Re: [Football]Celtic
TBH , your defence at the moment is made up of a Psychopath , a Journeyman , and a couple of premiership wannabes/rejects. Thats not going to get you anywhere in Europe next year. Unfortunately, the players that you need simply arent available in your price range, although the addition of Steven Hammell from Motherwell would be a brilliant choice at Left Back, however at Centre Back, i really think you have to start thinking the same way Burns and Janssen did, and thats to look outside of the EPL for players that have great potential but are maybe just not at the right level for the Premiership.
I remember when you signed Stubbs for £3.5M and i thought "Hang on , hes been chased by half the premiership, but they wouldnt take a risk because hes a Division 1 player. What a fantastic signing". I think thats the route O'Neill should be taking. That, and continuing his scouting networks overseas to bring in talented players from the lower leagues of Europe.
One thing that has disappointed me is that hes not found any youngsters outside of the Celtic youth setup. Id like to see him getting a setup with other European clubs to move talent around and perhaps give Celtic some younger players that have real potenitial to be world class (McGeady and Beattie are excellent, but theyve actually been around Celtic since they were both 13 or 14). Buy a small club in Belgium and have them import talent from Africa , the same way big clubs in the EPL do.
Better still, why not just get a setup with smaller scottish clubs to farm out your kids to? Partick Thistle just dropped into division 2 , theyre a reasonable sized club within a few miles of you, and an agreement with The Bunnet to have Celtic kids play 20-25 games a season for him would do wonders for both teams.
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And the Banker, inspired with a courage so new
It was matter for general remark,
Rushed madly ahead and was lost to their view
In his zeal to discover the Snark
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