going to spend a few quid anyway?

Ah who knows mate. Im still of the opinion that the cash has to be going 'somewhere'. I refuse to believe a club the size of Rangers (this would include Celtic), has profits of around £4m to work on after a season in the champions league, a season in the Uefa cup....and 5 years of debt whiping.

Now as they stand - they have only around £5m debt (down from £80m 5 years ago when the REAL penny pinching started). People are getting frustrated now, as 5 years on bosmans is a long long time, especially when we signed a £12m striker not too long ago. As i see it, next year when the debt is completely gone - surely we could be spending £10m a season in transfers as theres simply no way I can believe we have an operating cost which can see us bring in something like £88m, yet only have a net annual profit of £4m!?

How the roles reverse - 10 years ago celtic looked like they were about to fold, sold up, demolish the stadium, move the team to Gourock or some obscure place on the west coast - how about Campbeltown? And if i recall correctly - all any celtic fan could talk about was how penny pinching their board was, that they were being outspent every year! Well now its us, Murray chased the dream and it failed miserably - a complete one-off in Scottish football i fear... to have a team worth a reported £80m on the pitch and another £15m on the bench at any one time.

But heres what i dont get - in the days BEFORE the debt - Rangers were still able to offer top class wages (to rival Man Utd etc!) - so what has changed since then? Im confused!

oops...this is a celtic thread - yes ..... no robbie fowler afterall, thank goodness! Maybe theyre after Alan Smith instead.


[edit] - im no longer confused..... sky money.

Mitch Connor

odonnell wrote:

But heres what i dont get - in the days BEFORE the debt - Rangers were still able to offer top class wages (to rival Man Utd etc!) - so what has changed since then? Im confused!

Maybe you got into debt because of the contracts.

eirebhoy

If Celtic win the league next year it'll be the first time a team has won the SPL 3 or more years in a row in almost 100 years, bar both Celtic's and Rangers' 9 in a rows.

Erin Go Brath

eirebhoy wrote:

If Celtic win the league next year it'll be the first time a team has won the SPL 3 or more years in a row in almost 100 years, bar both Celtic's and Rangers' 9 in a rows.

When we win the league next year

odonnell wrote:

Wee chesney is really startin to get on ma wick. And everyone wonders why Walter Smith is being so discreet!

Can't wait to see who wee chesney nicks from the bluenoses grasp next!

odonnell

Erin Go Brath wrote:

When we win the league next year







Can't wait to see who wee chesney nicks from the bluenoses grasp next!

yeah Smith has already started with the denials - people we ahve CLEARLY had contact with, now we are not and never were looking at.....

chesney is like a wee dog sniffing around the dinner table, and grabbing a nice big bit of pizza out your hand just as you go to bite into it. the bassa.....

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

eirebhoy

testing, testing...

eirebhoy

Good to see Teddy Bjarnason made his international debut for Iceland today.

Hoops1888

Some Milan pictures.

Hoops1888

Quick clip http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n104/joebhoy_2006/?action=view&current=Milan059.flv

Eirebear

Once again David Murray shows his lack of ambition for Rangers.
Not only is Naismith a player that really shouldnt be one of our main targets, he goes and makes us a laughing stock (again) with his completely idiotic bid, 200 grand with another 200 at the end of the season? come on david put your hand in your pocket or were screwed.

PauloMN

Eirebear wrote:

Once again David Murray shows his lack of ambition for Rangers.
Not only is Naismith a player that really shouldnt be one of our main targets, he goes and makes us a laughing stock (again) with his completely idiotic bid, 200 grand with another 200 at the end of the season? come on david put your hand in your pocket or were screwed.

Naismith is a good little player, he's definitely worth more than £400k.

When asked if the latest offer was higher than Rangers', Johnston laughed: "That wouldn't be hard, would it?"

If Scott McDonald and Paul Hartley can make £700k and £1m respectively, Naismith is definitely in the £1m bracket.

Eirebear

PauloMN wrote:

Naismith is a good little player, he's definitely worth more than £400k.



If Scott McDonald and Paul Hartley can make £700k and £1m respectively, Naismith is definitely in the £1m bracket.

Yup i agree hes a decent player, i still feel we need to set our sites a little higher to go with him though.

The bid we put in is a complete embarrasment, we missed out on McDonald, Brown and probably a few others because of our ridiculous policies.
Were not as skint as were pretending to be, looks like the biscuit tin has made its way to the southside.

PauloMN

Appiah interest confirmed:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/celtic/6735217.stm

Celtic are also reported to have made an approach for Naismith:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/k/kilmarnock/6735795.stm

That one has me stumped to be honest. Looks like he'll cost the guts of £2m (given that Killie claim to have rejected a £1.7m offer) and we've already just bought McDonald and taken Killen, plus we still have Miller, Beattie, Zurawski, Riordan and JVoH. I know we'll shed probably 2 of those, but still... would £2m not be better spent elsewhere at this stage?

Of the other rumours:

- Bellamy: the price tag looks likely to rule him out. Awful shame, I'd really like to see him back in the hoops.
- Koumas: I'll be glad if we don't get him TBH. He wants to play in England, we shouldn't force the issue.
- Ljungberg: hadn't heard that rumour, can't see it happening. Unless he's willing to take a big drop in salary. Mind you, freeing up Gravesen's and Jarosik's salaries could change that.

eirebhoy

PauloMN wrote:

Appiah interest confirmed:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/celtic/6735217.stm

Celtic are also reported to have made an approach for Naismith:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/k/kilmarnock/6735795.stm

That one has me stumped to be honest. Looks like he'll cost the guts of £2m (given that Killie claim to have rejected a £1.7m offer) and we've already just bought McDonald and taken Killen, plus we still have Miller, Beattie, Zurawski, Riordan and JVoH. I know we'll shed probably 2 of those, but still... would £2m not be better spent elsewhere at this stage?

We still have to buy a first choice strike partner for Jan. I hope Naismith isn't that player. I'd swap him for McDonald though in fairness.

KdjaCL

Anyone got a link to Paul byrnes goal vs rangers?

EB?? :P


kdjac

PauloMN

eirebhoy wrote:

We still have to buy a first choice strike partner for Jan. I hope Naismith isn't that player.

Looks like he could well be. I dunno, strange one, unless they're just playing games with Rangers.

Beattie and Miller must be going, I wonder about Zurawski as well.

Surely though between Killen and McDonald we've enough SPL strikers?

eirebhoy

Celts bid is high n Frei

EXCLUSIVE

GORDON STRACHAN'S bid to land Swiss strike star Alexander Frei has been scuppered after Borussia Dortmund blocked the move.

The Celtic boss made enquiries about Frei recently only for his German club to issue a hands-off warning.

Dortmund have financial problems but are determined to hang on to the 27-year-old who is rated at £4million. Frei averages a goal every two games at Dortmund and also had a great record at old club Rennes.

He was viewed as Celtic's next star signing but the player insists he won't be allowed to move on.

Frei said: "Celtic are interested but it's impossible this season. Not because of me but because of Dortmund.

"They say I'm going nowhere and I accept that.

"I signed a contract for four years and didn't do that only to walk out after 12 months.

"But I'm happy Celtic are interested - it's flattering.

"They haven't been in direct contact but they have spoken to my agent and also the club. If I left, Celtic would be attractive.

"The most important thing next season is that I'm fit and in form. I want to be scoring goals because Switzerland are co-hosting Euro 2008.

"Dortmund are a big club with great fans and a fabulous stadium. Celtic are the same and it might be a future option. It's not every day a Swiss player can go to a big club like that."

While a move to Celtic looks unlikely for Frei, countryman David Degen could be checking in at Parkhead this week.

The 24-year-old recently had a Hoops trial after falling out of favour at German club Borussia Moenchengladbach and hopes to hear from Strachan in the next few days.

The midfield ace - also linked with Middlesbrough - said: "I first learned of Celtic's interest 12 months ago.

"My agent told me they had been watching me and that's when the first contact was made.

"I hope the move will happen. I spoke with Gordon Strachan before and there is a good understanding between us.

"Celtic are a great club and the training was also impressive. I want to sign for them - who wouldn't?"

© 2007 Scottish Daily Record & Sunday Mail Ltd
Sunday Mail

.

eirebhoy

CELTIC are close to completing a £5million double swoop for Serie A stars Gennaro Delvecchio and Massimo Donati.

Talks to bring the Italian pair to Parkhead are already at an advanced stage and manager Gordon Strachan hopes to have them on board at the start of next week.

...

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/tm_headline=celtic%2Ds-double-italian-swoop%26method=full%26objectid=19300147%26siteid=66633-name_page.html

eirebhoy

Celtic have sold the shirt of Shunsuke Nakamuras Back for a STAGGERING £3.5M .
in the land of the rising sun.

the kids in japan love the famous hoops so much they dont even take the PRICE TAG off thier prized Nike jerseys when walking the streets of Tokyo.

Sunsport Can reveal , that sales of Nakas Trademark No.25 shirt have now rocketed beyond the 100,000 since he signed for gordon strachans champions two seasons ago.

Now the 40th anniversary Lisbon Lions top is BREAKING NIKE sales records in Japan.and elswhere and celtic are certain to outstrip the 130,000 sold by italian club Reggina when Naka played there.

Add in cash from Dvd sales, £1m for playing in an exhibition game agaisnt nakas old club yokohama Marinos and a profitable japanese language website.and the WORTH of signing the japanese sensation is hammered home.

Nakas cost to celtic from reggina was widely reported to be £2.7m BUT in gordon strachans autobiography the fee is revealed as £1.4m. if that is the case the champions have won a watch, a Gold Plated one. !

Celtic commercial director David Thomson , hailed the success of the nakamura adventure. and he said " we have distribution throughout Japan on Naka shirts and the sales are beyond Phenomenall ,NIKE are over the moon with the volume of shirts bieng sold, the strange thing is his shirt over there is just as he wears it here.

"the fans dont want Japanese writing they want the original one in english and they even take it to the extremes "!

"Japanese kids dont even take the tags off the jersey so they can prove it authentic "
Nakamura Appeal in Japan rivals if not surpasses that of David Beckhams in England.
After his memorable Champions league winner against Man utd he is now THE" footballer to have your brand associated with. Naka cannot walk down the street in Tokyo without Bieng Mobbed he is the Japanese Beckam.

Hoops Supremo Peter Lawwell has relished the impact made by Naka after clocking up thousands of air miles to secure his signature from Reggina 2 years ago. Lawwell Said " i wont lie , we did have an eye on the asian market BUT it had to be the right player "its the same in Australia with Scott Mcdonald and Chris Killen, hopefully we will also look at ways thier signing can possibly help the BRAND.

tetsujin1979

eirebhoy wrote:

its the same in Australia with Scott Mcdonald and Chris Killen, hopefully we will also look at ways thier signing can possibly help the BRAND.

Much as I dislike the term "brand" (which only really came into use with Chelsea and Man Utd) Naka was the right player at the right time of his career for the right club and a whole lot of other "right"s

Badabing

Celtic sign Massimo Donati from milan according to offical website:)

eirebhoy

Yeah, I'm very happy with that. I can't say I ever saw him play but reading reports it's exactly the type of player I expected to replace Lennon, a deep lying playmaker. If he can hack having much less time on the ball in Scotland then we'll be playing much better football next season no doubt. He was supposed to be the next big thing a few years ago. Milan paid €15m for him and he has the record number of appearances for Italy U-21s.

The reported fee is £2.5m. We should keep shopping in Italy. Naka cost £1.5m. I get excited signing players I never heard of with Strachan in charge.

PauloMN

Midfield is shaping up nicely now I must say with the experience Donati has at the top level in Italy. I hope he works out in Scotland, it's never a dead cert and the likes of Gravesen and Jarosik have shown that.

Now all we need is the killer striker. "Killer" I said, not "Killen".

Actually I think McDonald and Killen will be great strikers to have around for cover, substitutions and as starts from time to time. I do hope however that Celtic sign a top name striker to partner JVoH up front. They also need to shed at least two, I reckon Miller and Beattie anyway.

eirebhoy

According to L'Equipe Rangers are close to signing Julien Faubert of Bordeaux for €6.5m.

http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/breves2007/20070623_093541Dev.html

He's only 23. Good signing if they get him.

Eirebear

eirebhoy wrote:

According to L'Equipe Rangers are close to signing Julien Faubert of Bordeaux for €6.5m.

http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/breves2007/20070623_093541Dev.html

He's only 23. Good signing if they get him.

I'll belive it when i see it, thats about 4 million sterling.....can you really see us spending that on one player at this stage?

Looks like youve made a decent signing today in Donati, bit of an unknown quantity, maybe never lived up to his promise, but you never know in scotland.
Hope you dont get delvecchio....he's good

PauloMN

I'm sorry, there's just no way.... no way we should sign someone called Rod Fanni. Can you imagine the stick he'd get at Mordor!

I'd say the songs are being written as we speak just in case.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/c/celtic/6234992.stm

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

Eirebear

PauloMN wrote:

I'm sorry, there's just no way.... no way we should sign someone called Rod Fanni. Can you imagine the stick he'd get at Mordor!

I'd say the songs are being written as we speak just in case.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/c/celtic/6234992.stm

Another rafael in the making eh?

Ziggy, were told there was money available for brown...but then weve also been told there was 40 odd grand a week available for Pizzarro.
Murray's the king of spin.

But then again, he has pulled the rabbit out of the hat time and time again, so i dunno.
it's exciting when your a bear

Hoops1888

Eirebear you're from Dublin and a gers fan?

odonnell

Hes from Glasgow livin in Donegal, and a ger - hes weird.

Im livin in dub though... and a ger. Soon the world will be ours....

Eirebear

Eirebear you're from Dublin and a gers fan?

Hes from Glasgow livin in Donegal, and a ger - hes weird.

Im livin in dub though... and a ger. Soon the world will be ours....

Wow, i answered that without typing a thing! hehe

Nah as the man says, im originally glaswegian, but moved to donegal at the age of ten...so up heres home TBH.
And yes....i am wierd

On a side note, O'Donnell, youve been awfy quiet of late. Drop me a line when you get a chance dude.

odonnell

ive been sitting in a darkened room and contemplating what it is to be a truly great football player EB. A week or two ago i drew the blinds, stuck on the 9 in a row dvd, followed by Cooper, McCoist, and Laudrup.... I've been drinking mostly tea and washing my new Rangers kit over and over, and over again. I've ironed it 5 times now and the Carling transfer hasn't yet fallen off.

Sometimes I play keepie-ups in the hallway, Ive broken the wife's lovely silver mirror from Past-Times, and now i think Im cursed never to score another goal, ever, ever again.

Thats what I've been up to but to the heart of the thing: - youve got a frickin phone too boy!

Eirebear

odonnell wrote:

ive been sitting in a darkened room and contemplating what it is to be a truly great football player EB. A week or two ago i drew the blinds, stuck on the 9 in a row dvd, followed by Cooper, McCoist, and Laudrup.... I've been drinking mostly tea and washing my new Rangers kit over and over, and over again. I've ironed it 5 times now and the Carling transfer hasn't yet fallen off.

Sometimes I play keepie-ups in the hallway, Ive broken the wife's lovely silver mirror from Past-Times, and now i think Im cursed never to score another goal, ever, ever again.

Thats what I've been up to but to the heart of the thing: - youve got a frickin phone too boy!

Ahhh well theres your problem, the mirror...and the missus have combined to bring you well over the standard 7 years of bad luck.
Just think yourself lucky you havnt been turned into a one eyed toad!

Your right, i do have a phone...and it hasnt rang for ages
Seriously though ill give you a bizz during the week for a catch up.

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

Eirebear

ziggy67 wrote:

Get a room lads FFS

Nah, hes not scoring enough as it is!

According to the BBC today Bordeaux are after close to 10 million for faubert.
Looks like that ones down the pan then!

odonnell

I reckon the pan is where it started in the first place mate - looks like its always been a pile of shoite!

Hoops1888

Start yer own thread lads lol.

Do ye Rangers not get the **** kicked out of ye?

odonnell

nope.... why would we get the shoite kicked out us? Doesnt really happen in Glasgow, dont see why it should happen here - where nobody actually knows there arse from their elbow regarding the old firm ...

except yous lot, of course.

Eirebear

Hoops1888 wrote:

Start yer own thread lads lol.

Do ye Rangers not get the **** kicked out of ye?

Man ive lived up here since i was ten FFS.
No i dont get the **** kicked out me.

As the man says, most people in Ireland are Man Utd, Arsenal, Newcastle, Leyton fecking orient fans...who support celtic when they feel like it.
Present company excepted of course.

Christ we struggled to find somewhere to watch the Scottish cup final in Dublin recently because there was egg chasing on!

obviously we dont run around rubbing it in everyones faces all the time.
but then again, if we done that anywhere we'd get a kicking.

Dempsey

Boruc

Doumbe   Kennedy    McManus     Naylor

Nakamura   Brown    Donati       McGeady

          Hesselink     McDonald

Not a bad starting XI

Eirebear

SSN saying Craig Beattie is off to West brom for 1million.
Not a bad piece of business for celtic to get that much for him to be honest.
I'd have taken a bag of jelly babies!

Mr Alan

wouldnt be suprised if Naka was on his way out too considering the noises coming from his agent.

limited internet access in work. . . but check the RTE website to see em

Badabing

Eirebear wrote:

SSN saying Craig Beattie is off to West brom for 1million.
Not a bad piece of business for celtic to get that much for him to be honest.
I'd have taken a bag of jelly babies!

Good bit of buisness for Celtic, a very frustrating player loads of pace but no brain.

Eirebear

from SSN

Celtic could be set to face a battle to keep hold of Shunsuke Nakamura, according to the player's legal representative.

The Japanese schemer has long since established himself as a favourite amongst the Celtic faithful and, last season, capped a title-winning campaign by being named the Scottish Football Writers' Association Player of the Year.

While earlier this month Nakamura moved to dismiss talk of his alleged unrest, he is thought to be less than enamoured about his earnings compared to a number of his team-mates.

Several of the 'world's biggest clubs' are monitoring the situation closely and with Italian lawyer Angelo Massoni and his legal team studying his contract, in order to determine whether there is an escape clause that would permit his departure for as little as £1million, Celtic face an anxious wait to learn of Nakamura's bargaining hand.
"I have spoken with [Nakamura's agent] Roberto Takudo about this and we want to meet with Celtic next week," Massoni told the Scottish Daily Mail.

"We have four of the biggest clubs in world football interested in Nakamura and willing to pay big money. We will recommend these offers to Celtic.

"Obviously, if Celtic want to make a better offer, that is up to the club.

"We cannot name the clubs interested from the other countries until we have informed the club first."

Nakamura's existing contract is set to expire in 2009.

What the hell were celtic thinking if this is true? They supposedly knocked back 7million from spurs!!!