With the craziness of the transfer window now behind it is appropriate to look at how things panned out on Planet Fitba.
Firstly, Celtic have retained all of their major players in a squad that last season won a treble and was unbeaten in all domestic competitions.
Paddy Roberts is back for another season on loan and the squad has some valuable new additions.
Celtic added to the group of players who won the treble last season without losing a match on the domestic front.
Paddy Roberts is back for another season and Olivier Ntcham looks a level above anyone else in central midfield.
Securing Stuart Armstrong for another two years was another fine move.
Yesterday the Parkhead club acquired the services of Odsonne Edouard from Paris Saint-Germain on a season-long loan deal, with Celtic obtaining an option to buy the player.
Hopefully, the highly rated young Frenchman confines his shooting to the soccer variety.
So overall a good window for the champions.
However, the central defence conundrum remains unsolved.
Brendan Rodgers must hope that he has that quality that Napoleon wanted in his generals.
The Irishman will need to be lucky with injuries.
Rivaldo Coetzee is certainly a case when lady luck did not smile on the man from Antrim.
Aberdeen FC have also strengthened and they are my bet to be Celtic’s closest challengers in all competitions this season.
Any objective analysis of the competing squads would come to that conclusion, but don’t expect that assessment to emerge from the sports desks in Glasgow.
However, even the most dignified among the stenographers challenge the assertion that Celtic Park will once more be the home of the champions in season 2017/2018.
Across the city, the Sevco caravan stumbles on.
The stenographers have been gushing about the new acquisitions and the putative amounts spent to strengthen the Ibrox squad.
However, anyone who thinks that the five-year-old club is currently on a financially sustainable footing is utterly barking.
Hearts wanted ALL of the money for the winger Jamie Walker up front.
Sevco wouldn’t or couldn’t do that.
I strongly suspect the latter.
The reportage on the final day of the transfer window was highly instructive.
Apparently it was down to Hearts to “make a move” towards The Rangers on the asking price.
Of course, it was vital that the narrative that Sevco was not skint was put out there to reassure The People.
This stance apropos Hearts and Jamie Walker is clear evidence to me that the old Ibrox sense of entitlement survived the liquidation of the original Rangers.
The ‘spending spree’ at Sevco was partly smoke and mirrors, but the salaries being paid to the new players are real enough.
The resources that were placed at Pedro’s disposal emerged from a game of bluff and counter bluff within the Sevco High Command.
I was surprised to read this statement by Dave King last May.
In fairness, I rather suspect that he was too!
The reason for this confected statement was to flush out the South African based entrepreneur.
The real authors were the members of the Sevco High Command who have been keeping the lights on with their own subventions.
In keeping with his past behaviour when challenged Mr King decided to tough it out.
He knew that what was being embarked upon with Pedro was a train wreck, but the convicted criminal won’t be near the dignified locomotive when it hits the financial buffers.
Sadly, someone has to pay the bills and balance the books at Ibrox.
It has been an open secret in Argyle House this summer that after payroll has been met there is a triage on which bills will be unpaid for that month.
This is the profile of a distressed company.
It was clear that as Pedro brought his guys in then some of Warburton’s squad would need to be sold.
That became an urgent matter after the hilarious shambles in Luxembourg.
Therefore it probably wasn’t the best move to impose internal exile on the most sellable assets like Barrie McKay.
This massively downgraded his market value.
Folk in the English Championship are still rubbing their eyes at a player who was sold for £500k.
Actually, I like to think of it as part of the Magic Hat’s revenge for his…err…resignation from the Engine Room Subsidiary.
I learned yesterday that the Admirable Warburton had also tested the waters with a very cheeky lowball bid for Sevco’s net minder Wes Foderingham.
There was also a serious fee discussed for another senior Ibrox player.
I’m not at liberty to divulge the identity of the defender who Forrest wanted to buy for £1.2m as I’m not a grass!
The finances at Sevco would have been challenging, but not catastrophically so if there had been the revenue coming in from participation in the group stages of the Europa League.
Sadly, there was little Progrès on that front.
By contrast, Celtic must now prepare for action in the Champions League.
The Parkhead club is now the destination of choice for some of the best talents in the French U 21 squad.
Meanwhile, Sevco will strive to be the simply best of the rest in Scotland.
Despite that stark contrast, the stenographers continue to sooth The People with hope flavoured shite about a bright new tomorrow.
On the upside, Sevco now have the loan of a Declan…
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Gordon Parks in today’s daily record saying Patrick Roberts lacks any ambition and has cut another year off his career by choosing Celtic, he really is hurting big time … he totally misses the important fact that Celtic actually tried to sign the young boy for £8m, a minor detail easily overlooked ! Well i look forward to having the privilege of watching this young guys talent and will be thankful that he has chosen OUR club.
I understand that a Sevco player was travelling by train from Glasgow to somewhere in Northern England almost a week ago and was overheard to infer that Caixinha will be lucky to be there at Christmas……..
Scotland team with more than half of the team Celtic players and should be more ..
SFA should be down on their hands and knees thanking Brendan Rodgers ..
Scotland team now Celtic 2nd team ..
Don’t need Gorden let Brendan
Manage Scolland on a part time bases he’s doing it now with so many Celts playing
With many over at Ibrox preferring England to the Scottish national team last nights performance by the bhoys, 6 plus Charlie, must be piling on the agony.
Not a single player from Ibrox in the squad which won’t be changing anytime soon.
There is every chance now that Scotland can grab 2nd place and a play off position.
Will those of a blue persuasion continue to lend their support to the little Englanders rather than cheer on a Scotland team stuffed with Celtic players.
Oh how times have changed. Given Celtic’s exposure in the CL, also keeping Scotland on the map,would it be too much to claim that Celtic is now the establishment team?
Phil, I sent “Mr Union Jack” a tweet yesterday from what he said about “Hearts need to make the first move” and asked the simple question of why they had to make the first move when they had no intention of selling Walker, Still waiting on a reply from “Mr Union Jack”although i understand he will currently be working on some other high level piece of churnalism, looking forward to hearing from him.
If you think Jack is bad let me refer you to Gordon Parks article today with his scathing criticism of Patrick Roberts decision to continue his development with Celtic rather than Girona or Nice.
You can sense his hurt throughout the article. It reeks of jealousy that Celtic can pay a substantial loan fee plus an element of his wages whilst the new DOF over in Govan has recruited a totally unknown development player from Man City, with a lack of clarity as to whether he’s part of the first team squad or will continue his development with the Ibrox club’s own development squad…go figure.
Can someone loan Paddy a little ambition is Parks headline, sounds more like a cry for help from the writer hardly able to contemplate the damage that the player might cause to his own team…….whoever that may be.
He finishes the article off with the following….’As Paddy and his pal Kieran Tierney are about to discover, Paradise is no place to reach for the stars.’
No Gordon, is that right? So now it’s not only Paddy that’s not ambitious, he’s brought Kieran into the argument as well.
Full Scotland internationalist, doesn’t look out of place in the Champions League and improving almost weekly under a coach who has a track record of developing young talent!
What’s not to like?
Perhaps we should be asking similar questions of Parks, Jack and their ilk?
The Sunday Mail and Evening Times are no place to reach for the journalistic stars, development stunters for ambitious people, a place for career rehabilation or the work place of last resort for the unemployable and those who would rather remain in their comfort zone rather than push themselves.
A truly horrendous article with a very clear agenda that someone as unskilled as Parks has failed to mask, or couldn’t be arsed trying.
Why even bother yer arse reading it?
Mondays chip wrapper.
All genuine sport fans should enjoy the Servo/SMSM circus to the full while it lasts – they can’t go on providing mirth at this level forever. Two institutions whose halcyon days passed long ago – now apparently defying the laws of business and irony. There’ll be a big hole in our comedy consumption when they both succumb to the inevitable death spiral of losing money hand over fist, year in, year out.
A couple of weeks ago I found an entrepreneur south of the Limpopo whose business dealings and ethics reminded me of the Glib and Shameless Liar, especially when one takes account (¡Matron!) of his skills at manipulation of the unwary:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flintheart_Glomgold
Which team in Glasgow has the most Roman Catholics in their starting 11?
Who cares? Glasgow’s Green & Whyte 😉 and their grandkids will be wearing Hoops!!!
Don’t know, don’t care. Have never known how many Catholics played for Celtic at any given time. Never cared.
What does that have to do with the price of fish on a Friday?
St Andrews U16s?
I believe Pedro had been trying to sign Ant(thony)but ended up with Dec(lan). He would actually need both to make an impact imo.
Interesting times, union jack cannot bring himself to say to the fans Declan has arrived instead refers to him as John, Pena makes his debut as sub and blesses himself, whilst Pedro claims not to care about his brothers Celtic by banning green boots.The show must go on.
“hope flavoured shite”
Brilliant. ?
I liked it too. I wonder if Phil agonized over whether it should be shite flavoured hope?
Forrest would spend 1.2 on the best left back in Scotland? Only club in world football making a bid.
Rangers are aiming for an “undisclosed” position in the league.
Quality Phil. Especially enjoyed the ” hope flavoured shite.” Like a 99 but nowhere near as tasty.
As for Mr Union his tweets are a cause for concern. Unashamed touting for Hearts to accept an offer considerably below their valuation. Everybody knows that he is an avowed sevcoite, as well as being a pretty shite churnalist.
What was he on? I ask myself. Weed, the Buckie and bleach combo, other substances, or is he just out of his depth?
How could his employer allow him to put this cack into the public domain.
Basically my opinion of Chris Jack, professionally, is that he is a talentless, unimaginative pudding. A journalist he is not!
Check out the Evening Times they introduced him as “their Rangers corrospondenter.
Better still Rob, DON’T check out the Evening Times AT ALL…..EVER!!
The French Next Gen Stars are at Celtic and the Declan’s are at Ibrox.
Warburton has more business savvy than the Ibrox Board. It must be his excellent City background.
CFC put out a £40m team in an average day and trfc field free transfers. Clearly there is no expectation at Ibrox other than a top six position and survival.
The Ross County win saved the Board. They are all in with Pedro and have no plan B funding to replace him.
When Sevco visit Paradise we should play take a chance on me by Abba.
Really? £1.8mm for gurner?
Pedro was talking about a dog but it was a Fox which saved him at Ross County!
I’d have thought Money, Money, Money to be more appropriate. ?
“Hunny Hunny” or “Peepul Need Love” surely?
or as they call him “the unfortunately named”
When I heard of the deal, I couldn’t help but think of the well known Scotch & wry sketch. Ricky Fulton in the SDR role with Gregor Fisher as the Chief scout and a young Gerard Kelly as Declan, the exiting new prospective Rangers signing. Declan could not play or train on a Sunday as he had to go to mass. Understandable really, given that his brother was a Cardinal.
Can’t remember how it ended though? I think Declan failed a medical.
No he missed the second half, I believe, because he had to go to mass. Fulton slammed his fingers in a cigar box.
Was it not Brendan O’Malley?
I believe he injured his fingers in the austere managers cigar box.