andrea capone didn't make it, eh? not totally shocking, yeah he was the #10 at cagliari, but suazo, even when not scoring carried that team. how's donati been doing, is looking good at all?
yes donati looks like he'll be a class act. it's a change for us to have 2 dynamic central midfielders. we were used to have a sitting DM in front of the back 4 but massimo gives a lot more than that to the team. he's an intelligent passer who is just as comfortable in the oppositions half of the field as he is in his own. seems to time his tackles well and is disciplined enough to know when to go forward and when to stay back. all in all a very nice piece of business for us and a very good potential partnership in our central midfield with scott brown. now if we could only get rid of gravesen and his £40k/week wage bill..... capone didn't impress and i'm sure that the package he'd have been looking for wouldn't have represented value for money.
yeah, he'll get on somewhere, but not sure where. as to donati, i was curious if you might turn him into a winger, as i remember you saying that the papers had him down as a winger, which i thought was odd. glad to see he is playing well, hope he has a good year.
looks like doumbe is back on again. can't say my heart skipped a beat when i read this news.... plus point is he's a free agent so he'll be cheap and considering he's back for a second bite at the signing apple i'd imagine his wage demands may have dropped as well. all the more reason to be less impressed as bryan robson never spent much time on him after giving him a trial at championship sheffield united. he's decent going forward but he looks like a train wreck waiting to happen for our defence when he's covering his position. time and again in the first half against dunfermline in the scottish cup final i watched diagonal balls being pinged from their right back position into free space at our right back position. which then forced pressley to press out to cover the right flank (never a pretty sight). i suppose it's cover for wilson but it's all a bit uninspiring after a bright start to the summer silly season....
one small mistake from jens lemon in the opening day of the premiership and the transfer rumour machine hits overdrive. apparently arsenal could make a £6mill bid for boruc. so what's the likelihood of this happening? with boruc being injured at the minute then it's convenient that he won't be cup tied for arsenal in the champions league if they sign him, so goes the conspiracy theory. but surely if he wasn't injured celtic would have played him at least against killie and then 'made up' the injury either before or after the falkirk game as an unfortunate training incident... also, arsenal are deep for keepers at the minute. as well as lehmann they kept almunia for another season and signed boruc's understudy in the national team.. lukasz fabianski. so i'm guessing, and hoping, that this is just typical tabloid journalism and hopefully it won't amount to a serious offer.
maybe lehmann's first-minute display of "skill" was the icing on the cake for arsenal? lehmann is old and that was a fluke, but i wouldn't be surprised if they have been/are searching for a keeper, and there aren't much better than boruc. who knows though, I would go with tabloid journalism if i had to guess
gravesen back to spain...? we're running out of countries in europe!! will gravesen want to return to spain? can betis afford to pay him £40k/week or as near to this figure as possible? here's hoping but i'm not going to hold my breath on it... http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=381232
I knew the time would eventaully come but is this the real reason Boruc will not play in qualifying? I don't want him to go but thats a bit of money to toss about. If Gordan is worth a reported 9-10 Million Boruc should be in the same range. http://www.theherald.co.uk/sport/theback4/display.var.1612753.0.0.php
Theres NO way in hell that I want Boruc in Arsenal. Poland already has a NT keeper there, it would be bad for Polands NT if there were 2 NT keepers at one club. Let Boruc stay at Celtic for the time being.. In other news, Olympique Marseille is trying to sign Zurawski off Celtics shoulders.
i think the boruc talk is just that, paper talk and nothing else. he's travelled with us to moscow and our assistant reckons he's got a good chance of starting which is a great boost for us. kind of makes the idea that he's being kept from being cup-tied for arsenal in the champions league redundant as well. as for zurawski, it looks like he could be on his way out. work rate is down, goals are definitely down and his sharpness and pace is lacking. crowd are starting to get on his back a bit in home games as well. maybe the time is right for him to move on..
latest name to be mentioned is maxi lopez of barcelona on a season long loan deal. don't know why the barca-celtic loan deal connection keeps making appearances. last season it was olegeur on loan and nothing happened with that. this seems like a strange choice as i thought he'd sealed a season long loan to sporting lisbon earlier in the summer... i can only assume it fell through. last season he was on loan at mallorca where he scored an unimpressive 3 times in 29 matches(14 starts) in la liga....
adam virgo has gone on loan to colchester until january. to think we paid over £1mill for him... http://www.eleven-a-side.com/acrossthewater/irish_soccer_detail.asp?newsid=28917 in other news marseille have been rumoured to be sniffing about zurawski and peter lawell has given hope that we could still be active in the transfer market before it closes. with two weeks to go lawell stated that sometimes things 'loosen up' about this time meaning deals could still be on the near horizon..
derek riordans agent, jim mcarthur, has stated that leicester city are likely to table a bid for the striker within the next few days... no idea of the price tag yet although it's been reported as being around the £1mill mark. i can't help but think we're letting a talented scottish player leave without being given anywhere near a fair crack of the whip. again, as i mentioned elsewhere, it leads me to the conclusion that something off field has prevented him from getting a run in the team. if the transfer goes through i'll be disappointed at seeing a top scottish prospect go to a championship side but hopefully the footballing ability that he clearly possesses will shine through and propel him to better things. ------------------------- on a sidenote we're still being linked with a possible shaun maloney return. peter lawell has mentioned that they are still working on a couple of things so another signing before the window closes is still a possibility.
I think it has to be off the field stuff as well cause when he is on the pitch he is excellent. I think we should hold out for 1.5 and if no one comes sniffing there is always the January transfer window. Too bad really cause i think he would score loads of goals for us given the oppurtuinty.
el hadji douif has the nerve to claim that celtic are one of a number of clubs chasing him. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/b/bolton_wanderers/6955507.stm after what he did at parkhead in the UEFA cup match against liverpool has he really got such a small grip on reality that he thinks we'd ever want to sign him...? he's spat at celtic fans. he's spat at middlesboro fans. he's spat in adrian de zeuuw's face. i don't want to see this ignorant, disgusting, excuse for a footballer anywhere near parkhead and i'd be amazed if it were to happen.
mr o'dea i presume..? --------- fulham to take gravesen off our hands. can it be so...? so will his ego allow him to go to fulham? he rejected sheff utd because they're only a championship team. he rejected turkish side besiktas because, well, they play in turkey. fulham are a premiership team. they'll pay his wage, he'll be in a superior league. here's hoping before the end of the month the next time i see him running around like a headless chicken will be on sky sports. fulham have apparently offered £1.5mill for him. 500k short on what we paid real madrid but who cares, just get him shipped out before the transfer deadline.
michal danek - 24 yr old czech goalkeeper. he reckons he's going to sign for celtic before the friday deadline. plays for viktoria plzen and shouldn't be too expensive. with marshall leaving it makes sense to have another keeper of a reasonable standard to be able to call upon incase of injury to either boruc or mark brown. link here... http://breakingnews.iol.ie/sport/story.asp?j=229437292&p=zz9437998&n=229438052&t=soccer
Pity to see another very promising talent like Marshall (who doesn't remember the games agaínst Barca?) leave Celtic.
seems like danek is a non-starter. WGS denied any knowledge of knowing the player let alone him arriving for signing talks... still rumours persist that shaun maloney may return to the hoops before the friday deadline. i'd welcome him back as i still believe his agent caused a lot of the problems. he seemed to be rail-roaded into the transfer in the first place..
I'd like to have Shaun back as well ... however, I can't see it happen at the moment. It's just a yellow press story in my eyes.
gravesen is gone away to old team everton on loan for the season. thank goodness for that. hopefully everton are picking up most, if not all of his huge wage packet so we can use it to spend on other targets. i'm hoping that we'll have at least one new face before the deadline tomorrow night.
Good luck to him with his old club Everton. Unfortunately he wasn't able to fulfill the expectations at Parkhead...