Celtic FC: A Welcome Break
Article by James PayneClick here to follow e-Celtic on Twitter!
I don’t usually like the breaks for international matches that come around this time of the season. Leaving aside the fact that it is annoying that with the weather often mild there are no games on, Celtic are usually quite quick starters and traditionally had some early season momentum going whilst, back in the day, Rangers usually started slowly. And then this damn interval would come along and when things restarted the momentum would have shifted. And, to rub salt in the wounds, Scotland would often have failed to win either of the matches it had played which meant that qualification prospects were, in a season after a major tournament, already looking bleak for reaching the next such tournament pretty much from the off or in an odd year the games had been played ‘for pride’ only. Invariably some players returned injured from international duty – often the guy who had been in sparkling form in the pre break games.
Some things are different now of course. Rangers is a different entity and more pertinently do not play in the same division as Celtic and the necessity of getting off to a good start in the league seems to have been rather forgotten with progress to the group stages of the Champions League the main early objective- but this season Celtic has made a poor start on both fronts after a series of bad results and worse performances. Out of the Champions League already- not once but twice- and six points behind the team leading the league albeit with a game in hand with the leaders, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, who have already beaten Celtic narrowly but deservedly. Added to concerns about the way the team has been playing and the way new manager has struggled to settle is a real sense of disquiet about the way the club itself is being run at boardroom level. Celtic needs this break this time- had it not come the season might just have fallen apart and descended into acrimony and possibly a hunt for yet another manager. It still might but Celtic- players, fans, coaching staff and board have an opportunity to regroup.
The transfer window was closed at eleven pm on Monday evening. If, like me, you work during the day you probably weren’t quite as focused as usual as you would be keeping an eye on the comings and goings. During the day I noted that quite a few Celts had moved on – Teemu Pukki to Bronby and Dylan McGeouch to Hibernian for season long loans were the most eye catching- but that nobody had joined. By the time I got home it seemed though that John Giudetti of Manchester City would be signing on loan and even more surprisingly that Stefan Scepovic of Sporting Gijon would be coming on a permanent basis for a fee of between £2.2m and £2.5m. The surprise was not just that Celtic had actually parted with money for a player but also because this player had, the night before, been reported to be on his way to Sporting Getafe of Spain’s La Liga.
Scepovic’s handlers seemed to go cold on the deal as early as last Wednesday the day after Celtic lost to Maribor in the Champions League Qualifier. I can sympathise with anybody preferring to play in what is arguably Europe’s best league as opposed to one that, well, isn’t but we shall have to wait to see whether he is more enthusiastic about playing for us than his agents were on him coming to Glasgow. He scored a lot of goals in Spain’s second top tier last season – where the standard will probably be higher than most of the SPFL so domestically at least he may do the business. His record of one goal in eight full international matches is though less than awe-inspiring. Good luck.
As of this moment the position regarding Giudetti is less clear. The yearlong loan deal was reported as a ‘done deal’ during Monday evening on various internet sites – though not, I think, on the Jim White show on Sky Sports. That may be because I missed it amidst the mayhem of various pompous golden tied reporters (as well as one female reporter who wore an anorak to cover her red top as she reported from outside Swansea’s park) squirming as their ‘spots’ were interrupted by adolescent males shouting ‘bum’ or ‘knickers’ or some such. Whatever, Giudetti has not been signed as yet his papers having been registered late with UEFA- but certainly well before Falcao’s were lodged early on Tuesday morning. Other than one fine season on loan with Feyenoord Giudetti has done nothing of note in his career having not played a single competitive match in his 6 years as a City player.
The transfer windows have become biannual jamborees for football agents and the last day histrionics do undeniably provide some entertainment if only to see the otherwise estimable Kate Abdo get in a complete flap as she mucks about with the machine that is supposed to present her with interesting Twitter comments. Perhaps she should just use her phone like the rest of us do. Celtic don’t have great ‘windows’ as a rule and their unveiling of one striker for a comparatively modest fee amidst the deals of the last few days is a clear indication that we are very much on the fringes of the big time these days.
I suspect that irrespective of how Celtic’s team performs that the argument will intensify between those who think the club has hastened this move to the small stage by adopting what appears to be an unnecessarily conservative policy when it comes to spending money on players and those who believe it is actually helpless in the path of the juggernauts of the big European leagues.
In total, Celtic made 4 confirmed loan signings during this window and the two who have appeared have , after excellent home debuts in the 6-1 win over Dundee United, struggled a bit- in Jo Inge Berget’s quite a big bit. Virgil Van Dijk has, surprisingly perhaps, stayed though whether the alleged interest in him had any substance or was merely an agent trying to drum up interest isn’t clear. Whether the big man settles back into the team- he was omitted from the game on Sunday against Dundee- remains to be seen. I wonder if Ronny Deila’s insistence that the Dutchman was definitely staying for the time being was his own declaration of intent – his line in the sand declaring he actually has some say in transfer matters- or whether if a big bid had materialised Peter Lawwell would have sold the player against his manager’s wishes as Lawwell normally does (allegedly).
Celtic play again in ten days’ time and the opponent will be Aberdeen at Celtic Park and there are questions that need to be answered. Will Van Dijk have been distracted by the pre-window closing shenanigans? Will Wakaso Mubarak and Stefan Scepovic invigorate a team that looks to be struggling? Will Aleksandar Tonev ever appear or is he the new Derk Boerrigter? Will John Giudetti sign and if so will he be eligible to play? Will Ronny Deila actually come up with a tactic that works? I don’t know the answers to these questions and I know that a misery guts such as I should say ‘the answers better be found’. But I have an odd feeling that though it is going to be a bumpy ride it is also going to be fun.
Oh, and good luck to the Scottish national on Sunday. Germany? Easy!
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