Starting 11 next season

Like you said, we ain't gonna be spunking £15m. I'd rather trust in good judgement than extravagant excess ala a certain other club. Besides, there's nothing to suggest Russell and GMS are 'SPL' class only. McCarthy and Fletcher etc haven't shown themselves up in the Prem.

 

I think Johnny Russell could be a good player and one of our best players if we signed him as he's an allround player, strong, quick, good dribbler, great vision, scores goals, great in the air. I would sign him and play him every week. Im not sure about Mackay-Steven as although hes skillful and quick over 5 yards, theres just something about him that makes me think

 

I would say they would do fine in the Championship but no way in the Premiership.

McCarthy and Steven Fletcher are playing for teams that are fighting relegation. A glance at other SPL exports:

Charlie Adam - Liverpool (Il give you that)
Danny Wilson - Liverpool (cant get a game)
Jelavic - Everton
Shaun Maloney - Wigan
Conor Sammon - Wigan
Gary Caldwell - Wigan
McCarthy - Wigan
Berra - Wolves
Eggert Jonsson - Wolves
David Goodwillie - Blackburn
Alan Hutton - Aston Villa
Craig Gordon - Sunderland

Most of the players listed above are either playing for teams at the foot of the table or cant get a game.

There are players that have done well in the SPL that are doing relatively well in the Championship, but lets face it the SPL is not a very strong league, IMO (and I'll prob get alot of stick for this) apart from Celtic it is bottom half of the Championship standard. If you put Inverness CT or Kilmarnock in the Championship IMO they would be fighting relegation in that league.

In Champions League qualifiers Celtic are going to come up against Teams that are at least Premiership standard and with our away record in Europe and our lack fo European experience in the squad the task is daunting.

The choice the Board have to make is

Ambition v Settling for SPL
Potential Champions League Spot/European Run v Being Financially Stable
Attempt at Rescuing Scottish Football v Not giving a flying f**k about the bigger picture

I thoroughly believe that if we dont make it into the Champions League next season then that would be the last chance for a Scottish team to play in the Champions League unless some Arab/Russian Billionaire decides to take over an SPL club. The co-efficient of the SPL is so poor now and if we dont get some points in europe next season we are going to lose our only Champions League spot which will be very difficult to get back.

I get what your saying about not wanting to end up like a particular club on the other side of the city but there is next to no chance of that happening to our club since we have 0 debt which is something you will very rarely come across in modern day football. If spend money and we do make it intot he Champions League it will stay at 0 debt and we will save scottish football (i.e. our one Champions League Spot) at the same time.

 

Steven Fletcher is doing really well down there, I think Russell is the best forward to come out of Scotland since him and he will do just as well.

Goodwillie was always a diddy, hes a player of workrate and not skill like Kenny Miller, his home will be the Championship.

Id give you Mackay-Steven though, I think hes Championship class and probably wont ever be Premiership class, its debatable if hes even better than Ross Wallace who used to play with us for me.

 

Forster
Matthews Rogne Mulgrew Izaguirre
Kayal/Wanyama
Broony/Kayal Ledley
Forrest Sammy Russell

That'd be awesome in europe!
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I love these debates mate so please don't think I'm being belligerent because I'm continuing to disagree.
However, Celtic qualifying for the CL next season will not save Scottish football. Besides money does not always equal quality. If we're talking 'QUALITY' players (beyond anything we have in Scotland now) then why would they want to come here even if we could afford a fee? I mean we can remind ourselves of "Oh, we are Celtic, everyone should want to play for us" but the reality is, if you're true class, then you wanna test yourself against better opposition.
Celtic can get back into the CL I reckon but it's gonna take a lot more savvy, and a close look at some other teams who have acquitted themselves well in Europe without splashing the cash. More scouting excellence and less wanting to flex the financial muscle, imo. Not that I'm looking for our board to be tight - if they feel like they can free up some funds for 'better' players then fantastic, but a sea-change in our business approach will not happen and, tbh, I don't want it to.

 

Im not sure about Mackay-Steven myself, to me he seems like hes a lot like Ibrahim who we signed. Quick over short distance but not really over 20 yards, quite light and a bit powederpuff with shooting and crossing, struggles at times to lift the ball off the deck and scrapes it too much(although I dont know about Ibrahim but Ibrahim seems a very similar style in his youtube videos) tricky, slight, quick but would he have the consistancy and shooting/crossing to be good enough for us?

Id rather try Ibrahim first.

 

The forward slashes make that one confusing mate. I think you're trying to say some players are interchangeable, but if you treat the forward slashes the same then the numbers don't add up.

Are you advocating a 4-1-2-3?

 

mackay steven was a liverpool youth player , and has all the ability in the world. best crosser of the ball in the league and beats players as well as mcgeady did . sky is the limit for him , at the age of 21 , anyone that cant see the potential he could achieve here hasnt seen enough of him ....jonny russell could be with us the way miller was with the huns ....these two are must buys , would cost a few mill for the pair..

 

I think it does add up, does it not?

4-1-2-3, and if we presume Kayal starts, then it's either

Kayal
Brown Ledley

or

Wanyama
Kayal Ledley

 

In 4-5-1 situations:

---------------Forster
Matthews---Rogne---Mulgrew---Izaguirre
--------------Wanyama
----------Brown------Kayal
Forrest-------------------------Samaras
--------------Hooper

In 4-4-2 situations:

---------------Forster
Matthews---Rogne---Mulgrew---Izaguirre

Brown----Kayal-----Wanyama----Forrest

----------Hooper-----Stokes

Seemed to me that this season Forrest was effective on the left, when he could cut inside onto his better foot, as in the new years game against the huns. Though these are the starting line-ups, I still would like to see real time given to players like Lustig, Fojut and Bangura

 

Yup. Upon second inspection, I was talking pure pish!

 

Foster

Mathews. Mulgrew. New cb. Izzi

Kayal. Wanyama

Brown. Forrest
Mcgouech/ new signing

New striker


Rogne, Ledley, hooper, stokes, Russell , gms, ki all squad players

I don't think our team is as bad as people are saying at the moment, we've been missing arguably our two best players (kayal, izzi) i think this team has a good spine and with one or two quality international players plus russell and gms we should qualify for the cl.

My phones being a baw, but tht formation is Forrest and brown as wide men

 

Ach well, good to see the art of talking pure pish is not dead.

 

Well I get what your saying about it wont save Scottish football but it depends on what you see as the definition for saving scottish football. I see saving scottish football as saving our champions league spots and doing well in europe (again, by this I mean competing in the champions league). Regaining our respect as a footballing nation. If we lose our champions league place, this will have a knock on effect on the rest of the league and the quality of the league will become even poorer than it already is. If we dont have at least one Scottish team playing in the Champions league we are going to be writtne off as a diddy footballing nation such as luxembourg or bulgaria by the rest of the footballing world which is a shame given that Scottish Teams were such a force 50 years ago and it has been a steady decline in quality since then. We were the first British team to win the European Cup and now we are struggling to qualify.

Quality players want to play in the Champions League. If we show ambition and show that we are going for that, instead of buying players on frees, from the likes of scunthorpe and from other SPL teams other "quality" players will see Scotland as an easy route into the champions league unlike in other nations such as England where in order to qualify you have to finish ahead of the likes of Man Utd, Man City and Chelsea.

For Celtic to get into the CL qualifiying we need ot finish ahead of SPL teams whereas its much more difficult for clubs in other nations and "quality" players will recognise this.

Tbh, and again your not going to like me for saying this, I do not believe that you can do well at Champions League level without spending serious money. I don't believe you can get players of a sufficient quality on a free or unknown players and do well at CL level. You need to spend at least over 4m to get the calibre of player required. I think you need to buy good players from good leagues (and Im not talking about England, Spain and Germany where players are so over priced and over paid) such as the Greek League, Turkish League, France, Russia, * even Switzerland and Denmark who are all ranked way above us in the UEFA Co-efficient rankings.

 

why always a new striker?
hooper and stokes on there day are brilliant and samaras plays best in europe,
i wouldnt complain if we could get jonny russell or gary mckay stevens but garys attracted english attention and would have a big price tag on him, the only reason we have a decent chance of getting russell is because hes a fan!
we need to wait and see our team before we choose who should play in european games

 

Our signing policy since Lenny has taken over has worked incredibly well.

If we can unearth another gem or two - particularly a creative player in the MF - potentially to be used as an impact sub - and a different option up front.

After what I've seen from Hooper in recent weeks, I'm thinking he should be the one dropping out. Work rate dodgy at times - and at Celtic you NEED to put the effort in.

Also no doubt we have missed Kayal - especially over the past few weeks when the ship hasn't been so steady. We also missed Wanyama at the weekend. And with Izzy being out practically all season, there's 3 big players.

Thing is, if we have everyone fit and ON TOP FORM then we should walk the league and get through the CL qualifiers.

Problem is we haven't had everyone on top form for some time.

Commons has been a shadow of his former self. Hooper has been awful at times. Izzy looked poor when he came back in (although I think it's clear that he returned too early) Forrest has went off the boil in recent weeks...

And I would like to see more of McGeough next season - in fact I'd love him to play every game after the split - if we win the title next weekend at rugby park then we MUST play some of the bhoys - only way of finding out if they're ready for next season...

Not sure if the pressure is getting to these lads - after all most of these bhoys haven't won a title before and we've never been in their shoes, so hard to say what it takes to get over that line, especially if they're feeling the fans frustration...

As for next season though, for me it's simple;

GK - needs sorted (one way or another and I'm not 100% that FF will sign)
CB - hopefully Fojut will be the man (however I do like Mulgrew/Rogne partnership)
LB - back up for a fully fit Izzy (don't think Blackman is the answer)
MF - creative playmaker / genius type
ST - giant target man type

Hail Hail

 

Forster

Matthews Rogne Mulgrew Izaguirre

Forrest/Brown Kayal/Wanyama *creative midfielder*/Ledley Samaras/Mackay Steven

Hooper/Stokes Samaras/*target man*

I want a creative midfielder, unless he is going to start playing Ki.
An out an out left winger, someone who gets people off their seats, someone skilful.
A target man, who can get goals.
An possibly a new centre back.
With players like, Cha, Wilson, Majstorovic, Loovens, Murphy, Rasmussen, Cervi, possibly Juarez, moving on. With a few players being loaned out.