This isn’t the first time that I’ve written a blog about the transfer window and like all fans, my hope is that our team comes out stronger or at least equal to how it was before the start of the window.
As expected, the main speculation is regarding Gary Hooper and Victor Wanyama and how they are far too good to be playing for us and that we cannot keep them – that’s not my personal opinion, just my interpretation of what some Scottish pundits seem to think.
The reality of the situation is that there is far better money available to them for doing the same job, almost certainly under less pressure for a much higher wage. If for example, Hooper is thinking of Norwich, they don’t have to win every match, Celtic do.
From Wanyama’s point of view, travelling to Kenya from London, for example, will be easier than it is to travel there from Glasgow. Would that play a part in where he wants to play football? I am under no illusions and don’t think for a minute that these guys will have the emotional attachment that I do or most of the people reading this have for Celtic so it’s pointless thinking that if I was a Celtic player, I would never leave.
There is of course the question of how ambitious these players are. Once in a lifetime, a guy like Henrik Larsson comes along and his ambition was to be winning trophies and to be a hero of the fans while earning a good wage. But, Henrik could have (and probably did) earn more money when he left Celtic – he seems to be the exception to the rule. More and more, ambition seems to represent bank balance to football players.
Some may think that it’s pointless thinking back to Henrik but I’ve used him as an example purely to highlight the point that there is a difference between two players who are ambitious.
Either their ambition, like mine at work, is to earn as much money as possible (for the record, I haven’t yet been successful on that front) or to be adored and to win trophies.
None, or very few of us fans know what Hooper or Wanyama”s desires or ambitions are. We don’t know for most in the squad and we probably won’t know until after their careers have finished.
Yes Neil Lennon has been quoted in the past as saying that all players have their price. We have to remember that Celtic is now split between a money making business and a football club.
If a large offer, in the region of say £15m came in for either of these two players, I am certain the guys running the business side of things will accept it regardless of whether or not the guys running the football side of things agree with it.
I also think it’s important to remember that no one person is bigger than our club so as much as I would like both of these guys to stay, I don’t see that there is any point in trying to force them to do so.
Perhaps Hooper’s situation is different as he doesn’t have a long time on his contract to run, for me, an ideal scenario (if he wants to leave) would be keep him until the end of the season (hope he stays fit) and have him available for the Juventus tie then allow how to move on if an offer, larger than £10 million comes in.
Realistically, Juventus are expected to progress so perhaps the money men will be thinking why keep him for a few more months when we can cash in now? It would be a gamble, we may end up with less money in the summer than we could get now. Gambling isn’t good for business but it can be worthwhile in football – again it’s that balance between the two that I’ve mentioned earlier.
Most folk seem to agree that with or without Hooper and Wanyama, we are capable of retaining the SPL title and at the start of the season, that was our main aim.
Part of what I dislike about this is the fact that we are now more of a “selling” club than we have ever been. We are now, potentially, losing players to clubs who us fans deem to be a “smaller” club than us. I guess that goes back to the point I mentioned on whether or not the ambition is to make money or to win things.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any inside information so I have no ideas what any of the squad want from their football careers or whether or not they like being in Scotland but better players have left us and either way, Celtic FC will continue.
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As far as selling club is concerned, would you consider Man Utd a selling club having sold star men like Van Nistelrooy, Beckham, Ronaldo ??
Every player has a shelf life, the bosman situation now means the players have even more power so will inevitably move more often. Players / Agents seek to cash in when the going is good and indeed will the clubs.
While it would be great to see our star players remain with the club for many years. I regret that will be highly unlikely. However on the plus side the more players we move on to higher leagues the easier it is for us to attract new potential stars. Clubs like Ajax, Sporting Lisbon, Porto, Anderlecht etc have been producing
quality players for many years…these are the teams we have to emulate.
The major TV money for EPL clubs won’t last forever, then these clubs will really have a hard time. If we can manage our limited resources properly, further widen the scouting network we can continue to make big strides both at home and in Europe.
We didn’t cash in on Henrik or Boruc in recent years, maybe now things would be looked upon differently. No player is bigger than the club though, we have a highly regarded youth system in place with some excellent prospects in the pipeline. Who’s to say we won’t find someone better than Wanyama / Hooper / Izzy etc ???
I think Juventus will have too much experience / savvy for us but remain hopeful that we can upset the odds.
The club needs to make a stand and slap 15m on hooper 20-25m on wanyama, and show the fans that it will be spent on squad scouting and youth setup, not pocketed