Season 15/16 | Page 13 | Vital Football

Season 15/16

I've come across 4 strikers we've not been linked with but should perhaps take a look at! They are all young strikers which isn't perhaps exactly what we need but at least 2 if not 3 of them will still be quite raw and need some work before really being ready but they would be good as back-up!

Andraz Sporar - 21 year old Slovenian U21 international striker. He currently plays in Slovenia (bare with me) for NK Olimpija and is the top scorer in the league so far this season with 17 goals in 17 games! The club are pretty much the second biggest/best in the country behind NK Maribor, and we all remember what Maribor did against us. Olimpija are currently 6 points ahead of Maribor in the league, probably largely down to Sporar's goals.
He reminds me of a slightly bigger Griffiths. Similar in style playing on the shoulder of the defence, harassing the defenders, happy to shoot from outside the box, happy to drift out wide and work his way in to a shooting position.
His current value is £700k and is contracted to 2018 so I think we'd be looking at him costing about £1.5m at the moment, because he is in such good form! Wages should be more than feasible though!

[youtube=mligW3XMO2M]

Lukas Spalvis - 21 year old Lithuanian international striker. Spalvis also has German nationality as he started off his career at Freiburg in Germany, he left in 2011 and joined Aalborg's youth team in Denmark. He is now the top scorer in Denmark this season with 14 goals in 17 games and Aalborg sit 2nd in the table behind FC Copenhagen. He has been called the Lithuanian Lewandowski.....and I can kind of see why! He's a penalty box striker! He's a poacher and goal scorer but he does it well, good movement in the box and strong enough, technically good enough. Something different to what we have but something we could do with!

His current value is also around £700k and he's also contracted until 2018 so again probably looking at £1.5-2m.

[youtube=IvHEwUaiF88]

Giorgi Kvilitaia - 22 year old former Georgia U21 international striker. He's currently playing in Georgia but also had a spell in Hungary. He's far more of a gamble than the others because he hasn't played at anywhere near as high a level, but he's scoring goals and looks good and is only going to get better. His current value is only about £200k so he'd be a cheap gamble! He's a big lad, about 6"2 and is a technical striker, kind of like Ibrahimovic in terms of style. He would just offer something different to what we currently have and that's one of the reasons I've picked him out. He's good at holding the ball up and linking the play!

[youtube=J8jT6U8EFdw]

Mariusz Stepinski - 20 year old Polish international striker currently playing in Poland for Ruch Chorzow who are 5th in the league. He moved to Nuremberg in 2013 and was loaned back to Poland to play for Wisla Krakow. In the summer he returned to Poland and is currently 3rd top goal scorer with 11 goals in 17 games. He already plays in a 4-2-3-1 formation so there would be little adjustment in that respect and he's a well rounded player. He's around 6ft, good turn of pace and good strength. He's also capable of playing on the wing too.
His value is around £250k so we should be able to get him for about £750k or something even though he's contracted until 2018.
The video is from his loan spell in Poland in 2012/13.

[youtube=uKxJ1cg3cLs]
 
Apparently we're prepared to pay £2.25m for Emil Berggreen. 22 year old Danish U21 international who is playing for Eintracht Braunschweig in the German Bundesliga2 where he's scored 6 goals in 15 appearances plus 4 assists.
That's a hell of a lot of cash to splash on a striker that hasn't even played at a top level. The Bundesliga2 is probably on a par with the SPFL to be fair but we wouldn't go spending that much on an SPFL striker with those stats.

I think there are better options out there (see above post) and we'd be daft to fork out that much money on someone of his level! It makes even less sense when you consider he'd be fighting it out for the back-up striker position with Ciftci and Cole.
 
A couple of new rumours today.

Been linked with an interest in Tom Bradshaw, 23 year old striker playing in League One for 3rd placed Walsall. Formerly of Shrewsbury Town and a former Wales U21 international, he has been called into the full Wales national team but is yet to appear for them.
This season he has scored 11 goals in 22 appearances (8 in 18 in the league and 3 in 2 in the league cup). Last season he scored 20 goals in 37 appearances.

Normally I'd be against a move like this because of his lack of experience but having seen footage of him and considering how difficult it can be to find a quality striker and remembering where the likes of Hooper came from, this could be a good signing as long as we don't have to fork out too much money.
Rangers are also reportedly interested. His current value is around £200k but is contracted until 2017 and considering his form, I think we're probably looking at paying around £500k, or we will send one or two players on loan or something like that and do a deal with them.

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Our scouts have once again been spotted at a Benfica match. It's still not understood who we're looking at but 32 year old LB Eliseu has been named as a potential candidate as his contract is up in the summer. There is nobody else we can afford or who's contract is ending. Personally I feel we already have one LB who's getting past it, why would we want to sign a 32 year LB as well?

The other player we've been linked with is Hungarian winger and former international Adam Gyurcso. He's around 6ft tall and a very pacey winger who likes to get in the box. He's not all about getting down the wing and getting a cross in, he'd rather get in the box and help the striker, in fact he often finds himself in the box as the striker. He can head the ball, take a mean free-kick, plays on either wing or through the middle, can shoot with either foot. He's 24 years old, is valued around £500k and his contract is about to expire meaning we can get him for nothing. He's only ever played in Hungary but has played in CL qualifiers and Europa League qualifiers. He has 9 goals and 4 assists in 25 games this season, including 2 in 4 CL qualifiers.

I scouted him at least a year ago....if we are interested, I will have gotten yet another one right! They really should listen to me more often! What I particularly like is that he's different to our current wingers, he's tall and really quick, offers something a bit different to the small, quick players like Forrest or the small and skillful like Commons or the taller but slower Armstrong.

[youtube=OhY8amkQQ3k]
 
Stories once again for a transfer window that we're interested in Dundee United's versatile defensive player John Souttar. United have tried to sign him to a new deal but no luck so far and he's available on a pre-contract in this window with a view to him joining in the summer.

It has also been suggested that Griffiths signing a new contract will send both Norwich and Swansea searching for an alternative. We all know they have the money if they wanted him but they're not willing to fork out the cash.
 
Apparently we may be interested in Alfred Finnbogason again. We chased him a year or so ago when he was on fire at SC Heerenveen in Holland before getting a big money move to Real Sociedad in the summer of 2014. Things haven't gone to plan for him in Spain however and in the summer he went on loan to Olympiacos but he has only managed 2 goals in 11 appearances for the Greek side. For Sociedad he has only made 4 goals from 27 appearances.
Subsequently Real Sociedad are now keen to offload the striker either with a loan move or a cut price permanent move. Olympiacos are cutting his season long loan short and sending him back to Sociedad.

Here's a reminder of what he's capable of:

[youtube=QWVjVwT__d4]

We're also said to be looking at 18 year old Irish CB Paudie (yes that is how you spell it) O'Connor. His contract with Limerick is just finishing I believe and he'd be available for free. He made 16 appearances scoring 1 goal last season and Limerick finished 11th in the League of Ireland. He played the full 90 in all but 3 of those appearances (82 mins, 63 mins and 33 mins).
Clearly he would not be fighting for a first team spot right away but those 16 games are good experience and should see him slot in to our U20 team quite happily.
 
None of the strikers we are linked with set the heather alight for me. Age 23 and in League 1? No thanks. Finnbogason appears, uh, bogus. Berggreen is interesting. WHy £2.25m for someone his age? Is he highly rated?
 
He is quite highly rated but he's still not playing at the highest level and his goalscoring is still not that impressive!

The striker from Walsall is apparently not the player we've been scouting but rather his midfield team-mate, 24 year old ex West Brom youth player Romaine Sawyers. He's seemingly been the standout player in League One this season. Looking at the footage, I'm not excited by him, I'd rather we got the striker!

Have you looked at the strikers I've suggested?
 
We're still being linked with Libor Kozak but it seems he's been told he can leave by Villa.....if that's the case though, why has he not already traveled up to Celtic? I still don't think he wants to join us and it doesn't really bother me!

We've been linked with Will Vaulks of Falkirk. 22 year old English midfielder who can play CM, DM or RB. He was plucked from non-league football a few years ago by Falkirk and has gone from strength to strength. Falkirk are joint on points with Hibs in the Championship but having played a game more, still with Rangers only 3 points ahead and a game in hand, they are still right in the mix!
I went to watch Falkirk's game against Dumbarton on Boxing Day as my girlfriend's family are Falkirk season ticket holders and invited me along. Was a horrible day for football, a lot of wind and rain but Falkirk have a plastic pitch so there was no danger of the game being called off. Falkirk are a decent team and can play some nice football but the conditions just didn't make for a good game and they struggled to a 1-0 win although if not for some last minute challenges/blocks and good saves from the goalkeeper, they could have won by more!
I saw Vaulks first hand, something I don't often get to say about players we're linked with! He's a decent player but he's not ready to play for Celtic yet! I'd suggest some of our young midfielders like Joe Thomson are probably of an equivalent level. So it begs the question, why would we bother signing him?

Scepovic says he wants to return to Sporting Gijon. That's fine, let him go for a cut price fee!

With Boyata and Janko both being injured at the moment, Celtic are looking particularly fragile in defensive cover. Our best young defenders are out on loan or in the case of O'Connell, injured! I would expect us to try and sign some cover or a good CB during this window!
 
It seems Deila was spotted in Spain watching Eibar take on Real Betis, sparking rumours he was taking a closer look at Serbia U21 international Aleksandar Pantic who helped Eibar to a 0-4 away win. Pantic is on loan until the summer from Villareal where his contract is also up this summer. The 23 year old is normally a CB but is also capable at RB as well. He previously played for Red Star Belgrade and has had loan spells at FC Rad and Cordoba.
The key with this potential transfer is that he has the same agent as Jozo Simunovic! The only problem I see with this transfer is that it is likely to mean nobody in in this window to help out until the end of the season unless we take someone on loan.....

Reports are now also finally linking us with an interest in Korean striker Hyun-Jun Suk, I've scouted this guy for a while and he's been around since beginning his career at Ajax but he seems to be on to a good thing at Vitoria Setubul in Portugal (his 3rd club in Portugal). He's a South Korean international, 24 years old, tall at about 6"3 and is good in the air as well as on the ground. He has skill and pace and has added strength to his game. He has 11 goals and 7 assists in 19 appearances so far this season.
 
It seems Pantic has a clause which states Eibar have first option to buy in this window, despite the fact he's on a season loan. Villareal don't want to lose him for nothing, the price is 2million Euros or around £1.5m. Eibar may not have the cash and if they can't stump up, the loan deal will be cut short and he will be sold to us (if we want him) and we could bring him in for this window!

We've taken 17 year old Norwegian starlet Kristoffer Ajer on a week long trial with a view to a deal. The Norwegian league is obviously on it's end of season break so he is available to do this. His club have not gone as far as to say a deal is all but done but they have said he deserves a chance to go on trial and possibly earn a deal.
Despite only being 17, he is 6"5 and we were linked with him back in the summer. He has made 47 appearances for IK Start in 2 seasons, scoring 13 goals with 5 assists. He plays as a CM/DM/CAM and has once even been used as a striker. Despite his height, he has not yet filled out and would likely need to beef up and add strength to his game.

[youtube=dBmaRP0KxN8]

For £500k, I think this would be a good move.....but we don't really need more midfielders right now. However, at only 17 this should still be a good move as he can become a natural successor to Bitton when he inevitably moves on.


It's also being suggested that we are to start talks with John Souttar this week over a pre-contract.

Leeds are still interested in Stokes.

Tyler Blackett is set to stay with us and see out his loan deal until the summer. He played for the U20s the other night, could he be set to play against Stranraer?

We've also been linked with 23 year old Dutch striker Wout Weghorst. Valued at around £700k, his contract is up in the summer but the club do have a 1 year option. If we're looking for a target man, they don't come much bigger than Weghorst, he's around 6"6 and he looks fairly strong! Not the biggest aerial threat as he doesn't have much of a jump from what I've seen but being so tall, sometimes you don't need to be good at jumping. Like many big strikers, he is technically gifted and is actually very good with the ball at his feet. 7 goals in 18 appearances. 2nd top scorer for Heracles who have managed to find themselves in 4th place in the Eredivisie.
The video below is of him at his former club in the 2nd division of Dutch football.

[youtube=jKNSi8pzz38]
 
ALl of these guys seem like pretty good business, except that i've been losing faith in Celtic scouting. Hyun-jun looks like a good target. He has height and 11 goals in 19 matches is not bad.

ALso reading that Inverness wants Stokes. Not a great move for him or us, but he's done at Celtic.

Darren O'Dea is at Dundee! I always liked O'Dea.
 
Most of what we've been linked with recently seems not bad actually. I very much doubt all of it will happen. I think Hyun-Jun Suk may be out of range price-wise.

Great move for ICT if it happens. I honestly think we'll see Stokes play against Stranraer at some point, one last chance maybe.

Pleased to see O'Dea back in Scotland, he was out in India and has had a tough time of it but I always thought he was a decent player who was unlucky to take the brunt of problems under Mowbray as he was captain a number of times under Mowbray.
 
So today we have a story about us looking at another midfielder. Don't worry he's not for the first team. Darragh Markey, 18 year old from St Patrick's in Ireland is due over for a bounce game on Sunday. The Daily Record describe him as an attacker but on transfermarkt, he is predominantly a DM or CM. Last season he made only 4 appearances, all from the bench and all defeats. His first was 9mins, then 23mins, 19mins and 15mins. He played 2 games as a DM, 1 at CM and 1 at RM. He doesn't look big enough to be a DM in my opinion but if he bulks up a bit he could be a decent CM, at the moment he looks more like a CAM.

[youtube=K3BVEXPlQDs]

Ljuban Creulja - 21 year old Croatian midfielder, out of contract in the summer but he's not at one of the top clubs, he's not a Croatia U21 but has made 2 appearances for the Croatia U20 team in the past. Having watched a video, I didn't see much to get excited about!
 
Things seem to be speeding up a little with the transfer news......

It's been suggested we've made a bid for Croatian midfielder Ivan Mocinic.

We're continuing to monitor Tom Bradshaw at Walsall.....or some reports suggest that's Romaine Sawyers of Walsall.......maybe we'll never know! I'd rather it was Bradshaw though.

We have former Romanian U21 international Andrei Peteleu in on trial, he's a 6ft RB who looks good going forward. I read originally his contract was up and that's why we got him in on trial and he would be a free agent but according to transfermarkt he's contracted until 2017.....

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Portugal U21 and Sporting Lisbon winger Carlos Mane has said he would be open to a move to Scotland. He apparently has desires to play in England eventually, Man Utd were linked with him a few years ago. He's not first choice for Sporting and they are willing to let him go on loan with a view to a permanent deal. It's been suggested he'd be on a 1 year loan with a view to a £4m permanent deal. That would mean he'd be our player until next January which I think would suit us well! £4m is a lot of money though and it seems unlikely we'd stump up that much money for him....

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Stokes is almost certain to go on loan and it seems he has 2 main options......ICT or Hibs!

Ambrose is wanted by Shanghai.....although he claims to know nothing about it.

The latest one is that we're wanting Kolbeinn Sigthorsson, 25 year old Iceland international striker currently at Nantes in France but has failed to settle following his £3m move from Ajax. He's on a long contract but they'd be willing to let him go if they can recoup about £2.5m of that £3m fee.
 
Chris Sutton gets it pretty much spot on in this article!

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/chris-sutton-celtic-boss-ronny-7174532
 
We're being linked with a loan move for Bersant Celina, 19 year old Norwegian from Man City. He can play as a striker or an attacker in midfield (wing or behind the striker). He's made his debut for the Man City first team in Cup games as a sub and he's highly rated by Patrick Viera in particular but by Man City in general. They want him to go out and get more game time and after Denayer did so well with us last season, Manuel Pellegrini is open to Celina joining us again.
Obviously the problem for us is that we're developing another team's player and it won't help us in the long term and not that much in the short term either, but if we can't bring in the other players we want in this window then he could be a good option!
 
Steven Fletcher also being linked with us, AGAIN! His contract is apparently up in the summer so we could get him on a pre-contract for the summer or maybe do a deal with Sunderland now. Sunderland are fighting off relegation though and I don't suppose a striker would be something they'd want to let go right now. I still don't like this move but reports suggest we're more likely to be his next destination than China.....
 
I have not seen the stuff on Roberts. I'm not sure why we need these loan deals. We don't need those players to win the league or even the treble, though it doesn't hurt. But it's not really how you develop young players--which is supposedly the reason we hired Deila--and it's not great for building team cohesion.

Sviatchenko might be good business. He was chased by Stoke and WBA, so he must have some ability. We certainly need to improve at CB. Though it must be said, Efe has played well lately. The fans chanted his name at Tannadice, which was nice. Still, I like the deal.

I haven't wanted Feltcher on since Strachan's final season. Why? What does he bring?
 
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