John Guidetti.

The White Bangura

 

That is 100% true, trust me. People get blinded by the fact that these teams are better than Celtic but this is because Dutch teams right now are breeding so many gems it's unbelievable. Every team in the league, apart from maybe Ajax are made up of extremely young players who have came through the teams youth academies and are on a very low wage. If you watch the games on TV you can count on one hand the players on the field who have actually started shaving. :smiley-laughing002:

 

I'd say it's true, I also think we probably have a higher wage-bill than Ajax too.

Mind half of Ajax squad is usually made up of their own youth team players or players they signed when young off other Dutch teams, they wont be paying them top dollar.

 

After his first loan spell with them they wanted to sign him but were told he wanted €30k a week.

 

Celtic and Ajax are really similar, almost identical financially, with a good turnover of £75million with Champions League football each.

We sell more merchandise than them and they bring in more in ticket sales similar advertising deals and they get more TV Money, we're virtually identical financially outwith that.

Comparison of our 2014(2013/14 Season) Annual Reports

Ticket Sales/Matchday Income
Celtic £28m
Ajax £35m

Merchandise Sales
Celtic £14m
Ajax £8m

Sponsorship/Advertising/ TV Bonus money(both with CL Football will be a lot less without)
Celtic £23m
Ajax £17m

Wagebill
Celtic £37m
Ajax £35m

We both operate about near enough the exact same level, with most differances being just additional income of selling players or performing better or worse or if one makes CL football and the other doesn't the only things really seperating us.

 

PSV actually have a really low wage-bill of only £21million. Ajax are far richer than them, Ajax turnover is about £30million a year higher than PSV's and their wage-bill is about £15million more.

I imagine that's what eventually us and Sevco will look like, with us being far richer and able to afford probably 50% higher a wagebill than them but it just shows, PSV compete fairly well with Ajax, not really recently as Ajax have won 4 in a row but PSV's squad was always of a similar standard.

Feyenoord have an even smaller wage-bill, basically miniscule of only £15million a year, less than half of us and Ajax lol

These are probably the average parameters which the clubs work in without European football income

Ajax Turnover ~£60m, Wagebill ~£35m
Celtic Turnover ~£55m, Wagebill ~£35m
PSV Turnover ~£35m, Wagebill ~£20m
Feyenoord Turnover ~£33m, Wagebill ~£15m

 

Madness that. Brilliant how PSV still maintain some sort of competition.

 

I think the big problem with Guidetti is he thinks he is better than he is.

Don't get me wrong, he done well earlier in the season but has done nothing since. He has been given the chance to prove himself down South and wasn't good enough. He's not doing it in the SPL either.

I don't know if he thinks he is too good to play here or his head has been turned and wants to play with Feyenoord but his attitude is crap. He's not interested and unfortunately I think his attitude will ruin his career.

He needs to prove himself over two seasons before he can start looking to play in better leagues with better teams.

 

It shows that Celtic has the potential to improve. We need to get as much out of every pound as PSV does.

 

The budgets look great when they're doing well, but their success is hinged on the quality of the youngsters they are developing.

These clubs have all had good seasons in recent years (Ajax 4 in a row, PSV Champions League semi-final in 2006, Feyenoord UEFA Cup winners 2002), but they've also had dreadfully lean periods.

 

Aye, they rely heavily on developing or signing good players from other Dutch teams for fairly cheap.

We don't have that luxury as mostly Scottish players are pish so we hardly ever even get 1 good player from our own League, where as at times Ajax or PSV can have 3/4 from their club alone and 2/3 from other Dutch teams.

Ajax rarely ever sign players from abroad unless they are 16/17/18 or on loan or for free.

We should probably jump on the same bandwagon as those teams and start trying to sign 14/15/16 year old Dutch youth or doing more Van Dijk type deals were we sneak in and sign Ajax/PSV targets from the Dutch League, the cheaper ones as sometimes they spend £4/5/6million on other Dutch League players which we couldnt afford.

 

We don't produce quality to the same level as other countries, but we don't just produce 'pish' players.

Signing the best of the SPL players is a policy I've championed for a while, though not exclusively. It's been argued to death, but we could've built a very solid core of players based on this. The thing is, even they didn't work out, the wages are generally very low and some Championship side down in England will always take them off your hands.

 

Aye, you can't just say they're pish. I mean we have nicked Robertson and Mackay-Stevens, both players (in the EPL) would go for silly money. Look at the Scottish players down south just now who go for good money. We produce a decent calibre, just not as high as the Dutch.

As Keiran said, when there is lean years they really suffer. Its very cyclical. I actually think Ajax are going through a bad spell just now, I can't see who their next up and coming star/s is/are going to be. Compare that to 2006-2012 when they were with guys like: Heitenga, Babel, Nigel De Jong, Eriksen, Alderweireld, Varmaelen, Stekelenberg, Van Der Wiel. By with I mean directly produced and had in their team or was coming through the ranks. Thats just off the top of my head, could be more.

Who do they have now, Fischer? Think that is how P.S.V can capitalise.

I actually think Feyenoord would be a slight step down for Guidetti (despite the fact I hate him). Do they have any chance of competing for the title? They don't have the wage bill for him. Probably sees it as better than nothing. There is no way they can afford what he wants and a large outlay upfront.

 

Still pish in general though.

We are 15 years into the 2000s, whos the top 15 players produced in Scotland?

Gordon, Marshall McGregor
Mulgrew, Robertson, Hutton
McCarthy, Brown, Adam, Dorrans
McGeady, Maloney, Snordgrass
S.Fletcher, Naismith

Probably them unless im forgetting people, nothing that exceptional. Not even compared to countries like Poland, Switzerland, Croatia, Serbia.

Even out those 15, a lot of our fans dont consider Mulgrew Celtic Starting XI quality, Hutton isnt either and neither are Adam or Dorrans. So about 11 Celtic calibre starting XI players have come from Scotland in 15 year, 10 if you dont count Robertson who is unproven.

 

Bazoer at Ajax looks a good prospect, they've also brought Davy Klaasen, Jasper Cillesen, Ricardo Van Rhijn etc through in recent years. They've also got Ricardo Khishna who looks promising (though they bought him). Fishcer has fallen right out of favour.

The broader point I was making was in regards to building a good squad of players from Scottish clubs, because they represent value for money, and it's less of a gamble (though obviously sometimes you need to take the gamble).
Brown, Mulgrew, Stokes, Caldwell, McDonald, Hartley, Robson, Mark Wilson, Zaluska, Griffiths and others have come in and been decent enough to represent the club to a good standard. How many have really failed? Chris Killen, Willo Flood, Derek Riordan and Chris Killen spring to mind - but we sold 3 of them on so any loss was probably pretty low.

It's incredibly easy to point out with hindsight, but we let Ryan Gauld and Johnny Russell move elsewhere last season, while we bought Boerrigter, Balde and Pukki for a total of around £5m plus wages.

 

I still can't get my head round the fact we didn't buy Russell.

 

That all may very well be the case, but could we get back to calling Guidetti a * please