According to Neil Lennon, the Celtic squad is about to have another new addition.
Boli Bolingoli-Mbombo, subject to medical, will almost certainly be available for the first competitive match of the new season.
The reported fee is in the region of £3m.
Consider this, if the medical for David Turnbull had not have shown up the knee problem then Celtic’s net spend so far would have been just north of £13m for four players.
Across the Clyde, it currently stands at £900k for seven players.
Getting the picture?
On the Turnbull saga, I spoke with two physios involved in professional sport.
One of them does the care and maintenance on my own ageing undercarriage.
He said that the knee problem that will require the young Motherwell midfielder to go under the knife was “unmissable” for anyone in his profession.
That’s the word hen sued;
“Unmissable”.
Something about the problem being behind the patella, as he explained it to me I’m sure that I visibly winced…
The other physio I spoke to stated much the same apropos the diagnosable visibility of Turnbull’s knee issue.
His opinion was that it would be apparent to someone who knew their business.
Therefore, the consensus from this pair of experienced professionals was that the medical care at Motherwell might not be gold standard.
That’s their opinion and not mine as I’m not qualified to hold a view on the matter.
However, I’m sure that there is another explanation, but I just can’t think of one at the moment.
The good news is that the problem has been uncovered by Celtic’s medical team.
Moreover, I’m sure that the people at Motherwell will now see to it that young Turnbull gets the very best of care.
So far in this window, Christopher Jullien is the “marquee signing” on Planet Fitba at £7m.
Apparently, that description of the defender seemed to irk some within the dignified demographic.
Perhaps it is the word “marquee” that upsets them.
Unhappy memories I suppose…

After all, it was the winter of their discount tent.
Sadly, for the Ibrox klanbase the chap who is now centre stage is a Poundland Iago.
Moreover, when it comes to what awaits the baskets of assets he couldn’t really give a Puck.
Of course, there is no one in the press box to point out when he fluffs his lines.
At some point, competitive footie will awake them from their close seasonal Midsummer Night’s Dream…
Meanwhile, across the Clyde Neil Lennon is being given the resources to deliver Nine In A Row.
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Our squad needed trimming at Celtic.
As has been pointed out above we have a clutch of very good young talent coming through from Lennoxtown and going off some of their performances quite a few of them look to have a future under Lenny at the Club.
You don’t always have to go out and buy because a player is leaving sometimes the replacement is already at the Club.
Christie in for Armstrong is a prime example of this.
There seems to be an X Box approach to Transfers from some within the Support?
If Tierney is sold for £25m that money it is because the Club nurtured a good young talent and developed him to a stage where he is deemed to be worth that amount.
He is not being sold to replace money spent on incoming players this is a nonsense.
He is being sold because a Club feels the price is right and the player himself wants the move and until that happens he’s still a player who cost us nothing in terms of expenditure.
Football is a business after all and players whether fans like it or not are a commodity within that business.
How much money have the dud signings by Rodgers and Co cost our Club in the past 3 years?
Compper has probably put a £2-3m dent in our finances alone.
Devries,Gamboa,Kouassi,Benyu,Mulumbu the list goes on. And meanwhile we have the likes of Johnston Ralston Henderson Okoflex and Dembele chomping at the bit for game time.
None of whom cost anything more than the Development fees to bring them through
Sevco 2012 winning contest in first place at getting loan plus Free Deals over rest of the WORLD Arbroath pipt for second place by cove rangers. Gerard himself has been Trying hard As Hell Begging Liverpool for more players Dave king wants Gerard to listen to him SAYING Begging is a part start with a plan shining your Brass neck Before you ask Top Tips from king always Remember Begging starts from home right now off you go boy Beg away
OMG, what are the guys at IN on?
Morelos bid ‘imminent’, from a ‘certain’ EPL side, ‘considering’ splashing the cash, dependent on ‘certain’ circumstances, WOW, really, can’t wait for that to unfold.
Or Klopp to swop Kent for Morelos plus a bundle of cash going to the Ibrox club, company, thingy.
I doubt very much if Klopp looks at El Buffoon, goals and all, thinking I can turn him round…..could anyone?
Someone’s burning the midnight oil on this one.
Whoever, if anyone, at Ibrox has a calculator they will already have worked out that without Europa Cup group stage qualification the financials once again will be dripping red.
With Kingco tapped out and the soft loanees left with an increased diluted value share holding the prospects of a further well supported share issue is a pipe dream.
With anything at Ibrox currently not nailed to the floor currently secured against the latest Close Bros loan what’s left to fund further loans?
I may be wrong …but do EPL rules not preclude signing Morelos ?
He is non-EU , so must meet the criteria required – i.e. play minimum 45 % of last two year’s international matches ( not 45 minutes !!! ) , or meet other stringent requirements to do with value of transfer etc…
He may yet go to Mexico to meet up with Pedro , again ! Vaya con dios !
I think he was supposed to meet similar criteria in Scotland. Although up here it obviously depends on which team wants to sign you.
The point of the article is clearly to measure the disparity of resources on either side of the Clyde. There is no argument on that score. However, I think it worth pointing out that Celtic are spending in lieu of player sales. Player trading is not an overhead at Celtic plc, it is a source of revenue. Anyone who imagines otherwise is no student of Peternomics. Keiran or Callum are for the off, I just pray it isn’t both. Perhaps we should be pleased that many of our players are actually coveted, unlike another cash strapped outfit that springs to mind.
Celtic don’t need to sell anyone this Season this is a myth perpetuated by online numpties with too much spare time on their hands.
We have close to £40m sat in the Bank before a player was bought.
Already Devries,Lustig,Gambia,Compper,Izaguirre,Mulumbu and Allan are off the wage bill?
A wage bill that sat at less than 60% of Celtics Turnover last Season (£101m).
Tierney,McGregor,Ntcham,Rogic are all on lengthy Contracts so therefore if an approach is made it has to reach the required level set by Celtic before permission will be granted for the player to talk to the prospective buyer.
Every player at every Club on the Planet has a price he will be sold for regardless of Club.
So in finality Celtic hold all the cards here and we are ultimately in Control of what happens.
The additions already made are covered by the cash at our disposal.
Any after sales are exactly that after sales because up until this moment NO PLAYER at Celtic has been sold in this window regardless of what mental scenario the usual suspects try to put forward.
If Tierney goes it is because:
1 He wants to go
2 Our valuation has been met
3 A Club is prepared and agreed to meet our valuation
Until all 3 of the above have been agreed he like the others are going NOWHERE.
Jullien is a £7m replacement for a defender who cost us around £2m (Boyata)
That’s an upgrade
Mbombo is a £3m replacement for a Left Back who cost us around £650k (Izaguirre)
That is also a considerable upgrade
Turnbull would have replaced Allan in the squad again at £3m was an upgrade
Connell has been signed with a view to a Development for a nominal fee.
There are no guarantees when it comes to player sales as the current issue with regards Morelos and Tavernier at the Crumbledome highlight so well.
Celtic can afford to lose Ntcham or Rogic in this window without it affecting our Strength in this area of the Park.
Neither will go for less than the price set by Celtic.
If either players valuations are met then the net spend SO FAR will be cancelled out and the reported £40m sat in the Bank will still be sat there for more recruitment.
It is a win,win situation for Celtic we go into all negotiations with a strong hand.
Probably the best hand we have ever had going into any Summer window.
EVER.
If gerrard gets kent back on loan then he’ll have a 10 million pound player in his starting eleven
Seriously? 10 million? Lol
A player is only ‘worth’ what another club is prepared to pay…. I don’t see a queue lining up to give the scousers £10m…
And if my auntie had baws she’d be my uncle.
If he was worth £10m then he would have been sold for £10m and not loaned to sevco. HH
Ach yer arse. He’d be pushed to get into our squad. To be fair to the boy though, he’s got the temperament for for them. He’s an obnoxious wee shite.
And still the media can’t help themselves with the suggestion that Rangers will be in the running for Turnbull when the lad gets fit.
Apparently Celtic devalued the player and dissed his agent, according to the article.
Does the signing of a lower league English defender, with a few hundred thousand up front, not tell a story?
Close Bros loan repayment plus the bill sitting on Ashley’s desk will wipe out a significant amount of ST revenues.
No queue of bidders for Morelos and Tavernier despite the media’s wishful thinking.
7 additions to the wage bill who will find themselves in an unhappy dressing room with a host of players alienated by Stevie G still on the premises.
Never mind the quality, feel the freebie. HH
“Winter of discount tent” In all the years I have been observing Football that debacle stands out as the most outstanding I have yet to witness.
It was delicious. Life of Brian stuff…
The Scotsman’s at it with their headline today.
‘Rangers striker set for big money move’ immediately gets you thinking that finally a bid for Morelos has come in.
But no it’s a proposed transfer of Lafferty to a club in Thailand with a monetary offer that blows his current Rangers deal out of the window apparently, though it’s reported that the player has turned down such a lucrative offer and is looking for a bigger deal to blow out of a bigger window.
Not a mention of a transfer fee however so the ST monies remain the only significant revenues available to pay off the Close Bros loan and the Sports Direct thingy.
Assuming you mean no mention of a fee for lafferty, pretty sure i read hed been released or more specifically his contract was up so they wont get a penny
Yet it said that sevco had knocked the lafferty bid back.
Apparently laff is contracted to 2020.
“it’s been reported that the player has turned down such a lucrative offer and is looking for a bigger deal to blow out of a bigger window”
Reminds me of the Daily Radar reportage pre-liquidation days when they would run headlines that the Gers had rejected the rejection of their lowball derisory bids designed to unsettle the likes of Naismith, Whittaker, Thomson etc.and would refuse to be held to ransom by this unreasonable behaviour.
How exactly do you reject a rejection? All sounds a bit stalkery and mental to me. Welcome to the weird and wonderful halluconigenic world of succulent Scottish newspapers
Didn’t they come out with something similar when Derek McInnes knocked them back? Along the lines of, “He wasn’t good enough for us.”
By the end of the transfer window, my bet is we will have received more in sales than what we spent in buys. If you include selling players as well as buying, the team from the other side of the Clyde may have spent more on transfers than us.
A single large sale can skew the figures.
However, grade the quality of the respective squads at the end of the window.
That is usually the key metric.
Sevco has yet to win a major trophy if you discount the coveted Petrofac Training Cup.
Discount it Phil. It can’t possibly qualify as a major trophy if top flight teams aren’t in it. It has no more value than their three lower league titles.
Following on from their winter of discount tent….( clever)…I can exclusively reveal that they were almost charged with loitering within tent….Boom Boom.
I think the Celtic plan is to not-quite decimate what’s in the bank, but “speculate to accumulate” apropos the squad. I think some fans were expecting 2,3, or perhaps 4 “marquee” signing, but I think we are about to bear fruit from the academy in the next couple of years. Sometimes, in order to produce the finest wines, timing is all-important, and this is about to happen at Paradise. Stevie can shop in poundland, and fill his squad with loanees and care-home cast-off until his little Liverpudlian heart is content – we are showing definite signs that we fully intend making more football history. Roll on the start of the coming season!!
By the way, Phil – I’m sorry to learn that you have undercarriage issues that require medical attention… please pass on my sincerest condolences to Mrs Phil. 😉😁🤣
“Discount tent” fooking howling here😂
Almost a perfect piece and not to nit-pick but Iago isn’t in the Dream but then again maybe DK has changed Shakespeare’s comedy. I seem to recall there’s a donkey in that too.
I am fully aware that Iago is the villain in Othello.
Touching that you would think otherwise of a professional playwright.
An SMSM headline you’ll never see;
“£13M for 4 v. £0.9M for 7″
Aye, but, I did read that Gerrard will be ‘trimming his squad for quality”.
That should be interesting…
He’s saying that the quality is already there and by trimming the squad that will become more evident.
Though I doubt if they return from Killie on Day 1 of the new season without 3 points that many of the fans will share that view.
Or, “For every almost a million Rangers spend, Celtic will spend TEN!”