[Link] Hamdi Salihi

Rapid Vienna striker Hamdi Salihi says that he would welcome a move to Celtic after manager Neil Lennon has admitted interest in the Albania international, who is out of contract in the summer.




Salihi, 27, scored 46 goals in his first two seasons with Rapid but eight of his 11 league appearances this term have come off the bench and he could be available for a cut-price fee.
The forward scored along with now Rangers striker Nikica Jelavic when Rapid drew 3-3 with Celtic in the Europa League two seasons ago.
Salihi told the Kuriernewspaper: ''Celtic is a club with a great name, this could be a good step for my career. But I know nothing concrete. The deal would have to be right for all parties, including Rapid.''
Lennon told the Evening Times: ''He is a player we have known about from the Jelavic days. He might be an option. He is a good player, and we know what he can do. If he came in on trial, even better. But I don't think that will be the issue.''
Celtic do not appear to have followed the interest yet with Rapid team manager Stefan Ebner saying they had not heard from the Clydesdale Bank Premier League leaders.
Lennon has already signed Swedish defender Mikael Lustig this month and has previously admitted he is on the lookout for a centre-back and a forward, although he stressed it would not be a ''disaster'' if no-one else came in.
Nigerian Rabiu Ibrahim, a 20-year-old attacking midfielder who left PSV Eindhoven before the end of last year, is on trial at Lennoxtown this week.

 

At 500,000 pounds we should see what he can do. Wouldn't be the big rest waists of money if it turned out he was *. Which by his goal scoring record he doesn't look *.

 

well worth a gamble if we lost hooper we could get him and rhodes

 

Apparently he offers absolutely nothing outside the box and is basically just another Kris Boyd type player.

 

is it? they could both score less than Hooper combined. the fee we're talking about regarding Hooper is shockingly low.

i hate this view some Celts have that '£500k?, well worth a go'. i don't want a player who we should go for because of the price. i'd rather get someone good in. same with that Fulham defender. people are banging on about how he is very low risk due to price. i want it to be based on talent first and then whether we can afford him. you wouldn't go to Aldi and look at a cardboard bath tub and think 'ohh £10 for a bath tub, well worth the risk as it could do a job'. it's gonna * leak!

these players could do a job. it's just some of the reasoning behind it by some are being shared by the board's biscuit tin mentality.

 

I agree with you when it comes to the fulham reject, would NEVER want him here as he is a reject for a club who i dont think is better then us in any way.. but Salihi is a striker that got a good record in a league that is probably as good as the SPL, so i would like to see this guy here.. i would probably want Stokes and Hooper to start the games, but we dont really have a good back-up striker

 

It's not a case of "let's spend 500k, see of he's any good..."
We'll have to pay his wages, we'll have problems selling if he turns out * etc.

I think we need to thoroughly scout each player. We cannot afford risks.

 

i completely agree. it's just when people have never seen a guy play and rate him on his fee. grates me.

i think the money that has been wasted on relatively low-risk ventures, price-wise, compared to those big money flops is very similar due to the numbers of low-risk players that haven't been up to scratch.

our scouting team is improving all the time as has been evident with the amount of gems currently in the squad and the expected huge profit margins they carry with them if we do cash in.

every signing is a risk it's just limiting it with thorough scouting which seems to be the key to this new regime. if those backroom staff and Lennon think the player will improve the team and deem him fit to wear the hoops, i have full faith in the player.

 

seems like there was "someone from scotland" at the test match Rapid Wien vs. Wiener Sportklub to watch Salihi today. All he could have seen were some dreadful misses though...

 

Is he any good mate?

 

when he is out of form (like right now) and he doesn´t score, he is pretty useless.

however, he does not fit in the game Rapid plays at the moment, that requires pace and lateral movement from all our forwards. our regular "target man" this season was actually considered a winger before he joined us. so really not the kind of play that suits Salihi. And of course he knows that this will not change soon, since our new coach starts to be successful. And i´d say Salihi is a kind of sensivtive type who needs to know the coach has confidence in him.

 

I have been told that he offers absolutely nothing outside of the box, is that true?

Who is better - Jelavic or Salihi?

 

that´s pretty much true. he loves to sneak around the box and (when in from) be there to score. he usually really doesn´t need a lot of touches to score.

if i had to choose between Salihi and Jelavic it would always be Jelavic, although Salihi has more integrity and better goal scoring stats. Nikica is by the far the more complete player.

 

He sounds like a poorer quality version of Gary Hooper.

 

Cheers.

Doesn't sound all that promising to me. Is he a good target man? Like Vennegoor of Hesselink type player?

He sounds more of a Kris Boyd to me.

 

He sounds like another murphy

 

Well, VoH didn´t leave the best impression in Vienna so hard for me to compare ... :icon_mrgreen:

i would say Salihi is the better footballer, and despite his flaws he scored many important goals for us. that was when we played a different style though. when in form he can score with both his feet, his head, his rump ... he does bycicle kicks and scores with heels ... i even saw him score from outside the box once, that was for Albania though.

if you can put him in the right place in your team, i think he can find his form again - but maybe at the end of the season you will still wonder, how it was possible for him to score so many goals, when you hardly saw him on the field.

 

ourdaywillcome! surely meant the period of time when VoH played for us.
I heard he was pish for Vienna

 

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...xYX5Ag&usg=AFQjCNEf5M42TrOYa7Qvg5h_UQqMVLubJg

 

If Diawara went for £2.5m despite us having first refusal then I would guess it's because this guy or someone else is available for £2m less.