Balde - Hero or Villain

[gunt]

the love of money is the root of all evil.

[HunSkelper]

Originally Posted by Dempsey

Love for the club? Are you shitting me!!

Why did he ask for a free release clause that would be actived 6 months in?

He pimped himself about Europe that summer and only stayed once nobody offered him better terms than Celtic. Oh aye, he loved Celtic....

Do these people that cite loyalty and love for the club remember all this??

They remember ''bobo's gonnae get ye'' and nothing else.

I doubt they would even criticise MON for offering an already declining 28 year old a 5 year massive wage contract.

[DanniGhirl]

Originally Posted by Dempsey

Love for the club? Are you shitting me!!

Why did he ask for a free release clause that would be actived 6 months in?

He pimped himself about Europe that summer and only stayed once nobody offered him better terms than Celtic. Oh aye, he loved Celtic....

Do these people that cite loyalty and love for the club remember all this??

People will only remember the parts of his time with us they want to and paper over everything else that doesn't fit in with the Bobo the saint image they have.

I'm glad he's finally gone.

[FatRonaldo]

he was good and I feel he could have got a game last season but,

He was in it for the money and didn't have any real passion for the club, he obviously didn't care about too much about competitive football when he was happy to play for the reserves, most people want to fight for a place in the first team but he wasn't to bothered

[Dempsey]

He didnt train or play with the reserves mate, only trained with the u19's after he insulted Danny McGrain

[jcwelsh]

I am absolutely delighted and shocked that the census is with Bobo and not against him. I have felt that I have had to defend him on many occasions. I never even looked at the results, I just voted and was thinking " I hope i'm not the only won who thinks he is more to the 'he did nothing wrong'.

Would not go as far as to say Hero as it kinda slants the poll to anyone who would not want to give him that status. As a massive fan of his , even I could not say he was in the hero category, but he will be remembered and when the dust settles, it will be for one of the better Centre backs that we have had at Celtic. I wish you luck Bobo

[Hammer]

Originally Posted by HunSkelper

They remember ''bobo's gonnae get ye'' and nothing else.

I doubt they would even criticise MON for offering an already declining 28 year old a 5 year massive wage contract.

I personally find it absolutely incredible so many people slate Strachan for binning him yet not one of those same people will say a word against the fact O'Neill boobed massively by offering huge terms irrelative to the gain on the footballing side he brought at the time.

He is not the footballer some people think he is, he was never a pillar of strength for Celtic no matter how many people want to wax lyrical that way. Unless I was sitting at Parkhead watching different games he was nothing more than a huge physical presence that was a poor footballer.

[Dirty Harry]

did nothing wrong

[ConnellyBhoy]

Originally Posted by stoogie 02

I don't think anyone can blame Bobo, MON & the board offered him a massive contract & bonus which was going to be one of his last contracts as a player.
To be fair to Bobo, from what I understand he spent the money wisely, helping out his community in Guinea & various charities, so personally I have a lot of respect for him as a man, unlike most modern footballers who earn ridiculous money & spend it all on bling & clothes & a lavish lifestyle.
Bobo never let us down on when he played on the park, & it was Strachan's choice not to play Bobo, it wasn't as if Bobo refused to play for the club or made himself unavailable.
Unlike some of the current players he never resorted to bad mouthing Strachan or the club through the media, and i think he has handled the whole situation with dignity.
He would have been a villan if he hadn't signed that last contract & left Celtic for free, & after all it was MON that made the offer.

I'm glad we've got another big wage off the books, & I was frustrated that Bobo was staying put, but there's two sides to every story, & I'll be interested to see what he says about his time at the club.

Good luck Bobo & thanks for the memories.

That's it in a nutshell.

[devlin1888]

I love big bobo; lost count of the times i'd screamed yassss bobo at the tele was unreal. His last ditch tackles and command of the air was untouchable at times.

I thank him for the work he did on getting us to Seville, should've featured more in Strachans time.

And heres an intresting little fact for use all; in all the players that WGS had at his disposal in his four years at Celtic; Bobo Balde has scored the most goals against Rangers, granted they were in MON years but still tells you something.

[Hammer]

Originally Posted by devlin1888

And heres an intresting little fact for use all; in all the players that WGS had at his disposal in his four years at Celtic; Bobo Balde has scored the most goals against Rangers, granted they were in MON years but still tells you something.

Incorrect.

[The Maestro]

Great memories of watching him scare the living shit out of strikers!
Hero for me, done nothing wrong.

[jcwelsh]

Just reading through all the post and as in all the other threads about Bobo , they turn into money matters.

There are 2 sides to the argument .

The first is money and we all know he took what he could from the club financially and I'm sure he won't look back when he is sitting in his mansion when he's 50 thinking did he do the right thing.
If he did do the so called right thing and left 2 years ago he would be saving Celtic 4.3 mil in wages. That's going on the fact he was reported to be getting 32k a week. Is that is the bit that gets to everyone.
If he was on something like 8k a week, an average players wage, no one would be giving a Flying F*** as we have many of them winning us the reserves league every year. I think if this was the case he would still be getting a regular game every week for the first team because WGS would not be trying to push him out the door. This leads to the second side and that's the fact that many people don't give a flying F*** to what he was earning as they wanted to see him on the team sheet every week, and lived in hope that one day it might still happen, I fell into this category.

Was Bobo Loyal to the club ? , he was there a long time, but does that make him loyal, I personally think he only stayed to the end for the money. If it was me, I would not want to leave the club and as much as it would break my heart I know I couldn't stay where I was not wanted.
In saying that , I would not condemn him for doing what he did. everybody is different. So I don't think he was loyal , but who is these days.

Petrov signed a contract then left not so long after, Millar let his contract run down Maloney tried to, Naka did and so did larsson. I'm sure Boruc spat the dummy out of the pram because Celtic over priced him out of the market last year. these are all players that no one wants/wanted to see leave and only 1 of the six is hated. It is just a shame there are people out there that make it 2 out 7 with Bobo when all off them left to go elsewhere. would it not be poetic for us to get espanyol in the Europa and Naka comes of the bench and score a goal against us, where would be the loyalty in that. slight dig at the king. big whaaalls, he didn't celebrate, it he showed loyalty, he would be scoring for us. A bit harsh some might say, but I am not talking about, how great he was for, loyalty is to stand by your team no matter what, Paul McStay would be an example, Danny McGrain another.

Bobo was a little bit greedy. I think that is par for the coarse with the world we live in today. you don't get recessions because we are all kind and helpful.

I know there are going to be people who thought he was shite and didn't deserve the contract he was given, but thats another matter all together don't you think.

[Antz1888]

He honoured his contract, and was a great player for MON and would have been the same for strachan if given the opportunity. Thanks for some great memories big man, he was so dominating and commanding, and had already one a mental battle with most strikers before a ball was kicked with his massive presence

[Markybhoy99]

I don't believe Bobo would fall into either the 'hero' or 'villain' category. The truth is he was somewhere in the middle.

Bobo was a good defender who because of his massive build and powerful tackling managed to achieve cult status with the Celtic fans. He was a player of extremes, great in the air and tackling but woeful with the ball at his feet. I liked him as a player even though he had his limitations.

After season 2005/06 Bobo was treated like shite by Celtic and by Gordon Strachan. It is often forgotten that in Gordon Strachan's first season in charge Big Bobo played the whole season and we won the league with him in the team. Then all of a sudden Bobo was dumped down into the reserves and hardly ever kicked a ball for Celtic again. The guy must have wondered what he had done wrong. If he was pissed off about how he was treated he had every right to be. I hope he will come out in public now and tell us just why he was treated the way he was.

In my opinion the board, or probably Peter Lawwell to be more precise, decided that they wanted Big Bobo off the wage bill. And I reckon they thought freezing him out of the first team would piss him off to the point that he would leave. Oh how wrong they were! Almost overnight Bobo went from being an important part of Gordon Strachan's back four to a forgotten man. Strachan then starting coming out with comments along the lines of 'I want players in my team that can pass the ball and Bobo can't'. Now that would be all well and good but he kept on picking Stephen McManus who also is pretty useless with the ball at his feet. To me that just sounds like a load of old fanny. You can't criticise one player for not being able to pass the ball then make another player who can't pass the ball the club captain. Where's the logic in that?!

The way Bobo was treated left we wondering whether the board wanted Bobo out and pressured Strachan not to pick him for the first team. If they did then Strachan obviously agreed to go along with the board's wishes and just left Bobo out in the cold. I hope that's not the case but it wouldn't surprise me if there was some truth in it.

It's a shame things ended up the way they did. It must have left a bit of a sour taste in Bobo's mouth these last 3 years. In the end both parties have lost out of the whole situation. Bobo's career has disappeared down the swanny and Celtic have been paying a man £28,000 a week for 3 years for no return.

And so now Big Bobo has gone. I liked watching him play and will remember him fondly. That big black telescopic leg that seemed to stretch out in front of opposing strikers just as they were about to burst the net will always be my abiding memory of Big Bobo. Good luck whatever you do in future big fella.

Bobo's gonna get ya!!