In recent weeks all of the Scottish media talk surrounding Celtic has focused on the transfer market. That Celtic have had several low bids knocked back by various clubs has been one point raised and an argument has been made, by the likes of Martin O’Neill and even the Clyde Superscoreboard panel, that Celtic wasted almost £30m last summer on the signings of Austin Trusty, Adam Idah and Arne Engels. In my opinion, there are four aspects of those signings which I would use to push back against such comments.
The first point I’d make is simply that transfers are not guarantees. Celtic have signed a number of failures in the lower end of the market (£1m-£5m and loans) before. The likes of Scepovic, Lassad, Miku, Brozek , Cole, Shved , Allan , Ciftci , Compper et al came from that level of the market and all sat on the bench. So by the logic that some players haven’t lived up to their price tag, we should never sign any player for that low price again either. Despite the fact that Kyogo, Maeda, Hatate and O’Riley etc are success stories from that section of the market. It just proves that some deals work and others don’t, not that the first sign of failure leads to a loss of ambition, or that three failures means there’ll never be a success.
The end of the previous paragraph provides a segway into my second point. What makes these players failures? Arne Engels was steady last season. Austin Trusty the same. From the way people have spoken about them you’d think they stunk the place out and were dreadful. In the case of the former, Engels is a young man with bags of potential. There’s every chance he will improve and come good to live up to their price tag – just as Kuhn did after a settling in period. Meanwhile, Trusty was similar to Liam Scales in performance and Scales is a player who is worth probably £4m or so in today’s money. Again, hardly a disaster. As for Adam Idah, he scored 20 goals last season. That’s an acceptable return for a guy who played second fiddle to Kyogo and indeed Idah would be very good as a back up striker for Celtic. The real issue in that department is not the signing of Idah, but the departure of Kyogo and lack of replacement. We should be looking to have a top striker with Idah a 20 goal a season back up option. He’s not worth £9m but that’s Celtic’s fault for dithering in the transfer window instead of securing him for almost half the price – then when time was running out there was a price hike and we overpaid.
It should be noted that Idah, Trusty and Engels all featured prominently in the Champions League. Would we have drawn away at Atalanta without them? Would we have beaten Young Boys? Could we have gone toe to toe with Bayern Munich over two legs? It was our most successful European campaign in years. Idah’s two goals at Aston Villa earned several hundred thousand pounds. His forcing of the goal against Young Boys to secure progression to the knockout phase instantly recouped his transfer fee with the monstrous prize money on offer. Indeed, Celtic earned approximately £50m from the Champions League, which is almost double their outlay on those three signings. In addition to that prize money they played a role in winning, it’s a good bet that when the three depart in the future, Celtic will recoup the £30m spent and if there’s improvement in them over the next year or two then they’ll make a considerable profit.
Finally, talk of the fees is somewhat disingenuous when you consider that the sale of Matt O’Riley alone funded those three deals. So in effect, Celtic spent nothing on them. Steven Naismith remarked that if Celtic make another £30m worth of mistakes again then they’d be in trouble. Would they? Having sold Kyogo and Kuhn for a combined £26m I doubt that. Even more so when one considers that the club has around £100m in the bank and a great chance to earn tens of millions more in the Champions League.
In a nutshell, the fact that these three didn’t instantly get themselves in the running for player of the year doesn’t mean that Celtic should give up on the idea of a player at their price tags. Ambition is required for progression – whether that be a player for £1m or £15m. It is the quality of the player that counts, not the price tag.
Idah was a Norwich reserve when we signed him. It was a stupid buy and anyone who knows anything about football can see that.
A segway Liam?
You mean segue man ffs
If it had not been for his 20 goals last season.We wouldn’t have won the league and cup double,I’m cheesed of with you guys who seem to know everything about football.if wee where to sell Idah just now you can guarantee that we would recoup our money,when you think that his goals came from coming off the bench as sub he has done really well
Totally agree the 3 players mentioned have been more than adequate and will prove even more so this season. The real story here is the narrative being created by sadly people within our own club!! There no doubt this is a lawell production via his puppets in the media ie Jackson, Cannon etc and pathetically clowns in our own fan media via Cqn with brenan being against Brendan since he came back. Tho idiots like nainsmith are just jumping on this as they have no brains or original thoughts of their own! Thick as you know what. Hail Hail
Well said Charlie your spot on mhate
I would also like to point out that Idah was available for £6m at the end of the season when on loan here, start of summer as was reported. It was also reported that Engels was £8m around the same time.
However our board (money men) fann1ed about till 2 weeks before the window closed for Idah and the second last day for Engels giving the selling clubs no chance to replace him.
You don’t need to be Einstein to work out that those men cost the £6m extra for the pair of them. And as the window gets shorter prices are going up, how much will those financial genius’s cost us this year?
“Reported” .. doesn’t mean its tue, to start with.
Celtic Board have been the standout over last 20 years, managers / players have come & gone but the one constant is the Celtic board. That doesn’t mean they are perfect, but they have been our star man … transfers involve so many moving parts, buying club, selling club, player, league that is involved, chance to play games, money, do wife & kids want to move to that area , before we think of agents.. etc etc. Scottish football has been shrinking over last 15 years, while other smaller countries ( like Scotland) or even some lower leagues for that matter grow ( English League 1, spend £5m regularly !!). What makes it worse is us winning every season, its brilliant as fans But as a selling point its a terrible scenario. We “have” to make money on transfers ( with new court cases even this money could dry up, Lassara win versus fifa could kill transfer money) its a crucial part of our exsistance, so its important celtic dont over spend “unless very high chance of getting a return” . Players like Idah ended up at Celtic BUT that doesn’t mean we were his “first” choice, it could have been him that was slowing down the deal, maybe he wanted to stay in England, we dont know, BUT its automatically boards fault.
This reminds me of the Fergus McCan days, Celtic fans “hated” him, yet he had the vision to build for the future. In years to come the board will be looked at in similar fashion. You dont know what you have until its gone !!
Your comments are fair ones. However, Brendan was out of order playing at politics. Obviously, blaming the board for the lack of new players. The SPL is not the favourite destination for foreign players. Of the three players you mention, Trusty is clearly not the type of Centre back that Brendan likes. He wants his centre halves to be able to pass like Liam Brady. Why did he buy him then? Scales has done well but he is not a Champions League-ready player and likely will never be and as a left back, he is struggling even more. As for poor Idah, he is not good enough for the Champions League. He is a tryer and puts a real shift in, particularly defensively in Europe. The trouble is, he is not good enough to start. He could not get into the first team at Norwich. He scores goals in the SPL when he comes on after 60 minutes or so when the opposition defense is practically out on their feet. Rodgers played politics with the new Japanese lads, which was very wrong. Shin must be way ahead of all our strikers. He should have started. Rodgers was appallingly disrespectful in describing him as a club signing. As for the other lad, he looks good as well. Rodgers has to be told that this is not acceptable. If Ange is doing nothing right now, maybe the chairman should give him a ring. Maybe what we have with Brendan Rodgers is a superb coach but a very average manager.
Utter crap! Brendan us the manager!! He decides who plays and I don’t blame him as he should decide his signing for first team! And ” ange”! Ha ha shit the f##k up he was a chancer!! Trying to et a move to any club in England with 12 months at our club!! He was a nobody in world football I lived in Sydney for 10 years it’s a joke there football wise and they see ” epl” yop nobody call it that but they do anyway its celebrity to them as pathetically is the royal family. I was there when it was openly reported he was talking to english clubs while our manager!! Brendan 10 times the man and manager that guy will ever be!! And has proved it!! ” ang” geez peace and educate yourself !
Idah was never available for 6 million! Total myth Norwhich at no point put a price on him they basically sat that whole summer and knocked back bids never once stating officially the number at no time was a ” 6 million figure put on him, total myth show us the evidence otherwise?! They stayed quiet which is a great way to do deals ” silence is golden” true saying . So please stop trotting out this bs. The bottom line in all this is we better keep Brendan at our club he wants to stay if his ambition can be met, so it’s time for a total board upheaval with lawell grip on out club gone! This manager we have now is the best since stein the Trebles after treble winning was created by Brendan no one else! He and he alone showed what a Celtic could and should be! Before that lawell had loser yes men in the post with no ambition and fans mostly uninterested! Only the big games caught the imagination but since Brendan eveything changed and I mean Everything! Home ticket scheme went through the roof big crowds at all home cup games, season tickets sold out hampden semis full no or little chance if spare tickets , whereas before brendan 25, to 30,000 for these games fact!! And way less for our home cup games than that. He created all this if he leaves because idiots like lawell our great club are in trouble!! We need real leadership with vision not bean counters and a new main stand top notch also to complete the bowl giving us 72,000! Fergus sitting there on Saturday built 3 stands in 4 years ! This lot do nothing to the ground in 27!! The real story is that it’s time for real change at our club with Brendan staying as manager and the lawell era over!! And Dermot needs to start taking this serious otherwise sell up! We need and deserve way better and also a fan advisory board
Interesting and thoughtful posts. However, I think the point is clear that Brendan was playing politics with his comments about the two Japanese lads. It’s certain that the scouting team led by Paul Tisdale recommended them as team-ready players. Brendan was being petulant. They weren’t his signings, they were Paul Tisdales and sanctioned by the board. What’s the point of having a scouting team if you don’t use them.
Poor Adam Idah is obviously overpriced and we paid through the nose on the advice of Brendan. He will score in the SPL after coming on at the 60-minute mark when the opposing team is out on its legs. Adam Idah could not get a start at Norwich in the English Championship, remember. He puts in a shift, for sure and in the European games worked tirelessly in defense, which did not get mentioned enough. Most people would think of him as a useful SPL player but no more.
Shin looks really good, and Brendan’s refusal to put him on against St Mirren was disgusting and petulant, political playing and childish and silly. There were many supporters who were extremely annoyed at him for this stupid and childish attitude. Are you seriously telling me that if Idah and Kenny and Scales were Japanese, they would get into the Japanese squad? I can tell you, they would not.
As an Irish citizen, I wish to ask the question: Does Brendan want the Irish job in the future? If so, is this the reason why he keeps playing Idah and Kenny and Scales instead of others in the squad? The FAI will have noticed and liked this.