01 Apr 2014 02:03:42
thinking about next season - what does the team need? proven goalscorer? centre-back? creative midfielder? competition for left back? looking at it on paper (and assuming van dijk and forster stay another season) I think the squad's looking pretty healthy.

GK - forster, zaluska,?

DR - lustig, matthews, fisher

DL - izzy,?

DC - van dijk, ambrose, mulgrew,?

MID - brown, biton, johanssen, boerrigter, commons, henderson, forrest, rogic,?

ST - stokes, griffiths, pukki, atajic, watt, fridjonssen,?

id sell kayal and balde. beram has lost his way a bit at celtic over the last few years. injury has been unkind but I think his confidence is shot. played well when he first came but would bite your hand off for £1.5/2 mill now. big amido just ain't celtic class - sorry but it's true. he can't hold the ball up for toffee. get him punted or out on loan at worst. sami (cheers sami, some good memories-but the shampoo advert made you look like a breast with a nipple) and moyokulo (sorry mate, nice guy, injury prone) would be for the off too.

now I reckon that with that squad and only 2 additions (a top class CB, and a proven international goalscorer) we would have a potentially great squad capable of doing the business in domestically and giving europe a right good go.

here's ma thinking.

we've got 2 great right backs and 1 good prospect coming through. two of these boys (matthews and fisher) have played left back and done pretty well, indeed matthews excelled in that position when we played barca at parkhead. mulgrew is also a more than comfortable full back. do we reall need cover for izzy? centre back is a tricky one. ambrose has done great this season, but i'd love to see van dijk form a partnership with an established top-class international CB. can you imagine how good virgil could become playing under the guidance of someone like that? scary! in my opinion mulgrews best position is CB, lustig looks comfortable there too, and the young lads o'connoll and fraser bubbling away nicely, I reckon that's the defence sorted.

on to midfield.

to be honest, I think our midfield looks good as it is. brown, johanssen, biton, forrest, boerrigter, commons, henderson, mulgrew, matthews, rogic (he could have a blinder at the world cup!) are all competing for 4 (maybe 5) spots in the team. I think that's some great quality in there. i'm especially excited about biton and johanssen. biton looks to have a bit of the yaya toure about him and johanssen reminds me of a young kim kallstrom (who was a great player in his mid-twenties). young henderson looks a right good prospect too (mcstayesque anyone?). brown seems to be getting more influential every season, commons is on fire, forrest is due us a good season, boerrigter needs a chance (and to stop being such a big jessie), rogic could be involved, matthews and mulgrew can do a decent shift in the middle of the park too. case for the midfield - closed!

lastly, up front. stokes, griffiths, watt (hopefully) and pukki (needs a good run of games for the rest of the season) should score goals by the bucketload in the SPFL, there's no doubt about that. BUT we NEED a striker for europe. spend £6-7 million, break the wage structure, whatever it takes - we need this player! i'd like to see josip drmic from nurnberg. possibly bendtner (i now he's a wally but i've always rated him).

anyhoo, that's me done. didn't realise i'd written so much. no more jazz fags for me tonight!

hail hail
souljacker

1.) 01 Apr 2014
01 Apr 2014 12:51:24
Great post mate. And I can't say I disagree with much of it. I'm hoping the youngsters get more game time for the rest of the season. Mulgrew worries me. He was great last year when he played in defense but for me he's not a midfielder. So I don't see him having a future with us if we don't play him at Cb (I don't think we will). As for Forrest, i'm not a fan. He has the odd good game and chips in with the odd goal but he's been in the first team for a few years now and should really be better than he is. I would love us yo buy a good winger in addition to the signings you've already mentioned.
I just hope the board do give us some real quality in the next transfer windows.
Also, as much as I like Lennon, it wouldn't break my heart if he moved on.

2.) 01 Apr 2014
Adding to your midfield you calum mcgregor has had a blinder at notts county!

3.) 01 Apr 2014
So, who would you buy to cover the players positions?

4.) 02 Apr 2014
I agree about McGregor, from what he has shown so far he could be commons long term succeser. Really want to see him play next season, Celtic better not sell him. I want to see some of these excellent young Scots get more game time next season