Season 13/14 | Page 7 | Vital Football

Season 13/14

Samaras training with Celtic this morning.....doesn't look like he's leaving in this window.Will he sign a new deal though? He loves the club so surely he wouldn't run down his contract and leave for nothing?

Bangura has verbally agreed to cancel his contract early........
 
Ledley is as good as gone. He can either sign a new deal with Celtic or move on to Crystal Palace. He's as good as gone and I wish him well. He was a very good Celt and scored some memorable goals. I think he always made the most of modest talent. Farewell, Joe. :emoticon:01

I think Sammi stays. A Greek player in Turkey might be like Roy Keane playing at ipox. :emoticon:11
 
Ledley is supposedly in London getting medical - my sentiments are the same as Welch, he was a good player, did the job, but we have plenty of options in MF and I'd rather get a few 100,000 now than nothing in the summer.
Griffiths is a done deal pending medical. Not exciting, but you never know. I'd still rather see what we've got before spending on yet another cheap young striker with potential, but that won't happen with the winning streak and Griffiths arriving.
We supposedly bid on some mystery player in Turkey, but couldn't agree to a fee for this unknown player.

Sounds like that's it for the window, unless Samaras makes a last-minute exit, which I hope he doesn't because he always contributes a few goals in Europe.
 
Ledley bid was supposed to be accepted this morning but he was still training with the rest of the lads this morning....not so sure he fancies London and a relegation fight with Palace. Still time yet though.

Heard Marvin Emnes' name mentioned with us I think (wouldn't be anyone else in Scotland). The Middlesbrough player is an attacker, not a striker but can play on the wing or behind the striker. Was good when he first came on the scene with Middlesbrough but wouldn't touch him now. He's gone stale as have so many other Middlesbrough players who have been there since they got relegated from the EPL. Just ready he signed for Swansea.....

Heard the Turkish link was apparently Michael Kadlec.

Apparently no more signings this window.........
 
Ledley is gone! :( Many thanks Ledley, I think we will all miss you in some ways but we hope we have some good replacements in Biton and more importantly Johansen!

No other business done.........so we held on to some of our top players but didn't strengthen as much as we had maybe liked!
 
In other ugly news, Lenny was spat on and hit with missiles at Tynecastle while scouting the Dons. it appears to have been Dons supporters, but my guess is it was wee huns. What a bunch of foul racist swine. The only thing mitigating this latest swinery is that hearts will be relegated for certain and we won't see them or their fascist support for a season.
 
It wasn't Hearts fans welch........it was the Aberdeen fans! Tynecastle was being used as a venue for the league cup and Lennon went along to watch. Disgraceful what happened to him though!
 
I always thought we got on OK with Aberdeen support. Apparently not. I'm not convinced there weren't wee huns in the Aberdeen section.

My point stands. Hindcastle has often been worse than ipox for our players and staff. Jim Craig said that throughout his Celtic career, he was abused worse by suport at hinie than at the pox. Lenny ma get berated by rangers fans, but he was attacked by a hearts fan.
 
It seems the mystery striker we tried to sign was Kostas Mitroglou with a bid of around £4m.......he eventually joined Fulham for a fee in the region of £12.5m.......

 
This excerpt from today's financial release is instructive:

"Our profit on disposal of intangible assets of £16.5m, in comparison to a profit of £5.2m last year, largely reflects the transfers of Gary Hooper, Victor Wanyama and Kelvin Wilson. Together with ongoing investment in our Academy, the identification and creation of Champions League quality players remains fundamental to Celtic. Following the end of the period, during the 2014 January transfer window, further investment was made, securing the signing of the highly rated players Holmbert Fridjonsson, Stefan Johansen and Leigh Griffiths. "

So we replaced the best striker and midfielder in the SPL and on of our top defenders with a young kid, a good prospect and a reclamation project. The financial results and minimal debt are great, but we need some serious reinforcements to make a real run in Europe this summer.
 
And we can now expect some offers in the summer for more of our key players. Ambrose has been linked with a move to the EPL and says he would like to go at some stage (but is happy at Celtic). Fraser Forster is likely to go in the summer, nobody knows what will happen with Samaras at the moment, Matthews and Lustig are constantly linked with moves away and are two of our best players and then of course there is the wonder VVD who is being linked with two of the biggest clubs in England (Arsenal and Man City).......

We could have a HUGE rebuilding job to do this summer. I wouldn't expect too much of our CL campaign next season.

If Izzy has a good World Cup, we could see bids from clubs for him. A good LB is always in demand!

We could have to rebuild with a completely new defence in the summer (potentially). The midfield and striking departments are fine, we won't have to worry too much about losing those players but we need a bit more quality up front.
We should already have a GK lined up to replace Forster but defence......I doubt we have too many to choose from at the moment.
 
Forster will go and I think the club and VvD will be tempted by big money. That's why Lenny was scouting CBs in the window. Lustig and Matthews may have missed too much action to be heavily scouted. Samaras can go. I've officially dubbed him fools gold. Lenny got a few good matches out of him against the huns and in Europe. But he is a head case.

I'd rather have Paddy. If he got as much playing time as Sammy, he would score more goals and certainly have set up more of them.

As for Izzy, he is good but I don't think he will get that much interest. We haven''t seen too much demand for him. I'm glad, too. I think he's good and a bit underrated.

So it will have to be a busy window. We need a striker, two CBs, a keeper and probably a left-sided midfielder.
 
Tony Watt's loan club Lierse have apparently said they would be interested in making his loan move permanent......quite a turnaround from wanting rid of him before his loan was even half done!

7 goals in 5 games (including a hat-trick I believe) may be the reason for the change of heart!

When asked about moving, Watt said he didn't know what was in his immediate future and would have to speak to Celtic but that he was loving Lierse and loving Belgium. Could this loan move finally be working the way Lennon had hoped? Has Watt grown up?
 
If Watt has grown up and can really score, we should take him back. But I don't know if he has whizzed in the punch bowl with Lenny. It is possible to get out of the doghouse with Lenny, a la Stokes and Samaras. So maybe he can. He has always had the talent, he's just got some nedly habits.
 
Lennon has said Watt will be back in the summer and will be in his plans! He's really pleased at how well he is playing, that he's getting game time and scoring goals.....that's the big reason why he was sent out on loan. He also feels that Watt is finding his best form and enjoying it more now that he is over the homesickness and hopes this experience will have shown him what he is missing back at Celtic and so he will be ready to be part of the team again.

No chance of him going anywhere! Reports were suggesting Liverpool were prepared to pay £6m for him, while there were also rumours that numerous Dutch clubs were tracking him!
 
Great to hear Neil Lennon saying he is watching Filip Twardzik's progress closely and that if all goes well he will be back in the first team before the end of the season! Says he has high hopes for him and it's unfortunate he lost nearly 2 years of his career!
 
A Filip Twardzik sighting. Everyone keep the lube and tissues away from Wee Od. :emoticon:11 :emoticon:15
 
Tony Watt just went barreling off the rails saying that he is getting fat because he isn't getting enough match time. He even seemed to admit he doesn't train. he is starting to sound like Balotelli. Honestly, I think he might be totally daft and only a locker room row with Big Bobo will straighten him out.
 
Apparently we're desperate to sign Man Utd one strike wonder Frederico Macheda. Macheda came on as a substitute and scored a wonder goal on his debut for Man Utd, but since then he has had numerous loan spells which haven't worked out terribly well for him either.

According to his statistics on transfermarkt, he has scored 26 goals in 130 appearances for clubs and countries, including U21s and reserves.
He may be considered a striker but he's far from prolific! On the plus side, he is still only 22 so could still find his best position or find some form. He must have some sort of talent to get into the Man Utd team at all but I think that wonder goal on his debut just piled on the expectations and probably a bit of ego like what happened with Tony Watt. The difference is Tony has kept some sort of form, Macheda has done NOTHING!

He is currently on loan at Birmingham City in the Championship and has scored 8 goals in 24 appearances for both Birmingham and Doncaster (Doncaster for first half of season, Birmingham since January).
 
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