With hope in your heart

Celtic plays tonight, and for a couple of hours, it will give me respite from the criminal insanity pouring out of the Oval Office.

It is beyond the creative imagination of this novelist that the Balfour Declaration would one day get a makeover from a real estate developer from New York.

In that reality, tuning out and focusing on football is a health benefit.

Just like chasing a sliotar in Ramallah for a besieged people.

It holds out the prospect of better days.

During my time in the Donegal MountainRescue Team, I remember a wilderness survival course where the instructor rhymed off “the rule of three”.

Three minutes without air, three days without water, and three weeks without food.

The one that stuck with me was “three seconds without hope”.

Sport, whatever the code, can do for you and provide that ethereal component for life.

So today, I caught up with a very well-placed source within Celtic.

He put some context on how Brendan had presented in his pre-match presser.

My guy told me that:

“On Mason Melia, Celtic offered more money upfront than Tottenham. Brendan, John Kennedy, and Jonny Hayes met with the lad and his family. Dermot brought the family over to see the Celtic setup, see Lennoxtown, Celtic Park, and take in the 2nd last Champions League home game. The kid and his family chose Spurs.”

He then told me that Celtic had three strikers on their target list since Kyogo’s blindsiding demand to leave.  He impressed upon me that Brendan tried everything to keep him, and Celtic offered him the top wage group. However, since he changed agents, he had become very unsettled and wouldn’t wait until next summer to leave as the Japanese manager, whose agent is Kyogo’s agent as well, told him that he’d get no international game time until he left the Scottish league.

On the Mathias Kvistgaarden saga, he said that Brondby wanted €15m upfront for their man, plus a 33% sell-on clause.

When I asked him to clarify, he told me that the Danish club wanted a percentage of the quantum, not just the profit of any future sale!

Celtic had offered €10.5m  and 15% of the profit in any future transfer.

He also said that Kelechi Iheanacho, who played with Brendan at Leicester, was a loan option. I’m told that Celtic and Sevilla broadly agreed on a €1.5m loan fee, plus the Parkhead club was going to cover €50k p/w of his wages.

However, Middlesbrough apparently jumped in and offered to meet the €1.5m loan fee and his full wages of €115k p/w.

Celtic simply couldn’t match that.

The basic narrative is that Brendan wants to shop in a higher-end market and not continue with the £2m gambles from the days of Lawwellball.

Instead of four of them, Rodgers wants an Arne Engels.

The problem with that laudable aspiration is that wages can become an issue.

This podcast from the Huddle Breakdown is especially appropriate today. Alan’s analysis of UEFA’s FSR ordinances and how they impact wage eligibility is particularly insightful.

Although I must say I wasn’t expecting “podcast harlot”.

Upon my soul…

Laura is a class act.

The content that drops into my inbox from these folks absolutely outstrips anything I can source in the mainstream.

Similarly, the team at ACSOM are consistently excellent.

It is no surprise to me that Paul John and his crew accumulate awards the way the Hoops collect silverware.

This one is definitely worth your time.

When David Low talks about Celtic and finance, you should really pay attention.

Here he is on ACSOM, a podcast that stacks up awards just like the Hoops collect silverware.

Celtic’s current domestic domination is undoubtedly a product of Fergus McCann’s vision and business acumen.

Every year, we have an in-built advantage over the nativist neighbours.

These figures from Swiss Ramble show one of the reasons why Celtic are in another postcode from their city rivals.

 

As Alan Morrison noted, the next step for the SPFL champions is to get an elite scouting operation in place.

There is too much public data to ignore the fact that it currently is not fit for purpose.

I’ll put all of that aside tonight as I watch the Hoops.

I might even be able to forget what’s happening in the world, for an hour or two.

That lad in the featured image, probably holding a hurl from Donegal, knows that he doesn’t walk alone.