There are a few football forums I frequent on a daily basis looking for general chatter on Celtic and all things football. I came across a debate yesterday on Ki Sung-Yueng being sold for £7-8m. Initially I thought that this would be a good bit of business for us.
Ki is an extremely technically gifted player, but for some reason he has not been a first choice midfielder and finds himself behind Scott Brown, Joe Ledley, Victor Wanyama and Beram Kayal. I am not saying he merits a start but I am not worried about our team when he does.
We happen to be quite strong in the centre midfield area and I know any combination of those five will do a good job for us. So if we do get £7-8m for a squad player, albeit a very talented squad player, it’s a financial win for us.
It turns out that this is not the main reason amongst these particular Celtic fans as to why we should let him go. “He is a great player and I like him but he just doesnt fit into Scottish football.” What? Am I the only one that sees a huge red flag with this comment.
Last I checked Scottish football was not exactly turning heads. The national team got hammered by America and Motherwell, Dundee United and St Johnstone have already been humiliated at the first hurdle in Europe. Yet Ki does not fit our style?
Here are some other quotes from the same article, “I’ve said many times on here he is the best passer of a football the SPL has seen for years” and “I’m a big Ki fan, but he struggles against some of the more rough teams.” and my favourite “Ki is our best player for Europe. If we sell him he’ll shine wherever he goes in a league without so many heed the baws.”
Here a crazy suggestion. Instead of trying to get Ki to fit our game, how about we get a few more Ki like players into the league and try to play their style because Scottish football is outdated and predictable.
It actually hasn’t changed much since Alex Ferguson departed in the 80’s. We are stuck in the past and the rest of Europe is progressing. SPL teams were comfortably beaten by Turkish, Greek and Russian teams this season, not big powerhouse countries.
Do you think Eskisehirspor came over for their game at McDiarmid Park and decided to sit out their most technical players? Of course they didn’t so why should we?
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The thought of Celtic selling 1 of our best players upsets me. We should be keeping all our better players if we want to progress in big tournaments like the Champions league. Ki is a class act. I would have in in my midfield alongside Wanyama and Ledley every time in front of Brown and Kayal. Having said that i would not sell any of the latter named players either at this time. All we need is 1 top class striker and this team will go places.
Interesting article, and quite clear there are varied opinions on players…
Bottom line is, we are priveleged to have the 5 of them… and they all offer different skill-set, and abilities to the team. For what its worth, im a big fan of brown… i recognise he is probably the least technically talented out the 5… but whether we like it or not, we operate in the spl….it is of poor standard, but it is the environment we play in, and often its horse’s for courses… and brown is effective within the particular spl environment… its about effectiveness, and when brown went off injured in last years old firm game we lost 4-2, his 7 week absence coincided with our struggling form…. kayal, ledley, ki were the 3 available to us, and none of them dominated or took the lead in centre of the park through november, december last year… the stats dont lie…. On browns return we then went on the 23 game unbeaten run….. this is fact, and no coincidence
“but whether we like it or not, we operate in the spl….it is of poor standard, but it is the environment we play in, and often its horse’s for courses”
I think this is a very important point. Does the environment we compete in hinder us as a team? If we took our entire squad and placed them in either the Belguim, Dutch or Swiss league which all play a more expansive game and are more competitive, would we improve?
Too add…. its also no coincidence…. but when fit and avaialble, brown is lennon’s choice of captain, probably first name on team-sheet, and will always be included in lennon’s choice of midfield…. maybe not always centr mid, but even if right mid, he’ll still be included in the first choice midfield four or five…. As fans, we may not all agree with lennon’s choice on this….
But we need to understand, as a manager lennon has to trust the players selected to obtain the result… the ironic thing is Ki and Wanyama prob hold the highest valuation in terms of transfer value…… but i dont see lennon picking a centre midfield 2 of Ki and Wanyama at tannadice or tyncastle….. for the stato’s out there, away and check the stats…. these 2 have never led the centre mid.field department together…