Feeder

I've been thinking this for a while now, & it could work wonders for us I think..
If we had a feeder club either in France or in Belgium or where ever in Europe that would allow us to sign young African or Asian players & we know they are not allowed into our Country because of the International rule of not enough caps for there country or what not. But you can put them to Belgian or French sides for 2-3yrs & they get a European passport or by then International Clearance to come play for your club, Arsenal do it with Beveren, tis how they got Eboue, Toure & what not.. Think it would be a great idea, fair enough it would take a few season's to see this kick in, but when it did, would be great.. Not saying we are going to find the next Didier Drogba or Emmanuel Adebayor, but a big strong striker would be great to find I think..

I see Rangers today have desided to have a feeder club so they can put some of there youngsters to, tis a great idea I think.
I like big powerful African players, there great to watch, the likes of Essien & Drogba & we have always had a core of them under Martin O'Neill, the likes of Balde, Tebilly, Sylla & so on, but if we could actually find them at a young age, get them signed up on the cheap, cos £150k Arsenal was for Toure, & look how he turned out, so there is bargins to be found, alot of hard work but they are out there, be better than us just picking up scraps from around Europe, & lower English Clubs really, we should explore that market, cos we do have connections in Africa & kids that would love to play for our club, so would be good if we could do that I think anyway.. & maybe if we can get a French feeder club, cos the African players usually go there anyway, so would settle in ok, be there for 2 seasons & then when there more mature we can get them in our side & feed them threw, would be great

Just 1 more point instead of writing this in another thread, just cos we are on the subject of African players here, there was a question of buying a CB or ST? I would say buy a CB & I would like Celtic to go out & get Abdoulaye Faye from Stoke, hes a big powerfull Centre back & would be great partner for Loovens, & wouldn't be much more than £3Million I wouldnt think, & maybe swop Caldwell for him in a part exchange, NOt that I have a problem with Caldwell, hes a good player, but hes not at his best the now, & if you have a chance of getting someone better, we should take it...

Anyways what are you guys thoughts about exploring this market?

 

I agree with the feeder club africa is a huge untapped market for football players, i dont know why celtic havent done this yet, it would be a good move

 

isnt upjest a kind of feeder club? surely if a decent young player comes through at upjest we have first choice on him?

 

yeah we already have one in ujpest, was announced 2 years ago i think..

 

The problem with Africa is they all see France, Holland and now perhaps England and Spain as the primary destinations.

With France, apart from the lax immigration laws on Africans - certainly the language, good weather and exposure to the big 3 leagues is a draw. On the contrary Scotland has almost nothing to offer the Africans.

 

Its a good idea and works very well for arsenal chelsea etc... but the new rules about not being able to sign foreign players under 18 could be a bit of a problem because when a player is that age he is usually well known as a good prospect and is normally snapped up. We would also need to improve our scouting system because the last foreign player that we signed at around 18-19 (correct me if i'm wrong) that actually broke into the 1st team was Petrov.

 

I thought Derry city was the Celtic feeder club

 

This is alot of it and the same with Spain/Portugal's relaxed immigration laws towards south americans and former colonies etc etc

Celtic are active is maximizing themselves everywhere and anywhere. If there was a viable option in Africa, Asia or South America etc I think Celtic would be doing everything to exploit it to their advantage.

Good clubs dont want to be feeder clubs to others so its not a simple process

 

So based on the above answers and our record in signing young foreign players I think we should be looking for more quality older players like Lubo who have good ability and technique that would add something to the club now.

 

I think if a 33/34 year old Lubo was around now then he would sign for double what we could offer for someone like Hull City. With no sell-on possibility he would be a no-no for us.

Yup fully agree, clearly the most promising and only feasible (in terms of laws/red-tape etc) route implemented in the main by Lawwell and Strachan is Eastern Europe who done a * of a lot of work to get us setup there.

 

Im sure theyre are good players out there. A lot of experienced players have opted to go back to Holland to finish their careers in recent times. My point really was that we should be looking not only at young talent but for late developers that are perfoming around the 30year old bracket that we can get a few good years out of.

In recent times weve brought in promising youngsters like Crosas Misun Mizuno, guys that have cost us a wee bit but we are told thyre not ready for the 1st team and who knows if theyll ever make it. I'd like us to be on the look out at the other side of the market as well.

 

I think we have a Belgian feeder club in the second division called Oostende. Although I'm not sure how many players we have got from there. I think a few of our players went on loan there a few seasons ago though.

From wikipedia:

In August 2007, Oostende established a working partnership with Scottish giants Celtic. Under the deal, each season Celtic will send up to three reserve and youth team players on loan to Oostende. These working partnerships are not unique to Belgian football, as Royal Antwerp have been in partnership with Manchester United since 1998.<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-0>[1]</SUP>

 

yeah i remember that, but i think i can remember reading somewhere that this was terminated, can anyone confirm this?