Nick Hammond joins Celtic, initial trial period.

I’m a little concerned about the bank balance if truth be told.
We can’t just keep taking from the well.

 

Someone will bite

 

Old news mate, had that since April

 

Is this * another waste of money linked with 1 new player since the 4th July!!!!

 

Little did we know the ‘initial trial period’ was to see if the * could play right back.

 

Aye because the papers know all of our dealings. FFS man, you have no idea what’s happening behind the scenes. You honestly think we’ve looked at one player since July 4th?

 

Worst trial since Rivaldo

 

The players aren’t exactly being linked or even a sniff!

Waiting until you sell one of the Crown Jewels before you buy the Lawwell way!

 

Not gonna blame him whatsoever tbh.

Issue has been going on long before be arrived. We dont know what hes trying to sort out..

 

If folk expected him to come in and the scouting and transfers were sorted within a couple months they were expecting miracles that were never achievable.

 

Thing to remember is his role isn't just about recruiting players, we've had some problems offloading players.
Nick Hammond was a goalie who spent most of his career at Swindon Town and Reading, but he came through the system at Arsenal.
He retired and was Technical Director for 13 years at Reading. Recently 2 years at West Brom. No down time. Been in the game as technical director since 2003. Might be his remit is not just recruitment because he probably has the skills to negotiate this deal for Tierney to Arsenal.
He will know the English market and maybe be a good salesman. I think it's a fairly decent appointment even though i don't think he's necessarily needed
for finding players, someone's still got to negotiate information to do all the background checks. We'll see. So far it's going fairly well although we don't know much about the guy, the work has been good offloading and hiring players. Lenny has made mention to the offloading part twice.
He maybe has to consider what to do with the squad and how to juggle things to make space for new recruits. Not an easy thing now with barely a bad player in the entire squad and the Reserve side.
Similarly if you wanted a big fee for Rogic this might be the guy to explain to people down south why it'd be a cracking deal. That sort of thing has it's own value also, but i wouldn't have this guy picking the targets based on his previous signings.
I think he's also looking at the academy age group and that is more difficult to scout. That's where your network comes into play.
So thinking about this season coming up, but also thinking of the future, we needed someone in who could also pick up a player from Reading, West Brom or Arsenal, chances are that's where his scouting network is, all over England. All those development squad games nobody really watches.
That's where this guy can come in to help sort out the squad and the squad now looks dynamite. It also sadly means offloading and trying to negotiate huge deals. Also getting good loan deals for young Celts down south. So it's important to have someone on the phone speaking to the relevant parties, with no long term contract or over expense.

 

Because hopefully our work is being done behind closed doors. Why do people feel the need to know every step the club makes, nosey *.

 

It's not like we've been very discrete so far.

 

And look where that got us.

 

Rogic isnt going to go for any big fee atm because he has fitness issues and didnt play a whole lot last season. He firstly needs to get fit and then re-find form.

Our scouting network should be in markets we can most exploit and can get the most value from. I understand that we can exploit the cross the border rule for youth players, but these are not typically players who are going to come in and instantly improve the squad. I.e. Connell.

The squad still isnt as strong as the one last season that failed to reach the CL.

We have effectively replaced Benkovic with Julien, Boli has stepped in at left back and it looks like he may be the long term replacement for Tierney and Shved has come back from loan and is taking the place of Weah or Burke. Connell has been added but hasnt played a part in competitive games as yet and its unknown as yet if he will.

We still should be looking to add quality.

 

Genuinely what was the point of bringing this guy in on a trial, just to put a red bingo marker through every one of his signing suggestions?

 

He's just in the job, but he needs to step up to the plate straight away, positions need strengthend, find us players or * off.

 

He’s basically useless at this point unless he can find players from EPL and Championship who are not in their plans for the season.

His strength going by his CV was bringing in U.K. based players.

 

Comes in for a summer trial period with the intentions of dipping in to his expertise in the English market..

Get's rejected off of every single English target..

Get's offered full time contract..