Celtic 2008/09 - January Transfer Thread

[The Tartan Hoop]

I thought I would do Fraser the favour and set this thread up for us, as even now, there is speculations circling about who is coming to the champions this coming transfer window.

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As many of you know, the Left-Back slot has been a real problem area for the team. The big name thrown around at the moment was Barca's own Slyvinho, much to the delight of Crosas our recent purchase from Barcalona. It has been said however, that he may see the rest of the contract out and that the move won't materialise this January but if Celtic want to take on the treble it might be something they wish to sort out now rather than later, with that said there also even more news in regards to who could be filling that Left-Back slot.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1091623/Hanstveit-starts-Celtic-trial-plays-cool-talk-move.html?ITO=1490

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12876_4582853,00.html

Personally I don't know much about this player, but at the age of 27 and the captain of his current club who he has been with for 10 years already. Could this be the found solution to our problem? The best bit about it, he's available possibly for free! :D

[The Tartan Hoop]

Nakamura till the end


Nakamura won't be leaving this January window it's been report. Nakamura was set to move back to his former team Yokohama F Marinos for around £3m but due to this relentless credit crunch this has been put on the back burner so to speak, for the time being. Yokohama's parent company Nissan had raised around £3m to buy their local hero back but with the credit crunch hitting the car giants hard they will now have to wait until his contract expires in June.

information taken from the Scottish Sun news paper

As much as I am happy to have Nakamura still in the team it is also tragic that we would lose out on £3m that could have been spent in January.




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In other news, Full-Back Mark Wilson has extended his contract with his boyhood dream team till 2012.

http://www.celticfc.net/news/stories/news_031208125124.aspx

[The Tartan Hoop]

A Lesson in Sound Expedience
Written by Michael Dolan


Tuesday, 02 December 2008


In the current climate of Charlie Nicholas having a pop at Peter Lawwell about the 'biscuit tin' mentality together with Gaudd's latest Etims panning of the board in his piece 'A lesson in sorry extremism' I thought I would take a look at Celtic's levels of spend in the post Martin O'Neill years to see what all the hot air is about.

And to make a meaningful comparison I thought I would compare the spend with what has been going on at the huns.

Probably the first place to begin this comparison is the transfer spend.
Starting with financial year 2004-05, which may have included some of Gordon Strachan's early transfer activity (lest we forget Mo Camara), and up to the end of June this year Celtic spent £30.6m on new players. In that same period they sold players for just over £15m leaving a net spend of £15.6m.

In the same timescale the huns forked out £28.1m for players of the quality of Kyle Laugherty and the sparkling talent of Sebo while selling players for £17.9m. This gave them a net spend of £10.1m.

So Celtic have had a higher net spend than the huns of £5.5m over Gordon Strachan's time at Celtic.

These figures obviously don't include the late summer activitiy at the start of this season or the soon to open January window. The latter event is likely to see a further swing in favour of Celtic's spend outstripping the huns as Murray (indulge indulge) is already on record as saying they will be selling players while Peter Lawwell has been assuring us that Celtic will be looking to strengthen the squad with additional spend.

What these numbers don't show though is that in the last couple of seasons the huns have had to offload their best players in order to finance their transfer activities.

Cuellar and Hutton were undoubtedly two of the best players at Ibrox over the last two seasons and they were both out the door to finance the likes of Laugherty and the increasingly anonymous Mendes.

Meanwhile Celtic managed to hold on to the likes of their most valuable players (not you Lee Naylor) such as Boruc and McGeady by tying them up on new contracts.

Of course transfer spend is not the only means by which to gauge the spend on the team. The largest budget line for any football club each year is wages.

In the 3 full seasons since Gordon Strachan's arrival in 2005 Celtic have spent a total of £108m on wages. During the same period the huns have spent £86.6m. That is a staggering £21.4m less than Celtic. That gap may well have been wider if it hadn't been for Celtic reducing their staff costs quite drastically in Strachan's first season in order to offset the loss of european income after the Artmedia defeat.

So Celtic appear to be outspending the huns and also hanging on to their best players.

Clearly there may come a point in time when Celtic may wish to sell a player for the 'right fee' but in doing so they will be able to use the funds to reinvest in the team AND supplement it with additional spend. This is something the huns cannot mimic as Murray now knows.

In fact the whispers are that the huns will not only be selling players in January but they will also be looking to loan out some of their squad players in order to balance the books. This is entirely feasible given that their most saleable asset, Kevin Thomson, is now out for the season and he would most likely have been heading to West Brom or some other English club this January to stop the banks from banging on the huns door.
So essentially, Celtic are winning the financial battle against the huns on three fronts:

1. A higher level of transfer spend to continually improve the squad
2. A higher level of wages spend to pay for better quality and quantity
3. A better track record in keeping hold of the best players

Those 3 fronts are the clear key to Celtic's domestic success over the huns during the past 3 years and now leave them in a strong position to go on to win 4 in a row.

Equally Celtic are not locked into a wider empire of debt which is effectively how the huns are hampered under Murray's ownership.

As Paul67 recently pointed out on Celtic Quick News, Murray's wider business empire is built on a mountain of bank borrowings. What Paul omitted to tell readers is that the repayment of those bank loans are profiled so heavily over the next 3 years. The size of those amounts are frightening by anyone's reading.

And if the banks are going to play hard ball on the repayments then this could further weaken spend options for the huns. As it is the huns are already now paying back £21m of bank loans at the rate of £1m per year which further reduces their ability to spend on the football side of things.

Probably the final thing to note is the requirement for football clubs to continue to invest in their stadia and other infrastructure to ensure quality in the stadium and also the facilities for training and developing players.

As we know Celtic have, in Strachan's time at the club, completed the first phase of development at Lennoxtown. In addition Celtic have also been buying up land and property adjacent to Celtic Park as a means of enhancing the area around the stadium but also to opitmise the benefits that Celtic will undoubtedly gain from the Commonwealth Games developments in the east end of the city. Celtic's total spend on Lennoxtown and the improvements mentioned add up to £15.7m since 2004-05. Over the same period the huns have managed just about half that amount with a spend of £8.1m.

So to sum up it's a pretty churlish argument from Nicholas to claim that Celtic have reverted to a biscuit tin mentality.

It's also disingenous of observers like Gaudd to suggest that Celtic are somehow pursuing an extreme strategy of caution. Celtic, as the books show, are constantly investing in the playing side, outstripping the spend of their biggest rivals by some margin and increasingly dominating the domestic game in Scotland.

Yes we can debate all day the quality of some of the performances under Gordon Strachan and the ability of some of the playing squad but that should not be confused with the clear facts that the Celtic board continue to spend well in excess of their rivals to assist in achieving the success on the park that we all want to see.



Its a lesson in sound expedience rather than the ill informed claims that the board are pursuing a form of sorry extremism.



Over to you Charlie.

[celtic76]

Nakamura till the end


Nakamura won't be leaving this January window it's been report. Nakamura was set to move back to his former team Yokohama F Marinos for around £3m but due to this relentless credit crunch this has been put on the back burner so to speak, for the time being. Yokohama's parent company Nissan had raised around £3m to buy their local hero back but with the credit crunch hitting the car giants hard they will now have to wait until his contract expires in June.

information taken from the Scottish Sun news paper

As much as I am happy to have Nakamura still in the team it is also tragic that we would lose out on £3m that could have been spent in January.




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In other news, Full-Back Mark Wilson has extended his contract with his boyhood dream team till 2012.

http://www.celticfc.net/news/stories/news_031208125124.aspx

Honestly Naka has been sub par most of this season and look like he is bored and mentally he has moved on already. If Yokhoma comes in with any type of offer I say take it. We have more than adequate cover at midfield. As far as Wilson is concerned lets see if he can stay healthy and if he continues to mature.

[The Tartan Hoop]

Celtic take Czech wonderkids Fantis and Misum on trial - but face battle with AC Milan to keep them.


Seems like Celtic have been looking to the future recently with reports suggesting that they have invited over to of the Czech Leagues hottest prospects.

Anton Fantis, a 16 year old striker and Milan Misum, 18 year old defender were recently viewed in a 0-0 draw against Slavia Prague last sunday. After which they were invited over to Glasgow to look over lennoxtown and the game against Hibs. If they like what they see they may just want to stay and sign with us, however we face the likes of AC Milan, Slavia and rivals Plzen to land them but at this time if Celtic impress we will be in pole position to sign them.

http://scotzine.com/blog/?p=2425



Good Luck Lads!

[The Tartan Hoop]

Nakamura Deal Still On?



JAPAN'S Yokohama F-Marinos have refused to rule out a bold swoop for Celtic midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura in January's transfer window.

The J-League side's hopes of signing Nakamura had looked to be dashed with the club's owners Nissan Motor Co feeling the pinch of the global economic downturn.

However, F-Marinos officials said last night they were still hopeful of signing the 30 year-old, whose contract with Celtic runs out next June.

"His agent came back from Scotland yesterday and we're still discussing the possibility," said Yokohama's Masanori Hakamada.

"There has been no firm decision yet but obviously we need to reach a decision by the end of the year."

Slumping cars sales in Japan did not mean that Nissan would be unable to fund the £3 million deal for Nakamura, who began his career with Yokohama.

"These are tough times economically, of course, but nothing has changed," Hakamada said. "It hasn't altered our position over whether we try to sign him in January or not.

"He is currently still under contract and we're still examining our options. If it doesn't happen (in January) we'll look at the situation again in the summer."

Nakamura has expressed his desire to finish his playing career in Yokohama.

Last season's Scottish player of the year has also struggled with the frequent long-haul trips to play in Japan's World Cup qualifiers in recent months.

He has made 82 appearances for Japan.

Well as I said before, it would be a shame to lose him half way through but £3 million for him at the transfer window would be pretty tempting considering we already have longer term players with newly acquired players. So this offer would most likely be very interesting to our transfer plans, surely.

[The Tartan Hoop]

Is McFadden ready this time?


Boyhood Celtic fan, James McFadden, has indeed been linked with a January move to Celtic again with the transfer window due to open. Stratchan is an obvious fan of McFadden and it is a move I personally, would like to see. However, with McLeish waving the hands off warning flag are Birmingham really in any position to reject a move, if McFadden wanted too?

Personally I think if Celtic move with a decent amount and the supposed Chris Killen exchange then perhaps we could pull him from their grip and he could yet be one of the Bhoys this January.

Alas, I always believe anything is possible with Celtic. What do you think?


Rumours on the go that celtic will go back in for Mcfadden in the Jan transfer window, with Killen used as bait.

The Glasgow club have been long-time admirers of McFadden and the forward scored one of the most famous goals in Scottish football history when netting a spectacular winner in the 1-0 shock triumph at the Parc des Princes against France .

James McFadden signed for Birmingham City in January for £5m from Everton, but despite scoring for his new club – they were relegated on the final day of the Premier League season.

I guess it is a case of ‘wait and see’ with regards to James McFadden’s future and if WGS makes a move for him again .

McLeish told Celtic in the summer not to waste their time with a bid for James McFadden .

But McFadden once said “Obviously, when I was younger I was a Celtic fan. There was a good chance of coming to Celtic before I came here but I think they knew Martin O’Neill was going to leave at the end of the season.

That had a big pull for me and I really wanted it to happen, but it never did. I have no regrets about coming here.

I think it is the best thing I have done and probably if I was to look back I am quite glad it the move to Celtic didn’t happen because I might not have been ready at that time.”

The thing is will he be ready this time around if celtic make a move?

[YankHibee]

Make sure to link anything you're copying please. Also, we can't post entire articles.

[frasermc]

the rumours mentioned so far,


Sylvinho: to be begin with it seemed like a reasonable short term solution to our LB headache but the more i read about it the less i want it to happen. it seems like the usual drumming up of interest by the player and agent.

Hanstveit: don't know a lot about him but Scandanavia is certainly an area we should be paying more attention too. good idea to get him in for a closer look before committing to anything.

McFadden: no thanks. i'd imagine big Eck would be looking for around the £5mill he paid for him last January. too much for him IMO.

[frasermc]

In other news, Full-Back Mark Wilson has extended his contract with his boyhood dream team till 2012.

good. i like Mark. he's been unlucky with injuries but if he could remain injury free for a season then he has potential. i'd have thought the contract would have been a little less than 4yrs though.


Honestly Naka has been sub par most of this season and look like he is bored and mentally he has moved on already. If Yokhoma comes in with any type of offer I say take it. We have more than adequate cover at midfield. As far as Wilson is concerned lets see if he can stay healthy and if he continues to mature.

i disagree. he's been one of our top scorers and he may not have been consistently on his game the whole season gone so far but his workrate has never dropped. it's easy to forget he's played most of this season so far with injuries. i'd imagine most other players would struggle to achieve 100% of what they're capable of under those circumstances.

in saying that, if Marinos offer £3mill or above then we'd have to seriously consider that kind of money considering he's off in June.

[frasermc]

Semir Stilic's name keeps popping up. he's been linked with us once or twice and quite a few people have a high opinion of the young(21yrs old) Bosnian midfielder.

he's currently playing for Lech Poznan in Poland and could cost around £2-3mill. he fits the bill target-wise in age and potential sell on value.

[The Tartan Hoop]

O'Dea on the radar


Noise is being made from the Celtic camp that O'Dea is currently on the radar of Ipswich Town boss Jim Magilton. With belief that O'Dea, even at the age of 21, has a wealth of experience that would benefit his squad, making him a valuable addition to the squad.

O'Dea currently playing for the reserves has been itchy in the past for first team football - perhaps a loan would better suit Celtic?

http://www.4thegame.com/club/ipswich-town-fc/news/227422/magilton_keeps_tabs_on_odea.html

[frasermc]

O'Dea currently playing for the reserves has been itchy in the past for first team football - perhaps a loan would better suit Celtic?

i'd rather see him go on loan if he was to move in January. i also think that O'Dea himself feels that he can still make the breakthrough at Celtic and he may prefer a loan deal rather than a permanent switch as well.

[frasermc]

fairly quiet at the minute although Stoke are rumoured to be after Caldwell for around £4mill and we're rumoured to be using that £4mill to buy Razvan Rat from Shakhtar.

file under - highly improbable. :rolleyes:

[Borussia]

I think it would be a good deal. But well, if you say it's not really likely to happen...

Btw: Are there anymore rumours about signing Madlung?

[Borussia]

I think it would be a good deal. But well, if you say it's not really likely to happen...

Btw: Are there anymore rumours about signing Madlung?

[frasermc]

Btw: Are there anymore rumours about signing Madlung?

haven't heard anything since the summer. are there any over where you are?

[frasermc]

fairly quiet at the minute although Stoke are rumoured to be after Caldwell for around £4mill and we're rumoured to be using that £4mill to buy Razvan Rat from Shakhtar.

file under - highly improbable. :rolleyes:

'Heid' says there's now way he's leaving the hoops to go to the tinpot league they call the Premiership.

"I don't pay any attention to stuff like the reports about Stoke.

"I love playing for Celtic and I want to stay here for a long time. There is no news about my contract, but I'm not concerned at all.

"I want to stay and the club have shown they want to keep me, so we'll get it sorted."


http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/08/12/11/SOCCER_Celtic_Caldwell.html

[frasermc]

a lot of reports suggesting that we're poised to bid £5mill for Craig Bellamy.


i'm surprised at this so i'll take it with a pinch of salt. firstly i can't see us splashing £5mill in January, and if we do then not all on the one player, and if we do again, then more than likely a LB rather than a striker.


i liked Bellamy when he was with us. his pace will always frighten even the best defenders. even at Champions League level, but he's spent an awful lot of time on the treatment table.

if we were to offer that kind of money then i'm sure West Ham, in their current financial predicament, would welcome the cash with open arms.

[alexp92]

apparently hearts are after killen.