12 Jan 2024 03:28:48
If Kuhn comes, I hope we move some wingers on as we have two many already.
Currently have:
Palma
Maeda
Abada
Yang
Forrest
Johnston
Tillio
Same is also true with centre mids.
Currently have:
McGregor
Hatate
O'Riley
Iwata
Bernardo
Turnbull
McCarthy
Holm
Kwon
I personally would like to see Kwon, mccarthy and Turnbull moved on this window, even loaned out, with one quality midfielder coming in.
1.) 12 Jan 2024
12 Jan 2024 09:10:41
Weejoe from that list I would have tillio and Johnston gone from wingers forrest I think will stay out of loyalty as bit part, yang I'm not too sure about but maybe needs more time to settle.
Centre mid, I would say it's kwon, Mccarthy and turnbull gone, maybe Holm on loan to a side in the league for game time and experience.
2.) 12 Jan 2024
12 Jan 2024 09:11:41
I think this has been a recurring problem with us for a few seasosns. Signing 'blindly' and stocking up with quantity instead of properly identifying specific areas and concentrating on real quality.
We are also over our quota of centre halves although we did have injury problems, but we seem to be touting Lagerbielke and Kobayashi. We also have other players currently out on loan already who have little chance of a future with Celtic and those who prefer to sit-out their generous contracts and bleed cash. Our whole recruitment strategy and procedure needs a complete overhaul IMO.
3.) 12 Jan 2024
12 Jan 2024 10:08:27
Our main problem is signing young players then not putting them out on loan to others in the league to get used to Scotland and get regular game time.
It was the making of Christie, Ajer and Scales who were all signed as prospects.
It also strengthens the teams that play Sevco. I find it mind boggling that we don't do it regularly.
Kwon is probably not even at SPL level but Holm, Yang and Oh would all benefit massively IMO.
4.) 12 Jan 2024
12 Jan 2024 13:13:35
Weejoe that's a really a really pass poor list to have as a club. Midfield and out wide is where all the creation comes from and only 7 out of 16 from that list is first pick material. Incredibly poor recruitment and contract handling.
5.) 12 Jan 2024
12 Jan 2024 14:08:23
Broadly agree with the above, Tilio, MJ and Forrest ate not good enough.
In the midfield, Turnbull, McCarthy and Kwon need to go.
I also envisage the boards collective eyes lighting up, like Susan Boyle in a cake shop, when offers come in for MOR in the summer.
Reading through some of the posts I'm surprised, or should I be, that there's fans questioning the possible signing of Kuhn, before he even signs ?
Our most consistent player over the past two seasons and I'd say the best player in the league this season, is Matt O'Reily, and he cost buttons.
Whilst I'd like to see, what I would consider 'quality' players coming in, the price tag doesn't guarantee success.
☘️ ? ☘️.
6.) 12 Jan 2024
12 Jan 2024 15:55:14
I'm not questioning Khun but earlier I posed the question, will he dislodge Palma, maeda or Abada.
7.) 12 Jan 2024
12 Jan 2024 16:27:25
Some people blame M Lawwell for our faults and weaknesses in our bloated squad, but unfortunately out of the 16 listed by weejoe far too many are pre - ML
I count 6 who have come in during ML reign and I reckon Kohn and Tillio should be gone as soon as possible.
8.) 12 Jan 2024
12 Jan 2024 16:30:49
He'll dislodge Maeda?.
9.) 12 Jan 2024
12 Jan 2024 16:44:54
Sorry I meant to say there are 6 players from M L time and of those 2 are clearly unlikely to be good enough for Celtic .
We should remember reckons some players may take into their 2 nd season to settle into playing well for Celtic.
10.) 12 Jan 2024
12 Jan 2024 18:10:40
The list of players Mark Lawwell has brought to Celtic.
Bernabei,
Alastair Johnston
OH
Haksabanovic
Abildgaard
Mooy
Siegrist
Kobayashi
Jenz
Iwata
Nawrocki
Palma
Lagerbielke
Holm
Yang
Tilio
Kwon
Phillips
Bernardo.
To be fair, the average transfer fee is low.
Although Mark didn’t bring in CCV and Jota,
Their deals were made permanent after he joined Celtic.
{Ed007's Note - But I thought it was Ange that signed every player while he was here and it was only when Rodgers came back in the summer Baby Lawwell took over that role? I'm sure I read that on here.... ?
11.) 12 Jan 2024
12 Jan 2024 18:37:44
BigBubs,
Kwon has joined St. Mirren on loan until the end of the season. ?
Ed,
I think Ange was forced to help more with recruitment.
Nicky Hammond left in April 2021 and Mark Lawwell was employed in May 2022.
I can’t remember who was in charge of our recruitment for 2021/ 22 season.
{Ed007's Note - So the good signings under Ange were down to him being forced to help more, the bad ones are down to Hammond, is that right?
I'm not too sure Ange came in and said sign that Spurs fringe player, that Benfica youth player, Carl Starfelt, Juranovic or even Abada. And his signings from the Asian market has been proven to be very hit and miss.
So who do we "blame" for signing Palma, Bernardo - that'll be Rodgers but Lagerbielke and the likes of Tillio & Kwon will be down to Baby Lawwell?
So where does Daddy Lawwell fit in if he's running the show - does he get credit for signing Bernardo or abuse for signing Nawrocki and Holm?
It looks to me like depending how successful the player is how it's seen as who is responsible for signing them - Celtic fans are the only fans I've seen arguing about this to this extent, maybe it's another effect of not having a DOF, too many cooks and all that.}
12.) 12 Jan 2024
12 Jan 2024 19:49:11
Buzz bomb, has no way of knowing what players his tea - boy signed for Celtic . As Ed 007 said Ange took responsibility for all players whilst he was manager .
We have no way of knowing rather Ange had picked others before he left and after he and BR had consulted some of them were signed .
We all know Mark L has responsibility for enough players who haven’t and won’t make it without us loading on more that just aren’t true .
I believe in giving credit when credit is due and giving criticism when criticism is deserved.
13.) 12 Jan 2024
12 Jan 2024 21:11:23
Mark Lawwell started with Celtic in May 2022.
It’s his job to be responsible from the 2022 summer transfer window until the present day.
Nicky Hammond left the Celtic job in April 2021 but I don’t think Celtic replaced him.
For 13 months Celtic didn’t have a head of recruitment which meant Ange was probably more hands on.
Ange done a better job himself without a head of recruitment.
At the end of the day, Mark Lawwell has been in charge since May 2022 and he should have the final say on all the transfers.
It wouldn’t be fair to blame someone else for recommending a player because it’s now his responsibility.
Mark Lawwell was meant to have contacts after working with the City Group but he’s been a disaster.
{Ed007's Note - Here's a link to an article by Kieran Devlin about what Baby Lawwell brings to the table in 2022HERE. Some people can read it but some can't for some reason:
If we were to predict the transfer strategy Celtic would adopt with Mark Lawwell as their new head of recruitment, this might be the archetype: young players from less explored, potentially high-value markets who can develop, help the club win trophies, and then be sold on for profit.
Celtic have, after all, operated under a version of this “buy low, polish up, sell high” plan for virtually a decade.
The distinction in what Lawwell offers is opening up new markets, industry contacts, and a profile of player previously either inaccessible to the club, or for whom they lacked the infrastructure to carry out their due diligence.
But who is Mark Lawwell, and how did he arrive at this point?
Lawwell’s father, Peter, was Celtic chief executive for 18 years between 2003 and 2021, and a polarising figure. His legacy of frugality and strategy planning on a season-by-season basis saw Celtic become self-sustainable and enjoy historic domestic success, but also had its critics, who argued there was a lack of long-term ambition and underachievement at European level. Regardless of either viewpoint, it is fair to say Lawwell senior is a totemic figure in the club’s history.
However, Celtic maintain Lawwell junior’s surname had nothing to do with his appointment and it was a choice based on the strength of his candidacy.
His CV is impressive.
Lawwell joined Manchester City as a recruitment analyst in 2012, reporting to their head of recruitment Gavin Fleig — and in the same department as his friend, and recent Celtic director of football candidate, Fergal Harkin. Lawwell’s was a junior role with holistic responsibilities, generally split between profiling players through data and video, liaising with scouts who were directly reporting on players, and fixture planning what games scouts should attend.
City Football Group (CFG) was officially created in 2013, with now six-time Premier League title winners Manchester City as, naturally, its crown jewel.
It was a vision spearheaded by City’s CEO and former Barcelona vice-president Ferran Soriano, who wanted to build an international football entity where affiliate clubs could share resources and ideas. CFG formed New York City FC in that first year to play in MLS before buying Australia’s Melbourne Heart (renaming them Melbourne City) and Yokohama F. Marinos in Japan the following year. It currently has 11 clubs under its umbrella worldwide.
There is a department within the group called City Football Services, which is there to provide all the clubs in the group with a competitive advantage — the sharing of industry-leading resources and operational practices which can hand teams in less wealthy leagues than England’s Premier League an edge.
The bulk of such resource-sharing was related to player recruitment. While an international scouting network was hardly a novelty to City, or most of their fellow Premier League clubs, it has been an invaluable asset for their other sides.
During CFG’s initial evolution, Lawwell gradually became a prominent figure within the Manchester-based project, while Harkin opted to stay at City last summer as their loans and pathways manager.
Lawwell developed an expertise in what a club of City’s stature might consider the “minor” markets of the world game but other CFG clubs, and Celtic, may view as potentially high-value ones. These included central and east Asia, parts of South America, Australia and eastern Europe. This culminated in his promotion to head of recruitment and scouting.
He also got to that position because he was good with people. He was not particularly outstanding with the data and video aspects of his initial role as a recruitment analyst, but had a knack for building relationships with contacts and understanding different markets worldwide. Through the nature of his role, he became well-connected with scouts inside CFG, and also built networks at clubs and organisations across the globe, especially through his fixture planning.
Former associates agreed that people skills and organisation were his best traits; that he was a down-to-earth guy, good in a crisis, and would make sure things got done.
Lawwell took the lead in coordinating the scouts in those “minor” markets, which became important for the other CFG clubs, particularly Yokohama, Melbourne and New York. All three have won their league title in the past three years, the latter two the first in their respective (admittedly brief) histories.
While it might be a stretch to credit Lawwell directly with those successes given he was just one person in a vast operation, he was a senior figure in the operation and well-respected by his peers for the part he played.
Generally at CFG, the scouting and recruitment departments are split into two areas; one looking at players who can immediately improve the first team of CFG clubs, the other assessing younger “project” signings where the aim is to sell for profit once they have a higher-profile name after a series of loans within the group.
Former Celtic target Vinicius Souza, the 22-year-old Brazilian midfielder developed over the past two years at CFG’s Belgian club Lommel who recently joined Espanyol of La Liga on loan, falls in the latter category.
Lawwell’s role predominantly revolved around the former.
Lawwell and the central team would get briefed by each club’s sporting director on what profile of player they wanted. Lawwell would take that to the scouts, who would then pore through databases and process the targeted scouting operation. They would bring back the candidates to Lawwell, who would then work with the sporting director of the club concerned to whittle the list of candidates down to two or three targets to approach.
He was the middle man, a figure who keeps the gears turning in a complex machine.
Where Lawwell will find himself operationally with Celtic is likely to be similar.
He might coordinate with head of scouting operations Jay Lefevre, the club’s team of scouts and analysts, and with his network of contacts. The analysts crunch the numbers, the scouts report on the players, and then candidates are presented to Lawwell.
Celtic do not operate a sporting-director model, so instead Lawwell would work with CEO Michael Nicholson and manager Ange Postecoglou to filter candidates down to a shortlist of targets.
Not that it should factor into the decision of appointing someone to a senior position, but Lawwell is a Celtic fan and kept abreast of the goings-on in Glasgow from Manchester. He used to take City colleagues to Celtic games, including when their defender Jason Denayer was on loan at the club in 2014-15, and teach them the fans’ songs.
Former Yokohama F. Marinos manager Postecoglou lent his support to the decision to appoint his former CFG colleague.
“I was very keen for Mark to join the club and clearly I am delighted that he has accepted this important role and that we have been able to bring him to Celtic,” Postecoglou said after Lawwell’s appointment was confirmed in May. “Mark is someone who I worked closely with throughout my four years at Marinos, through which time we developed great trust and an excellent working relationship. He knows the way I like to work, the way my teams play and the particular player profile which this requires.”
If Lawwell has the credentials for the role, perhaps the biggest question mark is how he copes with leaving CFG’s well-oiled machine and adapts to a different structure at Celtic.
Technically, the only person he would report to would be Nicholson, and rather than having to coordinate with an assortment of sporting directors across CFG’s global stable of clubs, it will be Postecoglou alone whose recruitment needs he will be addressing. He built a comprehensive network of contacts after a decade with City and the wider CFG, but managing a new one at Celtic will be a challenge.
After serving his three-month notice period at CFG, Lawwell started his new job this month.
With seven signings in through the door already, most of Celtic’s business for this summer is done. But, whether it is before this transfer window closes, in January, this time next year or beyond, there will likely be more Alexandro Bernabeis arriving sooner rather than later.
14.) 12 Jan 2024
12 Jan 2024 20:58:47
Ed
Well said and I agree for what it's worth ?
?.
{Ed007's Note - Our 2nd last CEO and current non-executive Chairman was blamed for years about the signing policy, now we have a head of recruitment it's all his fault but the new CEO is blame free. It's bonkers the verbal gymnastics Celtic fans will go through to blame certain people and exonerate other so easily.
Why does Dom McKay never get praise for signing players, oh wait, that was Ange that signed them wasn't it?}
15.) 12 Jan 2024
12 Jan 2024 21:43:13
That was some read Ed. ?
The article was spot on with the last line.
There will likely be more players like Bernabei arriving soon.
In the 13 months Celtic didn’t have a head of recruitment, these players were signed.
Hart
Juranovic, CCV, Starfelt, Hatate
Abada, O’Riley, Maeda, Jota.
Giakoumakis, Kyogo.
That team is better than we have now, since Mark Lawwell got the job.
{Ed007's Note - And Abada, O'Riley, Jota and even CCV were all players like Bernabei, players we took a gamble on. Ange forced Gio out, Hatate and MOR wouldn't be here if he was our manager this season, Starfelt took pelters week in week out but is now seen as a big miss from the fickle supporters....
What about the dross Ange was supposedly responsible for bringing in, Kobayshi, Gucci.......... And Bernabei was signed on his watch? Was he forced to step in and help with that deal? Do we blame Ange for signing Seigriest?
People are just twisting things to suit their own agenda, Ange is good - well the good parts and all the rest we'll blame on any Lawwell if we can, it's boring and it's a load of nonsense to the stage you can't even talk about Celtic without people looking to blame a Lawwell for something.
Why is Nicholson not getting the blame for the stuff Daddy Lawwell was when he was CEO, nobody piped up about Bankier running things when he was Chairman - it's got to be about the Lawwell's and even out of that article the only bit you mentioned - about Bernabei - just proves that. If his name wasn't Lawwell nobody would be attacking him and lying about him for clickbait.}
16.) 12 Jan 2024
12 Jan 2024 22:18:58
When John Park was head of recruitment,
He got high praise for signing players like Wanyama and Van Dyke but he also received plenty of criticism for signing a few duds, especially strikers.
Park would’ve had plenty of scouts below him and he would’ve received advice from other so called experts but the puck stopped with the Celtic head of recruitment because that was his job.
He took the good with the bad.
Why are we now making excuses for Mark Lawwell who is clearly out of his depth.
Look at the players I mentioned above, that were brought in only one year before he started for Celtic and look at the team Celtic have now.
He needs to be held responsible for our signings because it’s his job.
If he finds a Wanyama or a Van Dyke, he will receive the same praise that Park did and still does.
{Ed007's Note - And John Park didn't sign some garbage? I'm.not making excuses for anyone, I'm looking for someone to explain why it depends on a players success or lack of who takes the blame/credit?
Bernardo at £6m, is that a Baby Lawwell deal or will that be Rodgers? Was it Nicholson or Daddy Lawwell that negotiated it behind the CEOs back? Maybe he was a DD signing!
The responsibility for signings seems to be based on how successful a player is, it's a nonsense.}
17.) 13 Jan 2024
13 Jan 2024 01:00:12
An awful big amount of sense from Ed 007 Without having any clear certainty some posters blame someone they don’t like for everything to do with recruitment and as you said earlier Ed Mr Nicholson isn’t even mentioned but we all know many people blamed P L when he held the same post . It’s quite simple at a club as big and as successful as Celtic, the Board spreads responsibilities around, so that no one person can be totally responsible for recruitment or any other football department failing completely because one man fails to do his job.
It’s strange the amount of time an untrained and no way experienced in the role a supporter can repeat so often that M L isn’t fit for the job . What can be achieved by continuous criticism, nothing spoils results as much as losing. Confidence in oneself no matter what your task is.