Nick Hammond will be joining Celtic on July 1

[ibrahim_khan]

"CELTIC Football Club announced today that Nick Hammond will be joining Celtic on July 1 to work with the Club, initially across the summer period.

Nick is highly regarded across football having held Director of Football and Technical Director positions at Reading FC and West Bromwich Albion FC respectively.

Nick's knowledge, expertise and experience will be invaluable as he assists in the Club’s recruitment across the forthcoming period.

The Club has known Nick for some time and we are delighted that he is joining Celtic."
​

 

[Maria]

"CELTIC Football Club announced today that Nick Hammond will be joining Celtic on July 1 to work with the Club, initially across the summer period.

Nick is highly regarded across football having held Director of Football and Technical Director positions at Reading FC and West Bromwich Albion FC respectively.

Nick's knowledge, expertise and experience will be invaluable as he assists in the Club’s recruitment across the forthcoming period.

The Club has known Nick for some time and we are delighted that he is joining Celtic."
​

Now this is good news. He worked at Reading and we may get some inside track on enticing the player we were interested there last year.

Who knows but he is a good prospect.

 

[ibrahim_khan]

Now this is good news. He worked at Reading and we may get some inside track on enticing the player we were interested there last year.

Who knows but he is a good prospect.

you not find it a wee bit strange its only for the summer ?

 

[Maria]

you not find it a wee bit strange its only for the summer ?

Perhaps its a trial period or perhaps he was only available for this length of time just now.

As long as we cover summer just now we can then look at the winter window when it arrives.

 

[Theverdict1]

So does this mean we are waiting until he trots up before we get players? Might reinforce the voracity of the claims attributed to Kennedy about us doing nothing for a couple of weeks.

 

[JimMc]

Now this is good news. He worked at Reading and we may get some inside track on enticing the player we were interested there last year.

Who knows but he is a good prospect.

Had you genuinely heard of him before this week?
I hadn't heard of him before, so have no opinion formed! What do you know of him before now apart from the PLC welcome!

 

[TartanTim]

Hope the guys got plenty of quality players scouted, because we definitely need at least 4.

 

[michael duffy]

he was DoF at reading and wba,wonder if Rekeem Harper will be more interested in coming to Celtic,read somewhere he's out of contract on june 30th.

 

[JamesPearson88]

Celtic always seem to bring in people from obscurity. Hammond had good success with Reading briging in players from Ireland like Kevin Doyle for small money and selling them for big bucks. But with WBA he was sacked and chased out the club for failed signings like Oli Burke, Sturridge etc. He done well buying their centre backs though.

Short term and has a mixed fan fare. I'll given him a chance but it's a weird signing and sounds like Congerton 2.0. It's like a try before you buy option.

I'll reserve judgement for now.

 

[Maria]

Had you genuinely heard of him before this week?
I hadn't heard of him before, so have no opinion formed! What do you know of him before now apart from the PLC welcome!

He has had success at Reading and he will know the youth system in England better.

Pretty sure with the players he brought to Reading, he has a good eye.

Congerton? Nobody can be that bad.

 

[Maria]

The possibility that he’s on trial, can only bode well for getting rid if not up to mustard.

As i said i think its a positive thing, the role was vacant.

 

[boab1916]

He has had success at Reading and he will know the youth system in England better.

Pretty sure with the players he brought to Reading, he has a good eye.

Congerton? Nobody can be that bad.

Hope we get a tune out of him.

 

[kelly]

July 1st
feck take your time coming in mate .no hurry

 

[JimMc]

This temporary appointment probably makes the most sense here, taking into account the last supposed Highly regarded transfer / player Guru.

Not any of his fault, but this suggests that little back up planning was actually going on since the departure of BR and the likely (hopefully and thankfully) departure of his man Lee.

Celtic always seem to bring in people from obscurity. Hammond had good success with Reading briging in players from Ireland like Kevin Doyle for small money and selling them for big bucks. But with WBA he was sacked and chased out the club for failed signings like Oli Burke, Sturridge etc. He done well buying their centre backs though.

Short term and has a mixed fan fare. I'll given him a chance but it's a weird signing and sounds like Congerton 2.0. It's like a try before you buy option.

I'll reserve judgement for now.

Me too, but I'll forget the Doyle claims!
Because he was hovered up along with Shane Long from Cork city because of close contacts between Stevey Coppell and a Irish scout he is friends with, Coppell's scouting was known across Munster before and after! He also got the mad but effective winger Stephen Hunt in same year. All were stand outs from under 16 and at least 2 should have been Celtics, as all are fans.
One of the scouts involved was a genuine Celtic fan and was strongly hinting both players to Celtic long before, no real energy or contact in reply apparently.
Reading had a lot of money at that time, so maybe we could not compete, but doubt it!

Bad reminder of how so many decent Irish kids are overlooked in recent years by Celtic, but not by the likes of several English clubs, Villa scout will be a regular at pitches across County Cork and has paid dividends for them.
The PLC interest in Ireland reminds me of the typical supposed fan here! token.

 

[Niall J]

https://thecelticstar.com/nick-hammond-gets-a-summer-job-at-celtic/

Celtic Star is saying there has been no job title released by the club, just a shout to his previous positions. Very strange on an official release.
If this is due to him being unsure on moving up here lock stock and barrel til he susses the role I can kind of understand the club ok-ing this, especially if they are sure it's who they want and he wants a bit of time to see what the job entails, the area for bring up for bringing up his family etc. Maybe he's concerned Lawwell won't give him the scope and he's wary. Fine.
If it's short term and that's Celtic's call it concerns me we are playing at this a bit. There is no point getting someone in short term, go get your man.
If he is a head of recruitment it's not a transfer window position, it's a position to get a strategy in place for every player from youth level through to first team. If it's a Director of football it's an even bigger task and he'd be superior to Lennon and no job for a short term post.
This is on one hand welcome but on the other hand a little worrying. I don't really get it. It could well be a case of Lennon, Lawwell and him all seeing how they'd knit as a team.
More transparency is needed on his role, his remit and what the strategy is here. Maybe we could tweet it out like the Turnbull deal!

 

[Niall J]

So does this mean we are waiting until he trots up before we get players? Might reinforce the voracity of the claims attributed to Kennedy about us doing nothing for a couple of weeks.

That looks certain doesn't it? Kennedy said they were trying but other clubs weren't engaging as they don't come back for a while.

 

[michael duffy]

most contracts run till june 30th,so calm doon,we might have "targets" under contract who we'll have to pay big bucks for,but out of contract buys,we have to wait till july1st, phew, ma heid!!!

 

[Theverdict1]

https://thecelticstar.com/nick-hammond-gets-a-summer-job-at-celtic/

Celtic Star is saying there has been no job title released by the club, just a shout to his previous positions. Very strange on an official release.
If this is due to him being unsure on moving up here lock stock and barrel til he susses the role I can kind of understand the club ok-ing this, especially if they are sure it's who they want and he wants a bit of time to see what the job entails, the area for bring up for bringing up his family etc. Maybe he's concerned Lawwell won't give him the scope and he's wary. Fine.
If it's short term and that's Celtic's call it concerns me we are playing at this a bit. There is no point getting someone in short term, go get your man.
If he is a head of recruitment it's not a transfer window position, it's a position to get a strategy in place for every player from youth level through to first team. If it's a Director of football it's an even bigger task and he'd be superior to Lennon and no job for a short term post.
This is on one hand welcome but on the other hand a little worrying. I don't really get it. It could well be a case of Lennon, Lawwell and him all seeing how they'd knit as a team.
More transparency is needed on his role, his remit and what the strategy is here. Maybe we could tweet it out like the Turnbull deal!

He will be a glorified scout because Lawell makes the decisions. I am
sceptical but if he identifies players that improve us, fair enough. He has had some disasters too. Better just a short term in case he comes up tits.

 

[Ronin79]

I’d be interested in finding out if Dermot Desmond is involved in this, possibility as exasperated as the rest of us with Lawwell.

Hammond has a great record with young players, especially young Irish players, and it is an open secret that Desmond is always wanting more players from Ireland signed. He basically doesn’t feel that Celtic are as popular/get as much exposure over there as he’d like/they used to.

He paid Robbie Keane’s wage, and pretty much signed Paddy McCourt for Strachan.

Anyway Nick Hammond is ideal for this, - he actually persuaded a young Jonny Hayes to knock us back for Reading.

It was also his decision to sack a certain Brendan Rodgers - maybe he got an insight into his character before the rest of us.

 

[williebhoy1967]

Doesn't sound like something we have been planning for the best part if a year. Important position, we should know who we want and made moves to get him asap...not a stop gap