IrishCelt67

[quote user="Indy_Bones"][quote user="IrishCelt67"]Given that only Southampton and Cardiff came in for Victor, I think we did a blinding job of getting £12.5m. I''m surprised bigger clubs didn''t move for him[/quote]Are you for real?The only reason Southampton offered (and paid) that much is because they knew that bigger and better clubs would have no intention of paying that much for a completely unproven younger player (at EPL level anyway) purely on the back of a decent season or so in Scotland, and therefore it was the only way they could prevent themselves from being gazumped!Congrats on getting a ridiculous deal from Southampton, but don''t try to put it down to masterful negotiation behind the scenes from your directors, as it was clearly a simple case of Soton coming in with a crazy offer and your boys simply going into another room and laughing their heads off, before returning to bite their arm off...There was also incredibly strong rumours and belief that we genuinely DID offer close to 8m for Hooper in Jan, so I''m more than happy that we saved close to 3m by waiting a few months, and had QPR not come in when they did, we could probably have got him this coming Jan for around 2m as well (or simply agreed to sign him on a free next summer)...[/quote]Yes, I am for real. Signed purely on the back of a decent season or so in Scotland? Lay off the glue. He was signed purely on the basis of a magnificent season in Europe, primarily 2 outstanding games against Barcelona''s midfield (when he dispossessed Xavi and Iniesta several times) and a superb showing in Moscow against Spartak. Martin Ferguson was at Celtic Park half a dozen times last season specifically to watch him, Graham Hunter said that Barcelona had asked to be kept informed of any bids. But you know more, obviously.As for the fabled £8m offer, it was uttered once on SSN and quickly dropped. Nobody else backed it up. It''s rumour, nothing else. You saved £3m by waiting a few months? Who are you kidding. There was no decision to wait. Celtic decided not to sell in January. You didn''t ''decide to wait'', you were told he wasn''t for sale. Repeatedly. In the end, Norwich tried (understandably) to get him as cheap as possible and when QPR came in, Celtic played one off against the other to get over £5m for a guy who had a year left on his deal. Good business.

[quote user="crabbycanary"]Thanks for that IrishCelt. My question was only in reference to your opening post, where you made reference to McNally being outdone by your CEO. Like I said, we have paid a fair price for a player, have Southampton? I''m not so sure that Wanyama is worth 2 1/2 times Hooper. If he is, then we''ve got a bargain ;)[/quote]Wanyama had 3 years left on his contract, Hooper had 1. Different types of players but Wanyama''s younger, stronger and more versatile than Hooper so he would always go for more. Had Hooper signed a new deal, I''d say we''d have wanted £7-8m.

[quote user="paul moy"][quote user="IrishCelt67"][quote user="paul moy"][quote user="IrishCelt67"][quote user="Yorkshire Canary"]IfSutton had stayed in the EPL he would have had a good England career he was good enough. His Celtic career did him no favours so far as an international career, I know there were some other issues that did not help his cause[/quote]His England career was over before he came to Celtic, in fairness. For what it''s worth, I can''t see Hooper getting a chance with England at Norwich. And that''s not down to Norwich. Hodgson will stick with the likes of Defoe, Sturridge etc before looking elsewhere. I remember the clamour for the likes of Rickie Lambert etc to get a call-up in the past and no matter how well he, and others, did they didn''t get a shot. I can''t see it happening for Hooper. He''d have to bang in 30 goals next season. [/quote]If Hooper does well he will get his chance. My only concern is that he may not be good enough in the Prem and I am eager for him to prove me wrong. Scoring 30 in the Scottish Prem with all due respect is in another universe to the English Prem IMO. You have a fantastic keeper  in Fraser Forster though. [/quote]He scored in the Champions League where the defences are more often than not technically above EPL level.[/quote]Beware of judging teams on Cup competitions as anybody can win with lots of luck. Even Malmo reached the final in the 80s against Forest. I don''t think they would have won a Premier League and I don''t think Celtic would today. I would judge Celtic to be mid-table EPL personally... no insult intended.   [/quote]None taken. It''s the kind of thing you can''t judge unless it happens. I think this current Celtic side would be top 10 in the EPL. The other side of that, of course, is that if Celtic were in the EPL we''d have the £60m annual TV money that''s coming in to spend and would, imo, be able to attract premium players over the likes of Fulham, Stoke and perhaps yourselves. Our income would grow hugely as well. It would not take us long to be big players. But it''s not going to happen anyway. That said ''lots of luck''? Behave, we came through 4 qualifiers last season and 6 group games to get to the last 16. And we''ve done that 3 times in the last decade and reached the UEFA Cup final. That is a phenomenal amount of ''luck''. Beating Barcelona, Spartak Moscow home and away, and drawing with Benfica? You''ll have to point out all the luck we got. In fact, we were damn unlucky to concede a 94th minute goal in the Nou camp. Anyway, back to the subject at hand - I don''t think Hooper has a chance of going to the World Cup with England simply because Hodgson will not look beyond the strikers at the ''big clubs'' and risk being hammered by the press.

[quote user="paul moy"][quote user="IrishCelt67"][quote user="Yorkshire Canary"]IfSutton had stayed in the EPL he would have had a good England career he was good enough. His Celtic career did him no favours so far as an international career, I know there were some other issues that did not help his cause[/quote]His England career was over before he came to Celtic, in fairness. For what it''s worth, I can''t see Hooper getting a chance with England at Norwich. And that''s not down to Norwich. Hodgson will stick with the likes of Defoe, Sturridge etc before looking elsewhere. I remember the clamour for the likes of Rickie Lambert etc to get a call-up in the past and no matter how well he, and others, did they didn''t get a shot. I can''t see it happening for Hooper. He''d have to bang in 30 goals next season. [/quote]If Hooper does well he will get his chance. My only concern is that he may not be good enough in the Prem and I am eager for him to prove me wrong. Scoring 30 in the Scottish Prem with all due respect is in another universe to the English Prem IMO. You have a fantastic keeper  in Fraser Forster though. [/quote]He scored in the Champions League where the defences are more often than not technically above EPL level.

[quote user="Yorkshire Canary"]IfSutton had stayed in the EPL he would have had a good England career he was good enough. His Celtic career did him no favours so far as an international career, I know there were some other issues that did not help his cause[/quote]His England career was over before he came to Celtic, in fairness. For what it''s worth, I can''t see Hooper getting a chance with England at Norwich. And that''s not down to Norwich. Hodgson will stick with the likes of Defoe, Sturridge etc before looking elsewhere. I remember the clamour for the likes of Rickie Lambert etc to get a call-up in the past and no matter how well he, and others, did they didn''t get a shot. I can''t see it happening for Hooper. He''d have to bang in 30 goals next season.

[quote user="lake district canary"][quote user="refjezdavies"]I think he needs to snap out of this little vendetta he has about Norwich city and start to get behind the club I don''t understand what his problem is to be honest http://www.thesun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/5040961/Chris-Sutton-believes-Gary-Hooper-could-regret-leaving-Celtic-for-Norwich.html[/quote] Vendetta?   That''s a bit strong.  He talks quite well about Norwich and is well placed to compare the two clubs, although even he says - it is difficult to compare the two clubs.   But we are different to the club we were when he played for us.    We are moving into a stage where we are trying to mix it with the top teams, not as a financially struggling, over achieving club like we were in the early nineties - the success we had then was fantastic, but ultimately unsustainable - but as a well run, debt free, ambitious and successful club, from top to bottom.   Different to Celtic who are on a different path and will struggle to reamain the force they once were.   Sutton is speaking from experience, as you would expect, but he does sound a bit out of date with his views on both clubs. [/quote]In the last 10 years we''ve been in the Uefa Cup final and the final 16 of the Champions League 3 times. And that''s from a league where domestic TV money is about £2m a season. I fail to see how we''re struggling.

[quote user="crabbycanary"]It''s totally subjective to say that Celtic got the price they wanted. They would have ideally liked what was floating around in Jan, but of course that wasn''t going to happen. They were in grave danger of having a player on their hands who wanted to go and play in the PL ( that we know) and who knew people were interested in. Celtic got the price that a Club was happy to pay, no more. IrishCelt- I would be intrigued to here your views on the Southampton CEO and the Wanyama money, if you felt you had done a job on McNally.[/quote]Given that only Southampton and Cardiff came in for Victor, I think we did a blinding job of getting £12.5m. I''m surprised bigger clubs didn''t move for him but the likes of Arsenal, United, Liverpool will likely wait and see how he does for a season in the EPL before moving. Seems daft to me to pay twice the price but that''s what will happen. Make no mistake, the boy is the real deal. Even Graham Hunter last season said Barcelona had asked Celtic to be kept informed of any deals. He''s a bit off being in their side yet though.As for ''doing a job on McNally''. No I don''t think so really but I do think Peter Lawwell, our CEO, did a good job of standing his ground and making Norwich pay up. You had a good 3 or 4 bids knocked back and we eventually got you to pay up or lose him to QPR. I don''t see how that''s anything other than a win for us. On the flip side, you''ve gotten a superb poacher for just over £5m which is small beer in today''s EPL.

[quote user="Thisisbabyish"]You want 8 we pay 5 Mcnally 1 Mr Peter Celtic man 0[/quote]McNally: "Here''s 4, you have until 5pm to comply"Celtic: "Hi, is that Harry Redknapp? Deal"McNally: "Ok, ok, you win!"I''m not sure where the £8m came from btw, doubt that was ever offered in January. Seemed to be tabloids.

Bigger club? Ha! No chance I''m biting on that one. ;-)

Was away enjoying the Italian sunshine last week so was unable to post and wish you/him the best for the new season. An excellent signing and a player I really liked at Celtic. Could be a lazy sod at times but part of that was down to the lack of competitiveness of the SPL. Guy has a cracking touch and a goalscorer''s instinct. He''ll score goals for you. On the other side, delighted to see that Celtic stood their ground and got good money. Many posters here seem to laud this McNally chap as some kind of ace negotiator. I think it''s fair to say he''s been somewhat outdone by Celtic''s Peter Lawwell on this deal - Norwich eventually just had to step up and pay the bill. A good deal all round really as he was not going to sign a new deal with us. Enjoy the new season. Hope to see Hooper vindicate the hype over the last few months. P.S. I''ll resist the urge to bump the posts from a few months back claiming Celtic would be begging for £2-3m or that he''s not good enough for you anyway. ;-) Hindsight is a great thing.

[quote user="Billabong"]Lennon can big him up all he likes but......... 3m tops for me and that''s an expensive punt on a player who plays against teams like Lowestoft every week. If he comes good, it''s 3m well spent but he hasn''t proven anything yet to suggest he''s Prem level Celtic may draw in a big crowd and appear a big club but lets face it, there is c0ck all to do in Glasgow, other than sheep it down to a turnstile on a drab saturday afternoon, not even decent opposition to get excited about or ponder over! Perhaps we should let Leeds buy him first and if he makes it in the championship, jump in and snatch him for 4m, chances are he would struggle at Leeds though IMHO[/quote]Would struggle at Leeds ... even though he scored plenty for Scunthorpe in the Championship .. and scores goals in the Champions League?You should probably do some basic research.A touch of schadenfreude about Hooper since you failed to sign him, it seems. You''re all coming across like spurned lovers. ;-)

[quote user="Yellows"]Wheres IrishCelt?[/quote]I''m here, mate. Somewhat busy watching the game on the night. Disappointed in the scoreline, don''t think we deserved anywhere near a 3-goal beating and made a good few chances against a quality side. Most likely going out not but like most football fans, I''ll daydream until it''s over. Juventus 1 Celtic 4 for me. ;-)Hooper didn''t have a good game on the night mainly down to Juve''s shocking tactics at corners which unsettled him. Wanyama, Izaguirre, Commons were all superb. Didn''t think there was much between us and Juventus but they did what really top European sides do - took their chances and were ruthless in the final 10 minutes.

[quote user="Yellows"]Celtic one of Europes best clubs. And looking to sign Kevin Davies according to BBC and SSN sources. LOL. This is Kevin Davies who can''t get in a Championship side and is a Bolton Wanderers reject. MASSIVE. You''re welcome to keep him, he clearly has no ambition lol.[/quote]We''re not signing Kevin Davies.

[quote user="Simo8686"]Will this celtic fan just bloody do one, look your a big fish in a small pond, your league is sh*t end of, you cant argue that either way, your teams in that league are league one standard, at best! Theres no competition so of course your going to win the league everyyear until rangers return. I agree if you played in the EPL you would possibly be a big team because of your support, there''s no arguements about that either, but YOUR NOT you have also played well in champions league, something we wont be in probably ever, but seriously your doing my head just fook off!!![/quote]Actually chuckled at that. Okay, I''ll leave you guys to it. Deadline day seems to be stressing some of you out. Enjoy the rest of the madness.

[quote user="Mr Brownstone"]"Celtic seem fairly bored off with the whole thing now." We''re getting fairly bored off with you. It''s fairly obvious it''s not happening, why are you still here?[/quote]Just a bit of friendly chat, Brownstone. What''s the problem?