What next? | Page 2 | Vital Football

What next?

We have been linked before with Eremenko. Sounds like a good signing. That's a lot of cash, not that we don't have it with CL money in hand. But if we really sell Kayal for £5m we would have the cash.
 
Lennon said he wouldn't make any markee signings and wouldn't spend lots of money on one player.....which leads me to believe we won't make a move for him! Although he would be a good addition as I think he is of Champions League quality. I watched a video of him and I have to say it doesn't look THAT good but what you do see is that he likes to be on the ball and be a bit creative but he does the simple things well. I would say he is similar to Ledley but with a bit more skill/flair.

Gershon reminds me of Jan Vertonghen at Spurs. I think he could be a good signing and might allow us to send Rogne out on loan for 6 months (once we tie him to a new contract).
 
Welcome to Celtic gershon.

I think rogne will stay. Well at least until the summer. With ambrose away at the African nations and not certain gershon will settle,it could be wise to hold on to rogne. Plus if he gets back into the side and finds form and signs a contract extension we gain a valued asset.

You mentioned Maor melikson od. I can see us signing him and selling McCourt.

With stokes returning from injury soon I don't expect any striker signings. Unless miku's loan deal is cut short.

Main thing is to tie hooper and wanyama down to contract extensions.
 
It's a shame to see Paddy move on, but he is getting no action and he has been awful when he does play. He is just out of synch here and needs to move on. Ahhhhlll always loves me Paddy.
 
Lots to talk about since I was last on!

We are being linked with a few players and have a couple in on trial for our week in Marbella, Spain.

The agent of Helder Barbosa of Portuguese side Braga, claims our interest from the summer (we nearly signed him) is even greater now and that we are trying to do a deal. Barbosa is an attacking midfielder or mainly used as a left winger. I remember watching a video of him and thinking he'd be a great addition but it wasn't to be during the summer.
Celtic have apparently distanced themselves from the deal......perhaps not one we are looking to do now but rather in the summer?

Former trialist, young American striker, Juan Agudelo is still one we are chasing and talks between the clubs are ongoing!

Tom Rogic is on trial and Mjallby claims that he could be a gem of a player for us. 20 year old Australian international only started playing professional football in the summer after winning The Nike Academy (in Australia I think) and he was a former Futsal player (indoor football with a smaller ball, very big in Europe and Brazil). He certainly looks a good young player full of potential! Plays an attacking midfield role and will drop deep, good at stretching teams, he's also quite big and strong, decent skill, good long distance shots but my only real criticism from what I've seen is he is VERY left footed!

Apparently we are also looking at Juwon Oshaniwa who claims himself that he is in talks with us but he is currently with Nigeria in preparation for the ACON. Israeli club Ashdod (where we signed Ambrose from) signed him in the summer but the young LB is apparently in talks with us. His agent is our old friend Dudu Dahan. What doesn't make sense to me is that we have now signed Gershon.....who has played a lot at LB and is essentially a LB who can also play at CB........why would we need ANOTHER LB? I think this one has bullshit written all over it!
 
I'm assuming all of these players--except maybe Herbosa--are being signed with an eye toward long-term building as opposed to helping us this season. Though I will say that any new striker coming in has to fancy his chances of winning a job alongside Hooper.

Oshaniwa looks more like a long-term deal. It will be hard for Gershon to displace Ambrose or Wilson. I don't see him playing much except in cup games and against weaker league competition.
 
Gershon main strength by account is his pace. Think Lenny feels we are vulnerable at the back to counter attacks in the spl. Also believe Lenny would play 3-5-2 in spl so signing this bhoy might fur fill his wish.

Hearing some strange rumours that man united want to use Anderson as a sweetener for signing big victor.

Lenny seems keen on signing the big yank. I'd imagine he'd like to get him in this window to give him time to settle. Without doubt both miku and hooper wont be here next season. Bangura has fallen off the radar.

Missing stokes. His link up play alone is hard to replace. The friendly on tues nite is on Espn. Hopefully the young Aussie plays
 
Anderson cost United a decent fortune. That would be quite interesting.

The striker situation is worrisome. If we lost Hooper this summer--and I expect we will--who is ready to step in and score? I doubt Stokes is back. Sammy could go and he isn't a forward anyway. Surely Watt could step up, but we need another.
 
I believe you are correct welch, most of these signings are with a view to more long term plans!

Gershon is for the here and now, he already has decent experience and is the right age to come straight into the team. I think he is good cover in case someone were to come along with a good offer for Mulgrew. Charlie is a similar type to Gershon, a LB, CB or even midfield if you want him to. Both very versatile and I think Gershon has a decent left foot as well but certainly not quite as good as Mulgrew. Muldini is one that isn't mentioned when talking about possible players leaving the club but you have to ask, if an EPL club were looking for a new utility player, they could spend a lot more money on someone a lot worse than Charlie Mulgrew! Someone like Newcastle for example, they need back-up in defence and Collocini wants to return to Argentina so Mulgrew would be a good option for them. Clearly I'd rather he stayed but Gershon fills that gap quite nicely if he were to be the subject of a bid.


How much Gershon actually plays remains to be seen but I struggle to see how he will play many games.
Gershon is more likely to be competition for Izzy instead of our CBs but if belfast is correct (and I think he probably is) in that we want to use the 3-5-2, I don't see Gershon playing on the left of midfield much, not convinced he is a wing back, therefore we will look to use him as a CB. He therefore becomes back-up.

On big Vic, I don't think any club that is being credited with interest (all the big clubs) are looking to sign him in this window but if someone were to make a bid, it could spark a bidding war and force clubs to bid for him now so that they don't lose out!
Anderson and less cash for big Vic......I don't like that deal! Anderson has not turned into the player Man U thought he would, he's not a bad player but I don't think he would be a good fit for our club! Plus his wages would be the big stumbling block!

The reason we are pushing for Agudelo now is that we know he wants to join us, his club now seem to be willing to sell but most importantly is that he has been down at West Ham on trial and they are also keen, so we are moving quick to beat the EPL clubs to the punch!
Not so much to do with getting him in and settled but that will be part of it.

Miku is to stay until the end of the season and nobody has given up hope of him settling in, Lennon pointed out that Ki took a while to settle and then came good, Miku could do the same!

Bangura is apparently set for the off, despite scoring on his comeback to the development squad back in Decemeber. Hooper has apparently decided to change agent at the end of the month and that is his reason behind not signing a new deal at the moment but he has apparently also told the club that he wants to leave in the summer because he wants to force his way into the England team but he doesn't want to go now because he wants to play in the CL against Juventus!

This is clearly bad news but at least he is committing himself until the summer so we don't have to worry at the moment. The major problem is how much we can get for him. Come the summer, he will only have 1 year left on his contract, therefore how much we can ask for him is reduced! Clubs are currently talking about prices of £5m.....that will be a good offer in the summer! Considering that whoever he moves to could easily sell him for about £10m+ in a couple of years, £5m in the summer is a big blow! What we have to hope for is a bidding war!

In terms of replacing him, it is obviously going to be difficult and it feels more like we are going for quantity of strikers rather than proven goalscorers. We know Stokes will score if you give him the right partner, so far Hooper has been the only one who really works with him but I think the other problem for Stokes' future at the club, as well as the off-field problems we have spoken about before is that Lennon really seems to favour this front 3 system now. Two wider players and one through the middle. Stokes hasn't done particularly well up front on his own so could struggle through the middle but he is good in wider areas, stretching defences. That means he isn't in a position to score goals though!

Agudelo could fit in well to the front 3 playing through the middle as a bit of a target man. We have seen that Lassad can play in a wider position but would also be capable of playing through the middle.

I think the Australian kid could be a good buy for £400k and could add something a little different. He's big, strong and skillful and could be developed into a cracking player!

I think we should also be actively looking to sell some players as well. We still have Daryl Murphy out on loan, Andre Blackman, Bangura and Paddy to sell or let go and then we have to make a decision on players such as James Keatings who showed so much promise as a youngster but suffered an unfortunate injury just when we would have brought him into the first team. That has seen him go out on loan but unfortunately I don't think he has done too well or played that much. We also have Paul Slane and Lewis Toshney to make decisions on as they are at the age where they either need to be back-up and be involved in the team or they move on!
 
Rogic deal is done subject to a work permit but that should be a formality as he already has 4 full caps and is only 20 years old.

He has been signed on a 4 and a half year deal......which tells you he is either very good and we need to tie him up long term straight away or he is a long term prospect.....I think it could be the case that he is just that good!
 
I dunno, Wee Od. He only cost us £400K, so I don't think he is that great. BUt he probably is a really7 good prospect. Well see.

In other news, £5m or n £6m for Hooper is weak. If Mcgeady was worth £9m, Hooper should sell for £12m.
 
He was only £400k because he only had a few months left on his 1 year deal, his club didn't know how good he was going to be so he wouldn't have been on that good a deal, so what they can ask for someone of his age is drastically reduced, hence the £400k.

Unfortunately come the summer, £6m might be the most we can get for Hooper because he will only have 1 year left on his current contract which isn't worth as much.
 
Lubos Kamenar, the Slovakian GK we signed on loan from Nantes has returned to France. That was a waste and we all knew it!

Apparently Lennon is now on the lookout for a new back-up GK to Forster and Zaluska........I think thats a waste of money and it should be one of our own young keepers! We have plenty of them! Besides, Zaluska never seems to get injured! When was the last time Zaluska wasn't on the bench when Forster was playing?
 
Looks like Lenny is lining up bids for Charlie Austin of Burnley and Yuji Ono of the Yokohama Marinos in case Hooper goes. I say we sign one of them anyway and try to keep Hooper. If he leaves for a lame-ass outfit like Norwich City instead of facing Juve in the Champions League, then he's just another mercenary. He will make the big bucks next year in England anyway and get a raise at Celtic this season. He has a better chance of growing a dick in the middle of his forehead than seeing European football with fucking Norwich.
 
Heard that we are keeping tabs on Charlie Austin, we'll have to pay a fairly high price for him though, unless his contract is expiring soon. We were interested in him before but he opted to join Burnley instead......he took a while to get going at Burnley but the last couple of seasons he has settled in and started scoring plenty of goals in the Championship!

I think Lennon and the board know that Hooper is happy to stay until the summer, that is supposedly what he told them and that's what they seem to believe to be the case (that he wants to stay until the summer).

As for who he goes to.......he should be going to someone better than Norwich I agree.......but nobody else is really making bids at the moment, Norwich's bid should have brought some more clubs out of the woodwork but they''re nowhere to be seen......

I hadn't heard about Yuji Ono though..........having just looked him up though, he has literally just joined Standard Liege yesterday! So that's definitely not a true story! lol.
 
I heard there was a fee agreed with Standard Liege, but Naka encouraged him to go to Celtic and that his club was waiting for an offer. Dunno where that one stands.
 
Sir Alex Ferguson was at the game last night. It is believed he was watching Wanyama and left very impressed!

It is also reported Spurs boss AVB was at the game last night.......to watch Gary Hooper!!

 
Mo Bangura has moved to Elfsborg in Sweden for a year long loan. This must be quite a blow to him after performing rather well in the friendly against Bucharest on his first team return after his loan at AIK, he even scored!

The question must now be asked.....what is Celtic's plan for Bangura? Is he being considered as a longer term prospect? He is still only 23, he needs games and due to being down the pecking order, a loan is the best option for him but how long is that going to continue? Are we simply going to do this until his contract expires or gets closer to expiring and someone finally wants to actually buy him?
 
I think they are managing him out. He doesn't even get chances in games so Lenny is seeing none of the potential that got the player signed. They are hoping he catches on somewhere so they can sell him for something and recoup some of the loss. He is a sunk cost at this point.
 
Viktor Noring is on trial this week! That is ANOTHER player I have scouted that we are linked with.

Noring is a 21 year old Swedish GK. He is around 6ft 4 and is looking to leave his club Trelleborgs after they were relegated two seasons in a row to the third tier of Swedish football. He has represented Sweden at U17, U19, U21 and received a full cap in 2011. He is still currently in the U21 squad.

He's a good young keeper with a good amount of experience playing first team football in Sweden and would be a good back-up to Forster and possibly push Zaluska for a spot on the bench. We are looking for a 3rd choice keeper as Lennon doesn't like having Thomson or Fasan on the bench and Zaluska in goals while Forster is injured. Kamenar returned to France earlier this month/end of December.

Considering how much he is likely to cost and the fact we could take him on a short term deal, I think it's worth a shot! It's late in the window so we have to make a quick decision on him.
 
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