does it bother anyone that the lack of home grown/british/R.O.I signings and players

Agree with guys comment regarding Lee Wallace, so overrated. Wouldnt touch him with a bargepole.

 

It bothers me a lot.

Anyone wondering why the SPL is on it's death bed. This is the reason.

Not pointing the blame at Celtic or Rangers, it's not their fault there is no depth of talent in this country anymore.

There are several reasons why -

1. Youngsters not interested in football anymore. Highlights on at 11pm on a school night. Tickets for all clubs too expensive for under 16's.

2. Unhealthy attitude to life in Scotland. Crap food being eaten, too much booze being drunk, * still flying off the shelves and fitness not even on peoples agendas.

3. Young players being chosen on size and strength rather than quality. Great young players never bridge the gap to professionalism because they are too small and clubs won't pick them up. I read something once that said Messi and Maradona at 5'5" would not have made it in Scotland these days. As a nation we are shorter on average than other European countries. This has a lot to do with point 2.

4. Too many support the Old Firm that are not from or even near Glasgow. There are more Celtic fans in Aberdeen than Aberdeen fans.

5. The fact it doesn't seem to bother many people here just shows why our game is dying.



I could go on all day. Our League and our National game will continue to decline. It already borders on the pathetic and will only get worse. Celtics only chance is that when the league finally does die, us and the Rankers will get our move to somewhere in the English game, as the money men down there are not stupid enough to let the chance pass them by. Hope that day comes in the next 10 years.

On a side note, I am 35 and wondering if the people who like me said that it does bother them are around my age or older? Youngsters in our Country, and perhaps in all western countries, don't really give a * about anything these days.

 

I think that we would have known about them, but it costs a fortune to buy players form our own country. Fletcher went to wolves for 3-4 million I think. We could have go a striker of similar quality in for cheaeper.

Put it this may. You wouldnt go to tesco and do your shopping, when you know that you can get exactly the same stuff in asda for a lot less

 

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CNicola%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <wunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <wontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:595.3pt 841.9pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> The majority of players that we can look back on over the year and say he was great would be from outside the Scottish, Irish variety.

The days are gone when we talk about 30 miles from Glasgow to win the CL.

I don't really care of colour or creed, as long as he does the job he is meant to do and even punch above his weight for the jersey would be good as well.

 

A wee bit yeah. My ideal hOOps starting 11 would be 6 Scots 5 Irish, give or take a couple for welsh and them lot down south.

But the British Isles (see how I encompass all regions in two words? players are either waaaaaaaay over priced or *.

 

While it would be nice if we had a strong "home grown" nucleus in the side, sometimes it's just not feasible and that's down to numerous factors such as the talent not being there in the first place, or it being overpriced, overrated or in many cases, players of mediocre talent being lured south by larger salaries being paid simply because TV money in England allows clubs to pay players incredible salaries which they simply would not get in Scotland.

Lennon has stated publicly that he'd have been happier if he'd been able to sign British players but the three we publicly chased throughout the summer, James, Campbell and Bellamy all opted to stay down south. Whether that's down to personal or business reasons, make your own minds up.

My own take on this is simply that if we get enough players in who have pride in their profession and have a winning mentality, coupled with talent, we should be okay. Let's not forget that we've had plenty of foreign players in the not so distant past who were born winners and who never gave up till the final whistle....you can't really ask for more than that.

 

the only thing that bothers me is people think we're doing it for shirt sales etc.

 

Don't agree with this at all. However hackneyed this may seem, all companies (and football clubs) have a responsibility to help improve the area/society around them. Celtic FC's home is within Scotland so surely has an interest in improving football in the country as a whole, I'd be extremely disappointed if we were to exist only as a corporate machine that exists solely for the purpose of self-preservation "and the rest can rot"...

 

As long as our players give 100% I don't care which nationality they are. It would be nice to have a good spine of home grown players but in this day and age it's simply not practical due to the money available down south and the lack of real talent at a reasonable price in the UK.

If a player is of the right ability and shows the right desire then that's all that matters.

 

Last Paragraph is spot on ,we need grafters who can play a bit and are willing to win at all costs and Lennon has it seems got guys from different area's who have this mentality to do so ,he has brought in players who look to have a lot of pace and energy about them and backed up with control of the ball makes the making of a good team and a hard team to beat ,when these guys settle and bond as a team i think we will be seeing good football played but with an edge to it aswell as in taking no * from the opposition .

 

Sorry but that's nothing more than a pipedream and simply not feasible. As a club we are there first and foremost to win football games which leads to winning trophies....in short, success.

We could sacrifice all of that and turn ourselves into a glorified youth club for the betterment of the kids in the East End, but where would it leave us in a footballing sense.....probably at the level of Partick!

 

We're in a fantastic financial state - we can still keep a Scottish core while maintaining a social responsibility. It's not all or nothing - success or Scotland - not at all.

We've had ample opportunity to maintain a Scottish core but we got rid of Robson, Hartley (and I guess Caldwell) far too easily. Similarly we have not been doing enough to gather the best of Scottish talent (S.Fletcher, D.Fletcher, Gordon, McCarthy, McCarthur(?))

I just don't think we've been doing enough given our position of power in this country, and to go and watch a team with 0 Scots in it which will happen at some point this season will be seriously disappointing.

 

I would love to see a Celtic starting 11 being all Scottish instead of third rate oversees players but I dont think it will happen in my lifetime .

 

My thoughts exactly.

 

I do, but the quality isn't really there in abundance anyway.

There are a growing amount of good young Scots about but we are priced out when an English interest comes about.

 

The simple fact is that if you look at the national teams of ROI, Scotland etc they are not performing that well and the one or two class acts are already signed up to big EPL teams, therefore there is no Celtic Class (and cost) players out their that have these national heritages....therefore unlikey that we would find 8 or 10 nevermind a squad full good enough....

 

Its not the only reason, but it is a MASSIVE ONE! Perhaps the biggest! We have a culture that glorifies the '*'! (and i'm not talking about *!) Its good to hear somebody else say it!...I mean think back to High School; how many nutters can u name that were great players but never made anything of themselves!

Fact is we are culturally predisposed to be pish at football. This will never change! So if foreign lads who have developed in a more disciplined environment are the only thing that will improve our team then so be it...we are a business afterall.

 

It depends if you are just a club man and/or a capitalist or if you are a football man with a love of sport from roots up and have a sense of community responsibility. Too many fans are club nuts without the crucial love of the game as a sport and a feel for the working class Scottish roots that most our best players came from. I think its important to have the sporting ethic as well as a love of club or you are just a tribalist. The ideal of a community based club with working class roots is still the Lions who all came from places within a short distance of Glasgow. I know the world has changed and the standards in Scotland have dropped to a level we cant have 11 Glaswegians but we really have let a handful or more really good Scots good enough for Celtic to slip through, sometimes through penny pinching (Fletcher etc).

 

nope this is club football not international football. look arsenal only got couple of englishman in team. dont get me wrong love team full of scots, but the young talent that out there not stepping up enough, if look at scottish first team after that?. who would you have in your squad and what would you win, nothing as except the first team, there lack of talent, as long as bring youth through the ranks and hopefully get the odd player like forrest or mc geady we do well and as long as players that come in do well? and players lennon brought in?
hooper - english
murphy - irish
ledley - welsh
mulgrew - scottish
juarez - mexico
karim - israel
majic - swedish
hondorus left back so half and half at the moment?. so not that bad