Season 16-17 | Page 6 | Vital Football

Season 16-17

It seems Rodgers has once again talked about his preference for squad size. He wants around 16-17 first team players (not including keepers) and then that should be supplemented by youngsters.

Toure, Izaguirre, Ambrose, Simunovic, Gamboa, Boyata, Lustig, Sviatchenko, Tierney = 9

Bitton, Brown, Sinclair, Armstrong, Mackay-Steven, Rogic, Roberts, McGregor, Forrest = 9

Ciftci, Griffiths, Dembele = 3

Janko, Commons, Allan = 3

That puts our first team squad at 24 for now and that's not including players like O'Connell, Henderson and Christie who all make first team appearances but are still kind of classed as youngsters. Looking ahead to next season we've got Ambrose and Commons with expiring contracts (Izzy is to be given a new one apparently) and Roberts is likely to go back to Man City. That would take us down to 21, so factoring in another maybe 3 additions at least, we need to still offload Janko, Allan, Ciftci, GMS, Boyata and probably either Bitton or McGregor or possibly both by the end of the summer. For now, the main ones to offload are Ambrose, Boyata, Ciftci and Allan. Janko and Commons are obviously on loan so when they return, they'll need to go too. GMS is one that Rodgers won't mind keeping for now but is probably unlikely to stay for long unless he really gets a chance to show what he can do and does an Armstrong. I'd think Rodgers will want another really quick and quality winger to replace Roberts in the summer though.
 
Apparently BR could offer Kolo Toure a player/coach contract this summer as his contract is up and while he might not make the first team for every game, he would be good back-up and he's apparently been brilliant with the younger players at the club as well as a good influence in the changing room! I'd definitely be happy with him as a player/coach, I think we'd be daft not to!
 
O'Connell out on loan to Walsall for the rest of the season. They're playing in League One and are currently 14th, so not fighting relegation and only 9 points off a play-off spot so with his help, maybe they can push up the table......hopefully it goes well for him!
 
Kristoffer Ajer has joined Kilmarnock on loan until the end of the season. It first looked as though O'Connell would be joining Kilmarnock but he has instead joined Walsall. Kilmarnock obviously still in the market for a CB and have managed to get Ajer instead. I thought we might send him South but maybe better keeping him closer to him for now. He should get a good amount of playing time which is good and he can be used in midfield or defence which is good for Kilmarnock.
 
BR speaking after the game yesterday said he didn't think (at this stage) that there would be any further movement in or out. Never say never, though.

I'd probably take £5m for Gordon if Chelski are that desperate. He cost us nothing.
Terrible time to sell with no suitable replacement other than De Vries, who seems to give most of the fear.

The young striker we're interested in from Belgium might be a late addition but I wouldn't offer much more than the £1m we've already put on the table. £1.5 max for me. 10 goals in the Juliper since the start of the season is good and he's very quick too. But he's still a raw 19-year-old so very much a gamble, albeit one worth taking at the right price.
 
It's always the same with us now and it's something the club does not the manager.....they always try and make something happen on the final day to create interest and get the attention of people in England. I don't think things are over yet.

I think £5m will be the number for Gordon as well. I don't really mind one way or another if he stays or goes but obviously as much money as possible for him would be good. Don't really need to worry about replacing him in this window either but should probably have a replacement lined up to bring in early in the summer as I don't like the thought of any of our current back-up being No.1 for very long and particularly in Europe.

Let's call the Nigerian from Belgium Henry as I can't be bothered typing his second name haha! I think something could still happen there but like you say Tic, 1.5m is probably the top offer and I think that's how the club feel too. Eupen are a small club and were promoted at the end of last season so it's not like they should be turning down that sort of money! They've also got a player who isn't happy now so what's better, letting him go for some cash or keep him hanging on and not playing?
It seems the club were trying to make more money out of any deal for him by sending him to CSKA and something to do with the agents involved etc....by Henry has said outright that he doesn't want to go to Russia and he doesn't want to use their agents he wants to use his own.
I like Henry though, I think he'd be a good purchase and I would have put him in here before but with him not being an international, I thought our chances of going for him were slim....it seems Brendan has other ideas!

The other stories going around right now are Tierney to Sunderland for £10m......not happening!
Simunovic to Crystal Palace, Sunderland or Newcastle for £6m+.......not entirely surprising but I don't think he'll go anywhere.....never say never though! I think even with Boyata coming back to form, Toure seems to be struggling and O'Connell is out on loan and Efe is coming nowhere close to the team so it would leave us a little short so BR would want a replacement.
 
Chelsea are considering a move for Dembele......even though they know it will cost them £40m!!!!!

We've obviously stated we don't want him to go and certainly not in this window but Chelsea appear keen on a striker this window and money is apparently not a concern but Celtic have said they won't entertain bids of less than £40m in this window.

This has come from a Sky Sports Source so we'll wait and see what happens......could prove to be nonsense or there could be some real interest there!
 
Well for now at least, it looks as though Dembele is staying and so is Gordon......that's what the media seem to be running with at the moment.

I think the biggest issue for us is that we feel there would be no time for replacements to be brought in, even if we had £40m to play with......it's just not enough time. So I think if Chelsea wanted Dembele, it would have to be a HUGE offer for a start, but they'd also have to give us a player. Most likely 19 year old Dominic Solanke. I believe they have high hopes for him, he was on loan at Vitesse in Holland last season and managed 7 goals in 25 appearances in an injury interrupted season. He would seem the most likely candidate.

Simunovic rumours still persist but nothing too concrete looking, just clubs keeping an eye on him and considering him it seems...

Although there is a story this morning saying that Sviatchenko's agent is over after a few English clubs, mainly thought to be Leicester City, are interested in signing him today......having looked at his agent's list of clients....he has no other business being over here other than to deal with Sviatchenko. However, despite him being contracted until 2020, it could be that he's over to discuss a restructured contract....maybe just being tied up and offered more money.
 
Reports of a £34m bid for Dembele from Chelsea.....maybe just testing us to see how serious we are about that £40m number.
 
Someone has tweeted a photo of Dembele on a plane down to London......who knows it could be old but that is worrying!
 
Dembele only going to London for a scan on his knee! Can relax for now! Still....he's going to be down there, in the area so easy for Chelsea to get him in if they are successful in breaking us down.
 
Ciftci is apparently in Holland....looks like he's set for a loan move but the club is still unknown as yet.
 
Only departures currently being discussed; Fasan Efe Ciftci

via a decent source on twitter

I'm not expecting any more arrivals and I'd be surprised if any of the above find a club to take them at this stage.
 
Fasan has gone on loan to Port Vale after Rangers paid them £250k for their first choice keeper. He'll go there with a decent chance of making the first team you would think!

Efe was set for a loan move to Blackburn but there seems to have been a snag.....not sure of the outcome yet!

Ciftci didn't get a move to Holland and when he came back to Scotland, Motherwell were interested but it didn't go through.

Michael Duffy has returned to Ireland permanently after joining Dundalk.

Jamie McCart has joined ICT on loan, Aiden McIlduff has joined Queens Park on loan and another youngster Broque Watson (not one I actually know of) has joined Cumbernauld Colts on loan.
 
Glad to see Fasan away on loan. Ideally he needs a permanent move for the sake of his career.

Efe was a late one, eh? Never understood this last minute approach to transfer windows. Far too rushed for both players and clubs which is the reason few of the moves ever work out.

Forgot we still had Ciftci until his name popped up yesterday! :emoticon:39
Hibs would love to have KC back but they can't afford him.

Cheers for the info on the young guns, wee od
 
We've said the same thing about many young players at this club over the years Tic, especially our back-up keepers. We have had so many players show so much promise and ability, but because they don't get enough of a chance in the first team....they disappear and by the time they do move on, it's usually almost too late for them in their careers and they struggle to really push on to the level they look as though they could get to. Either that or injuries have played a part.
Look at Marcus Fraser, he's doing well up at Ross County but it seemed like he was destined to be far better than that. Paul McGowan has carved out a career at Dundee and St Mirren before that but it seemed he should have been good enough to play for Scotland at one point. James Keatings.....was breaking records in the youth teams for the goals he scored, he was outstanding but he was brought in too late and an injury didn't help him. He went away and showed he can score in the Championship with a few different clubs. His record in the Championship is a goal ever 3 games, plus an assist every games. That's not bad going considering how many times he was played as a sub!

Back to the point of the conversation, Fasan out on loan should be good for him but he's another that will pass on from us eventually. It's difficult to see Rodgers not going out and bringing in another No.1 if Gordon goes in the summer. Bailly is likely to go in the summer it would seem, contracted until 2018 but he seems desperate to play. De Vries.....no idea but he might want away if he's not going to be given the No.1 spot (again if Gordon goes). That could leave a spot closer to the first team for Fasan.....but he really needs more experience so hopefully this is a good loan move for him! We've got other talented young keepers, some of whom have been training with the first team as well!

It seems the Efe to Blackburn deal did collapse? But he seems to be saying that he has a move planned for the summer (when his contract is up with us anyway).

McCart to ICT is the one to watch of the younger ones. If he can get into that team, it would be very good for him. He was on the bench against Hamilton on Tuesday so that shows he has a real chance of playing!

Ajer seems to be impressing Kilmarnock fans so far.

Also remember that we have O'Connell impressing down at Walsall, Aiden Nesbitt is out on loan at Greenock Morton although not living up to the expectations we all probably had for him. Goals and assists are looking thin on the ground for him! However he has helped them to 3rd in the Championship this season!

Janko is down at Barnsley but isn't even getting into the team. Being kept out by a 17 year old. He's made 7 appearances, scoring 1 and adding an assist. 57 mins of football in total! We should have pulled that loan in January if BR is serious about keeping him which I'm not sure he is any more.

Scott Allan is down at struggling Rotherham. Similar position to Janko. Not playing that much, 11 appearances, 1 assist and unlikely to be wanted much longer by BR.

Jamie Lindsay, another youth team product but now 21. Another player who big things were hoped for. Versatile midfielder who could score goals. He's on loan at Greenock Morton with Nesbitt where he's scored 3 goals with 1 assist in 25 appearances. Good first team football under his belt. Not sure if he's likely to feature for BR but he's certainly good enough to have a career as a player and possibly good enough to make the step up to the Premiership with a smaller team. Although being an important player in a team that is pushing for the play-offs in the Championship isn't bad going! We should also remember that Callum McGregor was a little older before making the breakthrough too!

Joe Thomson is probably the one young player from our youth team out on loan who looks like he's performing well enough to impress BR! An integral part of the team at Dumbarton for the first half of the season with 2 goals and 5 assists from CM, the 20 year old has now joined Queen of the South for the 2nd half of the season and has gone straight into the team to play the full 90 mins in their 4 games in January, scoring 2 goals and adding another 2 assists in the process!
 
We've been linked with a replacement for Patrick Roberts this summer.......Arsenal U23 player Chris Willock. He's 19 years old and has a lot less experience than Roberts. He's made a couple of sub appearances for Arsenal in the League Cup this season, in the 4th round and 3rd round against Reading and Nottingham Forest but other than that he's played in pre-season games and that's about it. He's never gone out on loan yet, he's just been with the Arsenal youth teams. This season he has mainly played in the Premier League 2, or reserve league. In 16 games he has 3 goals and 7 assists. He also played in one UEFA Youth League match against PSG.

From watching videos of him, it's not clear why we've been linked with him as he doesn't seem to be that special in any way. However he seems to be one of those players that just has this ability to glide past opponents without any real effort. He doesn't have the ridiculous skill and footwork of Roberts or the pace of Forrest yet he somehow manages to take players on and beat them.....I think he's a player who is quite comfortable with both feet and as such, you don't know which way he's going to go and so no matter what he does, it's a bit of a surprise.

He's an England U19 international, his younger brother is in the Arsenal U18s and his older brother is in the Man Utd U23 squad. His contract expires this summer and with first team chances looking slim, he may be looking to move on. Having seen the development of the likes of Dembele and the return to form of Sinclair, it would seem we could have a good chance of luring the young lad to Celtic. However he'd be a back-up and someone we'd probably need to work with a little before he'd be pushing for a first team spot so to say he's a replacement for Roberts is probably not that accurate. I would imagine we might still be looking for someone closer to pushing for a first team spot come the summer.
 
Update on our loan players:

Leo Fasan - Port Vale - League One - 7 games, 1 win, 3 draws and 3 losses, conceded 12 goals. At least he's playing! They're only just above the relegation zone however they have 3 games in hand over the teams above them so with a bit of luck they could move clear.

Eoghan O'Connell - Walsall - League One - played all 12 games (full 90 mins each time) scoring 1 goal. 6 wins, 4 draws and 2 losses. Comfortably mid-table (9th) and with a bit of luck could even get in to the play-offs.

Saidy Janko - Barnsley - Championship - Only played 7 times and the last was in mid-December. Hasn't even been on the bench since then! Not looking good for him!

Kristoffer Ajer - Kilmarnock - SPL - Played the full 90 mins of every game since joining Kilmarnock in January (8 games). 3 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses.

Scott Allan - Rotherham - Championship - In the squad only 14 times this season, 4 starts and 6 sub appearances. He last made an appearance on 28th January and hasn't been in the squad since 4th February. He's in a similar position to Janko, it doesn't look good for him! Remember this is a team that are rock bottom of the Championship and have no hope of staying up and yet Allan still can't get in the team......

Jamie Lindsay - Morton - Scottish Championship - 29 games, 3 goals and 1 assist from CM. Only not in the squad 4 times and only once on the bench the whole game. Morton are currently 3rd in the Championship, a point ahead of Dundee United. 3 points off Falkirk in 2nd but have 2 games in hand over Falkirk as do Dundee United. So if Morton can win those games they could move up to 2nd! If Hibs win their game in hand over Falkirk and Morton win both of theirs, Morton would only be 6 points off Hibs. Incredible season for Morton!

Aiden Nesbitt - Morton - Scottish Championship - See above pretty much. 27 games, 1 goal and 3 assists. Only not in the squad 3 times and once was because he was back playing with the Celtic U20s, twice he was on the bench without getting on. 20 starts out of 27 games is good going.

Luke Donnelly - Morton - Scottish Championship - Less impact from Donnelly but he only joined in February and was less experienced than the other 2 even before they joined. Spent the first half of the season with Alloa. He's made 4 appearances for Morton so far, once in the starting 11 and 3 times off the bench. He got an assist off the bench against Falkirk.

Ryan Christie - Aberdeen - SPL - Aberdeen are comfortably 2nd and Christie has made 7 appearances with 2 goals so far. Only seems to have started 3 games so far though which is the disappointing part.

Nadir Ciftci - Pogon Szczecin - Polish League - 5 games, 3 starts, 1 sub appearance, 1 game he was subbed off at HT, he's yet to score. Not going great for him!

Jamie McCart - ICT - SPL - on the bench for his first game but has played 90 mins every game since other than the games in the league and cup against us as he's not eligible to play against his parent club. Helped to win over Rangers. 3 draws in the other games so far. He's doing well!

Joe Thomson - Dumbarton and now Queen of the South - Scottish Championship - 28 games, 6 goals and 7 assists. 4 goals and 2 assists since moving to QotS, almost played the full 90 every game. A couple of games been taken off late with only a couple of minutes to go. Having a brilliant season!
 
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