January 2018 | Vital Football

January 2018

wee_od_88

wee_od_88

Vital Football Hero
Could potentially be a big month for us! Still very hopeful of being in the Europa League after Christmas and therefore we want to try and continue to push on. A run in the Europa League will be a great way to get better for the Champions League next season. There are some very good teams in the Europa League and it won't be easy!
Teams like: Villareal (5th in La Liga), Dinamo Kyiv, AC Milan, Atalanta, Lyon, Arsenal, Red Bull Salzburg, Marseille, Lazio, Nice, Zenit St Petersburg and Real Sociedad.

As a result we will need to strengthen and a couple of names have already been popping up. BR was asked at the AGM whether a new CB was a priority and he said that it was. Players can only be or become top players if they are available. From the sounds of it, he's getting frustrated with the injuries to the backline and wants in some better reinforcement.

24 year old Reading defender Liam Moore. Moore played for Leicester City before joining Reading in August 2016. He came through the Leicester Academy and had loan spells with the likes of Brentford, Bradford and Bristol City. In all he made 67 appearances for Leicester, 11 of which were in the EPL.
He is a big, strong, athletic CB who can also operate as a RB. Again, not the tallest player but still at least 6ft. His athleticism and ability to get off the ground help make up for his lack of height. He has learned alongside some very good CBs in the likes of Wes Morgan! Old school CB, Morgan is big and strong in the challenge, a no-nonsense defender!
Moore could cost around £5m having just signed a new and improved 4 year deal in the summer but his actual value at the moment is only around £1.35m.

The other is a striker - 20 year old Ukrainian Artem Dovbyk. Looks to be quite a raw talent but a talent nonetheless. Predominantly left footed striker, in fact almost always tries to work it onto his left. Scored 12 goals this season apparently but his club have vanished off the league table on transfermarkt so I really have no idea. Apparently the Ukrainian team are now playing in the second division. He's quite a big guy and could easily take any rough treatment dished out by defenders. Apparently he's looking to move on and is available on a pre-contract.
The question is what this means for Odsonne Edouard. We've not seen him for some time and since Dembele has returned from injury, he's not even getting onto the bench. He started out quite promisingly as well.....we could yet still sign both of them. Remember Edouard is on loan until the summer with a deal in place to sign him if we want, that will probably happen if Dembele goes in the summer.
 
Not sure how much truth there is in the Moore chat from what I've heard.

Etims mentioned two CB's earlier this month:

<i>The defenders, which is an area where improvement is needed, are Domagoj Vida, of Dynamo Kiev, and Martin Caceres, currently at Verona.

Vida is 28, Cacares 30, and whilst they don’t fit into the usual profile of Celtic targets, being a little older, neither did Scott Sinclair.

Both are experienced internationals, and both are what we need right now. If only to take some of the pressure off Dedryck Boyata.</i>

meant to post those two at the time... :emoticon:39

Artem Dovbyk would make sense and is exactly the type of prospect we've become very good at bringing in recently.

Jury is still very much out on Edouard although with him only being on loan it doesn't make a lot of difference.

Providing Dembele isn't injured I think he'll be away during the summer. We'll have plenty of money to replace him but whoever comes in will need time to settle.
 
Well the idea of Dembele's replacement was Edouard. We've already got a sum in place as part of the loan deal to make it permanent but it's somewhere in the region of £10m I think. Or maybe that's 10m Euros.

Don't think I've ever heard of Vida and Caceres I originally thought yes but now....don't know I'd bother. Not a bad idea to go for a more experienced CB though.
 
Edouard will return home at the end of his loan, imo. I know there was a provisional deal in place if he proved himself and we wanted to go ahead with it, but he's done nothing to merit even a much lower cut-price deal as things stand.

Aye, just thought I'd throw those two names in. I'd take one of them on the cheap as cover plus a quality CB. We need to stop fannying about and bring in the best two we can afford.
 
It depends if BR sees something he likes in training. At the end of the day, if Dembele goes then Edouard could be our best option as other teams will hike up the price for any players because they'll know we've got a shit load of cash from the Dembele sale! The Ukrainian lad won't be at the right level to step right up and in to fill the hole left by Dembele.
I know Edouard's not done much but to be fair, he's not had many opportunities either.

CB is a priority! Jean-Kevin Duverne is still a possibility, been linked with him in the past and he's still at RC Lens who aren't doing too well this year. There was a lot of talk of some of the other bigger French teams going in for him once they heard we were interested and he would have preferred to stay in France but clearly nothing has happened yet.
Steven Caulker is another. He's still only made a couple of appearances for QPR this season. The QPR boss said he wanted him to stay around and be part of the plans once his head was sorted but he's still not in the team, not even making the bench.
 
BR said the other day he's also looking to bring in a right back during the Jan window because both Lustig and Gamboa will be on world cup duty when our CL qualifiers start. He want's backup and or an alternative to Ralston. It'll more than likely be a CB who can also play RB
 
Makes sense! I did some scouting of defenders the other day, haven't got round to posting about them yet but there are a few who fit the bill in terms of being able to play RB so they could be good options.
 
The latest transfer speculation is that we're interested in FC Astana's Patrick Twumasi. We've seen him for ourselves and he has scored against us twice in the CL qualifiers. His contract expires in 2019, he's a full Ghana international and can play up front our out wide on the wing. He's quick and powerful, he is the sort of player BR is probably looking for. However he is still a bit raw, his decision making needs work and as a transfer target this season....I'm not sure. Is there not a rule about playing in Europe for 2 different teams? He's been playing for Astana in the Europa League, if we go into the Europa League can he then play for us or would he be cup-tied? Especially given that Astana have a good chance to qualify to the next stage too.
 
Agree with you about Twumasi. He was poor against us at CP and wasn't much better in the return until our defence/midfield went awol. He'd be cup-tied too for what it's worth.
 
We're reportedly interested in signing Dundee's Jack Hendry. 22 year old CB they signed from Wigan in the summer on a free transfer. He's Scottish and started his career at Dundee Utd before moving to Partick Thistle. In 2015 he moved to Wigan for about £300k. He then had loan spells at Shrewsbury and MK Dons. He made 5 appearances for Partick Thistle, 6 for Shrewsbury, 12 for MK Dons and he's up to 21 now for Dundee.
So he's relatively inexperienced but at 22 and Scottish, he's doing not bad! He's big and strong but also fairly mobile. He's been likened to John Stones although he seems a bit beefier to me and obviously not of the same quality yet. Interesting route should we choose to go this way.

Dembele is a £20m target for Brighton! The EPL new boys are in need of more firepower to help keep them in the league. However we apparently value him closer to £30m.

Brendan Rodgers has apparently said there won't be a marquee signing this January to help them in the Europa League. I don't think Dembele will be going anywhere in January unless someone comes in with a big offer that we just can't refuse. However that might not stop us from making the Edouard deal permanent in January rather than waiting until the summer!

Personally I'd like to see another winger in, someone a little bit different to what we have. Forrest has been great this season but not every game is for him. Roberts has been good in spells but not hit the heights quite yet. Plus it looks as though his injury will keep him out until at least the end of January or longer.
I'd also still expect us to sign a new CB, but whether that is someone a little younger to be coached up or whether it's someone a bit more established, we'll just need to wait and see.
 
We've been linked with RB Leipzig CB Marvin Compper. The 32 year old German has been playing a bit part role at the German club this season. However RB Leipzig have already stated that the veteran defender will not be able to leave in January as they are having an injury crisis. There is also the question of whether he would even be eligible to play in the Europa League. It seems the answer is no because Red Bull are also going to be playing in the Europa League now that they dropped out of the Champions League.

That could be our biggest problem in January with trying to add quality to the team. We want players with experience in Europe to try and improve us but the players we've identified could either not have the experience we need or they are cup tied.
 
So it looks like Marvin Compper is close to signing for us if reports are true. It seems he has travelled over to Glasgow for talks and to see the stadium and stuff. There are still reports suggesting that the head coach of RB Leipzig doesn't want him to go but the Chief Executive of the club is happy for Compper to leave for a fee.
Don't know much about Compper but he's capable of playing as a LB as well as a CB. He's not the biggest CB and isn't going to dominate in the air but he's experienced and is a bit of a no-nonsense defender. He's happy to just cut the ball out or put it out of play rather than mess around with it if he feels it's the better option.

It also seems as though we're going to see Lewis Morgan join the club, although the £300k deal also requires that the 21 year old stay with St Mirren for the rest of the season.
Morgan is a Scotland U21 international who has really come to the fore in the last season or 2, having joined St Mirren as a 17 year old after not making the grade at Murray Park (Rangers' training ground). He is pretty good with both feet, can play on either wing or through the centre playing as the creative player behind the striker. Direct running, pace, a bit of skill and an eye for goal are what I would say he brings to the table. He'll be one for Rodgers to improve with time.

It seems Peter Lawell and Brendan Rodgers have been photographed on a plane back from London to Glasgow......suggesting they were down for signing talks with a Chelsea player we've been after......Charly Musonda although the suggestion there is that it will be a loan move rather than a permanent transfer.
 
Johnny Hayes looks to be out for the remainder of the season after picking up a fractured leg in the win over Dundee on Boxing Day. It's a real shame after he was just starting to settle in and play well. We've now lost two of our wingers, we only have 2 left plus our youths. Will that change Rodgers' transfer plans this January?

Other transfer news - Virgil Van Dijk has finally completed his move to Liverpool......for a whopping £75m!!!!!! :emoticon:10
That now makes him the world's most expensive defender! It's believed we have DEFINITELY inserted a sell-on clause when we sold him to Southampton, it could be as much as 10% in which case we get £7.5m out of this deal!
 
So we're still apparently interested in Dundee's Jack Hendry but Dundee want £1.5m for him.

Sviatchenko has been told to find a new club by Brendan Rodgers and he's had several clubs contact his agent. It's expected that he'll join FC Copenhagen for £1.5m but Southampton are also apparently interested along with a few other English clubs.

Simunovic is on Burnley's radar again, they're willing to pay £8m for him and there's a possibility we'll take it.
Ajer has come to the fore in December and now looks to be one of our best CBs! So he could take over from one of either Sviatchenko or Simunovic, plus we have Compper to take over from one of them as well. Hendry might then come in as the new Ajer/back-up CB.

Dembele is also now being linked with Stoke as well as Brighton.
 
Looks like Liam Henderson will go in January, he's wanted by Hibs, Preston North End and Ostersunds (Swedish team doing well in Europa League this season) as well as Bari in Italy.

Kouassi could go out on loan as Rodgers says he needs game time but sees him as Broony's replacement in a few seasons.

Looks like Lewis Morgan will be unveiled tomorrow as a Celtic player but won't be joining us until the summer.

We've also signed 17 year old Leo Mazis from Australian side Balconnen Utd who play in the Canberra National Premier Division. He will therefore join the Development squad. Mazis and one of his team-mates spent some time over at Lennonxtown on trial and while both impressed, it seems Mazis has done enough to earn a move. This is part of the reason why Celtic want to have their own club in Australia, they believe there is a lot of talent to come.

Regan Hendry has left the Development squad to join Raith Rovers on loan for the rest of the season. Raith were relegated from the Championship last season and are looking to bounce back up, Hendry should hopefully be key to them achieving that.
 
Confirmed! Lewis Morgan has signed on a 4 and a half year deal! He returns to St Mirren on loan for the rest of the season.
 
Liam Henderson has been spotted training at Bari in Italy. The Serie B side are chasing promotion to Serie A and in the frame to do just that. They are set to lose a midfielder this month and that then leaves the door open for Henderson. It will be an interesting move for him and if it happens then I'm sure all Celtic fans will wish him all the best.

Crystal Palace are apparently on the hunt for Simunovic.
 
Little summary of what's been happening recently.

Liam Henderson has left on a permanent deal to join FC Bari in Serie B in Italy, all the best to him!

Sviatchenko has gone on loan to FC Midjtyland where we signed him from.

Kundai Benyu has gone out on loan to Oldham until the end of the season. He already seems to be making an impact from what I've seen.

Lewis Morgan has joined but been loaned back to St Mirren for the rest of the season.

Marvin Compper has injured himself during the winter break in Dubai.

Jamie McCart was out on loan with St Mirren for the first half of the season and has now gone out on loan again to Alloa this time.

Ciftci has joined Motherwell on loan until the end of the season having previously been at Plymouth Argyle.

Joe Thomson has returned from his loan at Livingston and has gone out on loan again to Queen of the South again where he did so well last season.

Mark Hill has joined St Mirren on loan until the end of the season, probably as part of the deal that brought Lewis Morgan to us.

Regan Hendry has also gone out on loan for the rest of the season to Raith Rovers.
 
Charly Musonda is in Glasgow today - looks like we're to sign him on an 18month loan deal from Chelsea. I think we need some spark from him to help get us going again.

We're still linked with Hendry from Dundee and have made a bid but apparently it was far too low. Need to wait and see if we make another bid.

Craig Gordon has suffered a knee injury in the collision with Efe Ambrose at the end of the 1st half against Hibs and Rodgers has admitted we will need to try and sign a replacement! Danny Ward is one who has been mentioned and I think that would be a very good move. He was excellent at Aberdeen, so good that he was recalled half way through the season. However after being Huddersfield's number 1 last season and helping them reach the EPL, he's now 3rd choice at Liverpool!
 
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