Celtic Banter Archive January 26 2014

26 Jan 2014 22:00:06
Seen a few rumours linking jelle vossen with villa & west brom ectt would love to see him in the hoops exellent striker with an excellent record think he'd be a bit expensive though don't know what he'd cost. Ed would a deal be viable/ afforable

{Ed007's Note - Genk will be looking for at least £7/8m for Vossen I reckon Reece, he's a cracking player right enough.}

26 Jan 2014 19:29:09
We'll never have a better chance to get rid of Samaras as we do now. I have this fear that he's going to pen a new 4 year deal and once it's signed he'll look even less interested than he does at the moment. He must be on sizeable wages, would rather give Ledley a bit extra cash to stay and get rid of Tragedy. Don't think I could take another 4 years of Sam

26 Jan 2014 19:23:21
i know lenny has his favourites and that is probably why sammy played but anyone else think there could be a possibility he played to either:

1) put him in the shop window for some clubs

2)pretend to any interested clubs to make a serious offer to buy him as if he starts they may think he is needed at celtic

If he is in the shop window, there's no way anyone will buy him after today's display. He looked like his boots were on back to front

26 Jan 2014 17:34:35
This might seem a bit harsh, especially when you look at a 0-4 result, but does anyone think Lenny got away with it today?

When I seen the substitution he made I was amazed.After a pretty insipid first half there was only one candidate for the hook, Sammi. He done nothing of note, except losing three Hibs players in midfield then dicking it up with a weak shot instead of slipping a player in, and is holding a shirt from someone who wants to be here. Although we were not great we had control of the game, a suspect penalty claim apart, and had taken the lead.Biton was good on the ball and made himself available for a pass, he also holds his position well I think and gives us a balance.

the second half was poor for at least 30 minutes.Hibs had a grip in the middle and were winning pretty much every second ball, if they had scored would we really have been surprised? This was, I believe Lenny's fault.He weakened our engine room rather than sub Sammi, Why? Are we suffering while Lenny embarks on a quest to stiffen his CV with an unbeaten season? let's say the league is won by mid march, will he play squad players to rest our main picks? You would hope so as we are constantly told how demanding their schedule is.Throw the CL qualifiers into the mix and rest would seem to be inevitable for our main picks.

Cards on the table, I could not care less about an unbeaten season.Good achievement but not that important in the big picture, which for me is the advancement of the club.Sammi, and to be fair Ledley, should not be wearing a shirt ahead of players who are waiting for their chance.It sends the wrong message to our younger and squad players.If I was Biton I would be chapping the boss's door and asking if I had a future here, no way should he have been off today.Lenny has to see beyond this blind loyalty to certain players, Celtic are the important thing here I hope he has not forgotten that.

If I was Biton I would be asking Lenny why a defender plays week in week out in the midfield!

Spot on jhedi this undeafeated nonsense is holding us back, scared to make subs till game is safe, sammi should not be on the park if he is not staying .Bringing on players with five mins to go is a total waste of time.Let the other mob who tell us we are in a one horse race, but rattle on themselves about being undefeated get on with it, it is all they have

Maybe Biton was injured? We don't know pll just come up with things. Maybe we are show casing sammi and Ledley to get bids in for them, let's see what happens after the window closed. Hal

Absolutely agree. Was saying that to my mate as I watched it. It was clearly obvious that he got sub wrong Biton was sound Sammy was not. Although in making the sub NL went with two up front which to be fair we should be doing all the time.

Gj,, we needed to change our game at ht as hibs were coming into it more. we should have taken samaras off and changed our shape /style that way, and although he never played bad I thought biton loses his way/concentration too easily and the play passes round him, at times he also looks flat footed and one paced and lacks a bit of urgency/energy(maybe that's just his running style) but yes he can't adapt his style unless he keeps playing and with passengers like samaras that won't happen, yes I also want too see fringe players and youth given a chance but I think its harsh to criticise nl for wanting his team to go unbeaten in the league and doing his perceived best to ensure that, I think you are of a similar age as myself (51) and we have seen teams that were rubbish, leaked goals, shambles in defence and during the real bad times could only dream of our team doing something like this, yes nl has his favourites and it annoys me when they play regardless of form, I would like two strikers playing but we would then have to move commons to do that, but people are delighted with his game and goals this season so nl would get hammered for doing that and if by doing that and we lost a game people online would want him sacked for losing the unbeaten run nobody seems to care about, truthfully if nl dropped samaras, ledley forrest mulgew (his favs)and stokes who a lot of fans on here don't like, brought in the fringe players new signings and some youngsters and they then went on a losing streak would you applaud/support nl for doing that?,,,,, deep river bhoy

We usually 'watch the same game' and again I agree with you. The manager showed the same 'loyalty' to Hooper who clearly wanted to leave and to play Samaras and Ledley is disrespectful to the supporters and the players who WANT to play for Celtic, like Biton, Balde and Pukki.
We have carried a bit of luck at the back for a few weeks now and Forster kept us in this game. Hibs played at a higher tempo when they had the ball and had more chances and I was totally shocked (and delighted) we won 4-0 although we were average.
Lennon would never get away with this in a stronger league - as was shown in the CL campaign and the persistence with Mulgrew in midfield is another piece of nonsense as he is clearly out of place and ineffective.

The unbeaten run is nice, but it is no more than a penis contest with Slug and his First Division nobody's.
The club is farming out young talent left, right and centre when there is no better opportunity to blood them into the first team in a time when we have no serious main challenger.
I really do hope this is Lennon's final year as he has too many favourites, too many injury prone players, not enough flair or entertainers in the team and no clue in Europe.

JJ

@DRB; Got to disagree with you on some things mate. The penalty incident apart I thought Hibs were easily being kept at arms length in the first half. It seemed to me all they had were runners going wide into the space vacated by our full backs when they pushed on.We also had chances to score again, Sammi's poor shot when Commons should have been played in being the obvious one.

I would never criticize any coach for trying to maintain an unbeaten record, but we are talking about one or two young players being given a chance, not wholesale changes.For instance, young Henderson showed in Turkey he has got huge potential, could he not play instead of Ledley?

We are indeed around the same age, and I agree we have seen some real dross on our time.But my main worry is we just don't seem to be giving our academy players any breaks. McGregor at Notts County, playing out his skin and scoring goals in a tough league, should he not have been given a couple of games last season when the league was won? I have said before my big worry with Lenny is he seems to be showing signs of his mentors behaviour.Lets not forget that for all O'Neill done he did not leave us in very good shape player wise.

Gj,, I don't disagree re the youngsters getting game time I would love to see our own bhoys coming through, our youth system has transformed in the last few years but we aren't giving them enough of a chance, in midfield in particular we keep hearing rave reviews about bhoys like herron, kidd, Henderson, mgregor, . I also agree with your point about mgregor so why bring in young guys like biton and rogic? do our management team have no faith in local talent? I said on here before if we keep bringing in the young foreign bhoys what's the point of lennoxtown and a youth system . the worst thing about it is if our youth system was as bad as it was under oneill we would probably be trying to buy these youngsters of other clubs, anyway hopefully some of them start to get a breakthrough soon,,,,,, deep river bhoy

26 Jan 2014 15:10:58
for the life of me I don't know how sammy played aslong as he did today. shouldn't of even been near the bench let alone starting but yet again the usual guys stand up and put in a shift

forster looked good and saves us with a few great saves

vvd scores a great goal and had a very good game

fisher again performed well at rb against a decent we winger in harris

commons, well just does what commons does lol

the stand out for me today and looks back to his best was scott brown. the workrate he showed to pressure and push the team on and without him in the team we would of found ourselves being exposed quite a bit in the middle and has been doing it for some time now

Even I have to agree sammys performance today was shocking! What a goal from pukki aswell. This 80 mins subs thing aswell has to stop. Amido deserves a start for me, see how he links up with commons. Why did lenny start 4 sitting mids today?

Darrenbhoy

26 Jan 2014 14:52:06
As long as celtic keep playing as they are you can't really fault what Nl or the team are doing, just would like at this stage a slightly more cavalier approach from our manager .
Don't see the point in splashing out on a striker at this stage maybe a bit more game time for Pukki and Balde as a partnership .
Biton didn't do much wrong today either, maybe Mulgrews time is running out .

26 Jan 2014 15:33:46
totally agree mate. we have the young lad frinjonson to see play aswel and balde and pukki who hopefully will be like two new signings if they partner each other and lenny gives it a go

well done tony watt on the two goals yesterday. looks to be settling down at last. glad he didn't blow his chance with the outbursts in training as always been a fan when he plays up front. obviously the lierse manager sees him as the man to keep them up

26 Jan 2014 09:11:46
Hi Ed,

Have you heard a transfer rumours that have a genuine interest not only to Lennon but the fans?

Whilst I am all for a healthy, well ran club I do think the fans deserve a marquee signing. Nothing puts bums on seats like a goalscorer. God knows we have been spoilt in the last 10 years for strikers but this year has been nothing but awful.

{Ed007's Note - I wouldn't hold my breath for anything to get excited about in the remainder of this window Kev. With five days to go I don't know of any deals that could happen, there has still been no contact with Wolves regarding Griffiths and so far we haven't been able to agree a fee with Norwich for Snodgrass. If had to hazard a guess I would say that the move for Rhys Williams could happen this week.}

26 Jan 2014 14:18:22
Time to get rid of the Greek Tragedy we're a far better side when he doesn't play

Take a bow big Virgil

Spot on stevie!

26 Jan 2014 14:10:36
Is it just me or is it only certain players NL will shout at it used to be kayal now it seems to be efe

He definitely has his favourites, but Efe needs shouted at. He's a bomb scare!

How's efe a bombscare? I think the guy has redeemed himself for the mistakes he made last season. Give the guy a chance

Darrenbhoy

26 Jan 2014 17:17:30
Behaved itself DB he's always at it. 1st minute

26 Jan 2014 12:49:49
Sammie starts upfront no Icelandic boy on the bench should be giving them a chance instead of keeping sammi fit for the WC

Samaras is a man short right away!

JJ

Sammi's lack of desire is appalling. Last 5 minutes of the half Izzy swung in a cracking cross, he was ahead of his marker and didn't even jump for it. An absolute disgrace he is near the team.

26 Jan 2014 12:19:28
This guy Seamus who writes on here constantly is making his own rumours up out of his own mind. It's utter dross man. Leave it out mate

Hoping for a good convincing win today. C'mon the hoops

26 Jan 2014 20:10:32
It's a rumours and banters page that's what Seamus does what's the problem

26 Jan 2014 11:54:22
@celticfc: #Celtic: Forster; Fisher, Ambrose, van Dijk, Izaguirre; Brown, Biton, Mulgrew, Ledley; Samaras, Commons (LB)

@celticfc: #Celtic subs: Zaluska, Boerrigter, Balde, Pukki, Johansen, O'Connell, Henderson (LB)

26 Jan 2014 08:53:54
Tomlin scored yesterday but was also sent off .Last time he was sent of Fergies runt suggested that Tomlin had a an agenda .
Seems to be a profitable goal scorer but has he an attitude that could cause problems when thingsnarent going his way?,

26 Jan 2014 07:05:41
Morning folks,
Long time no post.
Been reading the, almost hopeful, opinions of people regarding potential signings. Personally, I doubt the clubs apetite for any major signing in this transfer window.
Apparently, according to todays media, there is interest in Griffiths for £1.25M. Griffiths of Wolves in League 1. Decent wee striker last season but hardly an exciting prospect.
A sobering thought came yesterday while listening to radio commentary of Bournemouth v Liverpool.
Bournemouth. 16th in the Championship - had a player on the bench - Rantie. They signed this guy from Malmo for a club record £2.25M (although radio quoted £2.5M).
The jist of my post is that it looks like even the Championship door has shut and the horse bolted regarding value for money signings. Does anybody realistically see us spending that kind of money next week? I hope so, but I don't see it.
Where now? I think this window is (and always was) more about who is leaving as opposed to who we sign.
The more transfer windows that pass, the more it feels like the club are hoarding money. Perhaps with a view to a certain club making it to the top league. Do yous think the cheque book will come out then? . kbt1978

26 Jan 2014 00:31:01
Folks had the opportunity to have a chat with John Kennedy & Stevie frail tonight in the city centre. Spoke about players who've got a chance. Asked Stevie if he thought Balde had a chance. his words where 'I've got more of a chance than him. I disagreed and said I like what I see different dimension given to us. He was having none of it. John Kennedy was a gentleman. Ian L