Celtic banter 3

18 Jul 2026 15:43:07
duran again seems like we've got a player here.

18 Jul 2026 15:58:40
I hope so he does look the part.

18 Jul 2026 16:57:07
Great finish and he likes to put plenty on it.

18 Jul 2026 16:57:20
Did he play through middle or wide or bit of both.

18 Jul 2026 17:37:16
Just need a few more better players to back him up 🤷🏽‍♂️.

18 Jul 2026 17:41:54
I'll take your word for it as I no longer watch the games.

18 Jul 2026 18:25:23
Deep river, he played all over. Really impressed with his movement. From penalty box to out wide providing a forward pass option. Dropping deep to try collect / break up play. Boy looks good.

Thought hatate played well when he came on also. Felt weird being out numbered and out sang with away fans though. Absolute silence for 90 mins unless the boro fans were chanting.

18 Jul 2026 22:40:38
Just the usual Celtic park atmosphere delbhoy lol.

18 Jul 2026 14:40:44
13 days until the start of the new season Celtic have brought in ONE new player until now. This is our 3rd friendly? And we are starting it with I guess only 2 or 3 first team players. What is the point of this game? I thought those sort of games was for match fitness team bonding and try new tactics? Hard to do when there is hardly any first team playing.

I get the internationals are still away but SURELY ANY DECENT OR WELL RUN CLUB would have got the bulk of new players in by now. Or is this going to be the bulk of our new recruits? I just can't believe or understand the mentality of this board.

18 Jul 2026 15:23:44
maybe the new players are internationals still away mate.

18 Jul 2026 15:34:44
Tony, the point of this game was for the board to fleece the fans of more money.
If the board cared at all about the fans they would have charged about £5 for adults and let the kids in for free.
I'm really glad to see such a poor attendance q.

18 Jul 2026 16:05:06
I truly hope so UI Duran looks good I hope we can or have got another 5 or 6 like him lined up.

18 Jul 2026 20:32:39
UI, you're funny 😁.

18 Jul 2026 08:13:07
Ed my friend what is going on at club?

Enrico just hear of good guys like daizen and Engels suppose to leave but no players coming in.

Enrico read some things that Michael Nicolson say about agents and transfer not so easy. But Enrico see a lot of other teams being able to deals guys you know.

Sarrachi was player Enrico really like to see back but does not seem to happen now guys.

I don’t know my friends but doesn’t seem so good.

{Ed007's Note - What's going on is that we an absolute weakling of a man negotiating our transfers.}

18 Jul 2026 15:28:34
come on mark nicholson is brand new hese a man of the people haha.

{Ed007's Note - 😂😂

18 Jul 2026 17:44:03
Yeah it all seems to sit at one man’s feet, he’s supposed to be a diehard, how can he be.

18 Jul 2026 14:04:42
We need forward thinking, competent and transparent men/ women operating at our club, the current regime is wearing ridiculously thin, excuses and incompetence are just the reoccurring theme.

Even with the basic AI technology anyone in this forum could scout players, finding affordable release clauses for talent.

Highly rated Peio Canales of Athletic Bilbao, Spanish u21 Attacking midfielder €8.5m

La Masia graduate Jan Virgili whose €30m release clause dropped to €12m because of Mallorcas relegation, another Spain u21 player who plays on the wing.

I won't keep on going but you get the gist, its not hard to contact football agents and enquire about their player portfolio and release clause trigger amounts. We should be scouting places like Africa for cheaper talent who can be loaned out instantly, which would be better than giving millions to the taxman.

The players in lower ranked leagues for bargain ready made squad/ starting 11 players, and finally the bigger foreign leagues where your engels play where you can purchase at a set figure with huge profitable potential.

We should be snatching the best players from clubs with lower wage budgets than ourselves, its a no brainer yet we only seem to buy players that aren't actually pulling up trees at their current club, and then panic buy end of the window.

The south American market must have plenty of talent as well, i'm not sure if we have scouts on each continent but it doesn't seem to be the case what so ever, it should be the bare minimum for our club, setting up links in certain countries.

The free market is even too difficult to navigate for this bunch of wage thieving imbeciles!

18 Jul 2026 15:00:44
how do you know they haven't contacted players agents like that mate. not sticking up for the baord here but the way some fans come out with stuff is mind boggling. and after nicholson statment yesterday means they are contacting agents and some are being difficult.

and if we brought the players in to be loaned back out fans would moan about that also. and it is something we do and people moan about getting projects

and we must have people looking at the south american leagues as that's were we got sarrachi and bernabei.

we secured two top big name keepers in the free market

do you see were i'm comeing from here mate you have came out with a big post about what we should being doing and it is things we have and are doing its just not done to your individual prefrence so that's why we have your post.

18 Jul 2026 15:40:36
I would say its more agent ma offering us players than us scouting, we always same to deal with similar agents not the whole of market, and as of recent many players weren't the top players at their club before we signed them, i get the keepers that's fair enough, sarachi as your example was surplus to requirements at boca, no disrespect but shouldn't we be aiming to secure these teams 1st choice players, not there forgotten men?

We got palma because he was being offered all over the gaff, nothing to do with unearthing him, the odd one we might have scouted but majority either are dismissed by the board from the scouting network or the network actually isn't that excessive, clubs on our level playing field in Europe seem to recruit far better and that has to be down to scouting networks and data analysis.

18 Jul 2026 15:44:26
Im not saying i'm 100% correct on any of my post UI, but that's what it looks like to the green tinted eye when we see nothing coming through the door.

And when I mentioned Africa I and loan out I was basing this on probably a cheap purchase fee, and a loan which helps toward future work permits, not sure if that rule is easier to over come nowadays.

18 Jul 2026 16:11:56
top players at there club aren't comeing to Celtic mate all top players at boca are heading for england spain germany mate. recent players who have went from boca to Europe are.

valentine barco to brighton 9 mill

varela to porto 8 mill

aron anselmino 15mill chelsea

lucas beltran fae river plate went to fioretina for 19 mill.

there is players there its yer sarrachi type players but mate that these clubs don't want. cause there not there top players

we can afford some of the fees there just not going to choose Celtic over they clubs because of the leagues they are in and the wages they pay.

mate i get yer frustration am the same i have just came to terms in we play in a rubbish league and we really need to shop about now as we get blown out the water wage wise as well.

18 Jul 2026 12:05:06
My take on ineacho. Great player if fit can hardly stay fit won’t feature much but will be good to have on the squad years deal and with a decent wage seems reasonable. Turks come in 3 year deal and a hefty wage it’s a no brainer were hese going hese 29 can hardly stay fit he will not get a better deal than that rest of his career.

Would have been stupid of Celtic to offer him the same terms. For me right decision was made we move on. Remember people were moaning we we signed him and moaning when we’ were trying to keep him now hese gone people are moaning he should be signed. As I says for me the right decision was made in not matching the Turkish teams offer.

18 Jul 2026 12:30:05
The Turkish can pay some hefty wages.

Salah is going to Besiktas for instance.
Look at some of the players in turkey, some top talent getting paid double triple quadruple what we can offer.

If Iheanacho could stay fit he’d be playing in the top 4 leagues. Or at least a decent level UEL team which we are not at this present time.

18 Jul 2026 13:03:42
Here is the thing, if Celtic wanted him, they could have had him, as we had the option to extend by 1 year, which we didn't utilise.

18 Jul 2026 13:43:38
Let’s hope we’ve got someone better lined up Joe 🤥😂.

18 Jul 2026 14:36:41
wee joe heres the thing that option was not took because of the wage he was on so we decedided to offer new terms on wages that would be more reasonable on what he would have been offering because of his fitness

as i posted above the turkish team blow it out the water the big man got a brilliant offer no wonder he went to turkey he must have been rubbing his hands as he probaly knows hiself his fitness is gubbed.

18 Jul 2026 15:42:55
I understand why we done it and if you read some of my replies you will see I'm glad we didn't get him. I was merely pointing out that if we genuinely wanted him, then we missed the opportunity to get him.

18 Jul 2026 16:13:22
thats what i'm saying mate if we guinely wanted him we would of had to have paid stupid wages for him that wasn't worth it.

18 Jul 2026 11:32:38
We need someone like Peter lawell who knew how to get transfers done, either in or out he was very good at transfers.

18 Jul 2026 12:06:44
And he was hounded out. As the old saying goes be careful what you wish for. For me Lawell done good things for this club he was shrewd and got the job done and was no push over when it came to transfer.

18 Jul 2026 12:31:09
Our old CEO McKay seemed to get deals done quickly but was chased out the club. Was probably to fast for the old codgers to catch up.

18 Jul 2026 14:26:52
Lawell started the sh@tshow and then handed the reins over to an imbecile. And what we wish for, is all of them gone.

18 Jul 2026 16:49:09
Lawell was quick to get deals done? Out yes he did a decent job but getting transfer in? Nothing has changed.

18 Jul 2026 11:19:54
Can ed or anyone else confirm, was lawell the main man for getting transfers over the line when he was here? If it wasn't him do you know who? And what happened to leave us with Nicholson who doesn't seem to have a clue.

18 Jul 2026 13:04:43
I wouldn't have thought so once he moved to the role of chairman.

18 Jul 2026 10:41:19
Today Middelsbrough are 15/ 8 which I cannot believe considering our turmoil
Last week The Suit and my 2 ex bears piled into 60/ 100 Sporting and won a fair whack
Today the 3 are putting £80 each to win £150 and they expect to collect.

18 Jul 2026 13:39:12
Betting on friendlies has to be some sort of flag surely.

18 Jul 2026 08:55:13
Looks like Mitchel Bakker could be signing. Good calibre of player definitely strengthen the squad won the Europa league with Atalanta good European experience played for big clubs let’s hope we get this one over the line.

18 Jul 2026 09:58:51
Hes had bad run with injuries they're looking to offload him. gamble?

18 Jul 2026 09:59:20
He's struggling to get game time. Loaned out by parent club and limited game time at loan team.

18 Jul 2026 11:56:10
35 app last season 8 in Europe doesn’t seem limited game time to me.

18 Jul 2026 07:47:41

This is just my opinion, based on reading between the lines of what I witness and read.

Celtic's biggest problem isn't money. It's that they're trying to win yesterday's transfer market.
Every transfer window follows the same cycle.

Fans get excited. The club gets linked with players. Weeks pass. Negotiations drag on. Targets disappear. Deadline day arrives with a sense that we were always one step behind.

Then the debate starts again.

"The board won't spend. "

"They're penny pinching. "

"We've got £70 million in the bank. "

I actually think those arguments miss the real issue, although they are valid and understandable.

I don't believe Celtic are failing because they're poor. They're failing because they're operating in a transfer market that no longer exists.

For years, Celtic's recruitment model was one of the best in Europe.

Find an undervalued player before everyone else. Bring him to Glasgow. Develop him. Win trophies. Sell him for a huge profit.

It was smart. It was sustainable. Most importantly, it worked.

The problem is that everyone else copied it.

Ten years ago Celtic were scouting markets that wealthier clubs barely looked at. Japan, South Korea, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and parts of South America offered opportunities because the competition wasn't as intense.

Now every Premier League club has a global scouting department backed by sophisticated data analysis. The same players Celtic identify are also being watched by Brighton, Brentford, Bournemouth, Wolves, Burnley and clubs across Germany, France and Italy.

The bargain bin isn't exclusive anymore.

Yet Celtic don't seem to have changed their approach.

The club still appears to negotiate as though patience is its greatest strength.

But today's market rewards speed.

If you identify the right player, waiting three weeks to save £500,000 often means losing him altogether.

That's not financial discipline. That's being beaten by clubs who understand how quickly modern recruitment moves.

The wage structure tells a similar story.

Everyone knows Celtic won't compete with Premier League wages. That's perfectly understandable.

What worries me is that they often seem unwilling to stretch the structure even when they have the financial capacity to do so.

The result?

We're constantly shopping one shelf below the level we actually need and it has been emptied by the time we get to it.

Then there's the cash reserves.

Every time supporters raise the issue, someone replies that the money is there to protect the club.

Fair enough.

Nobody wants Celtic chasing success through debt.

But when does prudence become paralysis?

If you're sitting on tens of millions in cash while repeatedly entering Champions League campaigns with obvious weaknesses in the squad, surely it's fair to ask what the money is actually for.

Football clubs aren't investment funds.

Cash in the bank doesn't press high.

It doesn't stop counter attacks.

It doesn't replace your best player after he's been sold.

And here's the uncomfortable question.

Has the player trading model become the objective rather than the means to an objective?

Originally the idea was simple.

Buy well.

Develop players.

Sell when the time is right.

Reinvest to improve the team.

Now it sometimes feels like the cycle ends after "sell. "

We're constantly told about profits, balance sheets and sustainability.

What supporters really want to hear about is how those profits make Celtic a better football team.

To be fair, none of this means the board has done a bad job overall.

Quite the opposite.

Financially, Celtic are arguably in the strongest position in our history. Domestically, we've remained the dominant force for years.

But that's exactly why expectations have changed.

Supporters aren't asking for reckless spending.

They're asking why a club in such a healthy position still behaves like every transfer is a financial emergency.

The irony is that standing still in football isn't really standing still.

It's falling behind.

Markets evolve.

Recruitment evolves.

The clubs that stay ahead are the ones willing to adapt.

At the moment, Celtic feel like a club still applying the lessons of 2015 to the realities of 2026.

Maybe that's enough to keep winning leagues in Scotland but even that I am not sure of, as was evidenced last season.

I'm no longer convinced it's enough to improve in Europe (if only) or even to stay ahead of a transfer market that's becoming more competitive every single year.

Because in modern football, identifying talent is no longer the difficult part.

Acting decisively before someone else does is.

And right now, that's the part Celtic seem to be struggling with.

My fear is what will another failed transfer window do to the team and the fan base, who are already at boiling point?

18 Jul 2026 09:49:02
Xcellent post Joe🍀.

18 Jul 2026 09:49:35
Very balanced and logical.

18 Jul 2026 09:57:31
Great post Wee Joe and spot on with a lot of points there. Players are bought for more lucrative teams now even though they aren't in their plans. Clubs like Citeh and Chelsea buy players, loan them out and sell them at a profit without the player even kicking a ball for their club. The lesser teams are following suit. It's a low risk, money making scheme which allows them in the long run to combat the constraints of PSR.

You see now it's the same with their academy graduates they're selling players for big money as it's a way of cheating the system where two clubs will buy a graduate each as it's all pure profit. Chelsea, Villa, Everton and Newcastle was all at it a few years ago as it's some new loophole they've found to gain an advantage.

18 Jul 2026 10:33:46
If you were being cynical, the reason for letting the Nacho extension expire only has one explanation, they hoped to offer less. And hoped he would be desperate enough to accept. We are so far off it we appear to be trading in beans when the rest of the world is operating on crypto.

18 Jul 2026 10:37:49
Ignore the transfer markets, spend any available money on developing and playing the youths, go back the way to eventually go forward, back the team of young developing players, win, lose or draw.

17 Jul 2026 16:14:47
So that's Inhenacho jumped the sinking ship. Off to Turkey I believe.