Aye I agree with what you're saying johnno, but id hazard a guess the board wont, especially the part where some players when playing for Celtic it will be the peak of their careers, because for the board member who is responsible for signing off on the cheques for new players , any player that costs the cross border development fee or more, that doesnt return a profit will be seen in house as a failure, in todays dismal money orientated football business model we have at present. Getting x- numbers of players to commit to Celtic long term is one thing and easily do-able but if they perform consistently to a high standard in the big games and in Europe then inevitably they will catch the eye of another clubs scouting network and then comes the bid, say for example £7 million is bid for a player that cost us £1 million, then the club will never turn that down, even if the players signed a 6 year contract, being a plc, trading on the stock market they are duty bound to make the club profitable I'd imagine. We have seen this board stumble from one disaster to the next , losing boyata for zilch and not cashing in on ntcham when his stock had peaked at Celtic, those 2 bad decisions alone cost the club around the £20 million mark if the numbers banded around were accurate. Then the 10 season , we held onto eddy when his stock was higher and possibly again lost out on £10-20 million for him alone. TET would say it's a good example of a CEO overstaying his best years, hed be right. The only way around it possibly is to show real ambition and to have a real go at it whilst staying within our means. Like you alluded to, speculate to accumulate but not just the plc side , the football side as well, and if after say 3 -4 seasons it hasnt worked then perhaps we cut the cloth for the next 3-4 years then go again?
In that way perhaps we could get the dressing room continuity you mentioned but we also as you mentioned must have the right people in place. Over at cesspit central you have players half as talented as ours but they will run through brick walls for Gerrard like ours did for Rodgers. The players leaving us for bigger things I would say mostly has materialised for them. Armstrong may be with Southampton and mid table but he gets to play against some of the best club sides in the world and is paid a fortune for it so yes hes not winning trophies but is playing a higher standard of football, his value has been increased at least three fold. Dembele is now with Atletico Madrid one of the biggest clubs in the world. Is he happier than he was when he played for Celtic? Idk but I'd guess that was what he was targeting when he signed for us, playing at European top table club. Doesnt mean hes happier though because he hasnt the same adulation he had at Celtic, scoring in big games, hunskelkping sunday, CP European nights etc so in that instance I'd doubt it but it's also a job/profession where hes not the only one who is relying on his financial success, his family etc and it's not the same as when Larsson stayed on at CP, that Celtic were real contenders against anyone but he knew eventually that he had to get back to the big time the landscape was changing fast. When alls said and done I spouted out a novel in response to your couple of paragraphs
so thanks buddy some of the other threads are super depressing today and ye canny beat a good rabble oan the noise HH
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