[Link] Gary Hooper

I wouldn't even sell him at 8 million, we need to win the league and even if we got a great fee and brought in a replacement there is no guarantee that he would hit the ground running. I wouldn't sell anyone who is a major contributor until the end of the season, especially not to a club like Southhampton.

 

http://audioboo.fm/boos/623720#t=4m3s

3 min's onwards, sounds like we're going back in for him. Rumours are he's handing in a transfer request on Monday.

 

Hooper wont be going anywhere.

 

"Celtic's Gary Hooper can spy an escape from mediocrity via a £6m move to Championship side Southampton."

From the Guardian.

 

All that does is tie in with how woeful the whole English press have perceived this story since day 1?

 

I'm not being funny, you're a bigger club and all, but we've got way more money then you and will probably double his wages, are 6 months from the premiership, his old manager is here, it's a more desirable place to live and our track record of improving young players is second to none. It'd hardly be a terrible move for him.

I mean even with us in this league, our next fixtures:
Celtic - St Mirren, Falkirk, Inverness
Southampton - Leicester, Cardiff, Birmingham

The championship is a way higher standard of football then the SPL.

 

just because the average team in the championship may be better does not mean southampton specifically is better than Celtic. Celtic have european football, Southampton have none. Celtic will compete to win their league, southampton will face the same struggle all promoted teams face.

Should he leave here for you he'd be leaving for mid/lower level mediocrity.

 

Jesus Christ mate, Gary Hooper has on many occasion said how he loves life here and his football. Only in England is it being made out by your press that he wants away.

As for you're the Premiership statement, he had the chance to go to Wigan and Blackpool before coming to us who were already in the Premiership but found Celtic more appealing than playing at a struggling Premiership team. Plus who's to say you will get promoted at this early stage of the season?

At Celtic he'll get success, European football, playing front of 50-60,000 fans at home games and generally play for a massive club. What's not to like about that?

 

When good players leave Celtic for bigger things they don't go to Southampton.

 

Only 3 of our good(Premiership level) players have left in recent years that we wanted to keep Boruc, Petrov and McGeady. They went to Fiorentina, Aston Villa and Spartak Moscow. I cannot see Super signing for a Championship team, it is never going to happen, he may join someone like Sunderland, Everton or Newcastle in time but not a Championship team.

 

I'm not saying we are at present, but in 3 or so years we will be. You're generally perceived as the same quality as a lower half premiership team but stuck in a dross league, he could be playing for a lower half premiership team in the best league in the world in 6 months. He'd be showing ambition by coming back to try his luck in the most competitive league in the world rather then winning relatively worthless medals and getting paid half as much.

 

Hooper doesn't want to go, Lenny doesn't want to sell simple really.

Only a moron at his age would chase the money when he can win things and play in Europe or maybe get promoted with Southampton and get hammered most weeks.

 

You have more money than us because you play in England. It's a widely known fact that if you're a Premiership team or even a Championship team, you'll have way more money available for transfers and wages than any Scottish team. It's the way it works now, as admittedly, the football on show in Scotland is poor most of the time and it's a far smaller league than both the Prem and the Championship.

It's not all about money though. We have something here that money can't buy and that is passion for the sport and our club. Not to mention we're a part of the biggest rivalry in the world.

There is also far more chance of Hooper playing European football and making a name for himself worldwide at Celtic than there is at Southampton. Let's face it, Soton won't be gaining any ground in Europe any time soon, barring a Man City like takeover, so money would be the only reason for him going down there to play football.

 

We had a Man City like takeover, our owners are billionaires and we also raise tens of millions from our youth academy. We've got £12million already burning a hole in our pocket just from selling Oxo to Arsenal. We're in a completely different situation financially to what we were last time in the Prem, we had * all money before because we were at the Dell so couldn't compete.
There honestly isn't, at least 90% of football fans won't even recognise his name whilst he's playing for Celtic, even playing for a lower half prem team he could get in the England squad if he did well.

 

Have to disagree with this. Hooper has more than made his name at Celtic in the short time he's been here. He's a regular starter and goalscorer for us and has proved that he can cope with performing at a high level (Europa League, against the likes of Udinese and Atletico).

The fact is, Celtic are a huge team worldwide and to say that he wouldn't be recognized by 90% of football fans whilst playing here is nonsense. Scottish football may not be great nowadays, but there are still a lot more people watching us up here than you would think. Look across the city and see the interest that Jelavic is attracting from clubs down there.

 

This!

 

I can assure you at least 90% of football fans won't know who he is in England right now, I'm honestly not exaggerating, I hadn't heard of him because I don't follow the SPL, I used to keep an eye on Scott McDonald because I liked him when he was here but that was about it. I'm not saying scouts and things won't know who he is, I'm saying fans in England won't and he's not got a hope in * of getting in the England team at Celtic, he needs to prove himself in the Prem.

 

What a load on non-sense, Hooper played in the Championship and scored 19 goals before coming to Celtic therefore you can't actually follow English football very closely either.

 

I said 90% of fans, most people just follow the Premiership and don't even know who Ricky Lambert is.