How much did you know about Hooper before he came to Celtic?
I think Watt is being groomed to do what Samaras does out wide.

The only person we have been linked with that did well was Jordan Rhodes, who is a 6 mill striker
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Try double that(at least). Blackburn have already rejected a £10m offer

There's mer chance of Messi signing for yeez

Bangura will come good.

I personally think it's time to move hooper on if he wontsign a new contract. Take whatever deal is offered and hope to make a return. Watt is still a young boy and will need more than just one season to break into the first team, let him work for is spot in the first team rather than guarantee him a place.

As for Jordan Rhodes we missed the boat on him before his move to blackburn any bids now would need to be well in excess of 6m.

I think stokes has earned a new contract but spl is his level we need to rely on our scouts to find players similar to hoops.

Remember we need to stick to the policy of signing bgood young players develop then sell on for profit no point ditching it half away through.

It's nonsensical not to give Stokesy a new deal. Boy has talent and knows where the goal is


Btw, dreading tonights match fear the worst

Moje...we cannot afford big money/name strikers.

Even the eastern-European players have Spanish,Italian,German,French and English teams watching them and bidding.
FFS some of these rich teams buy players who will never get near their first teams but it keeps them away from rival teams.IMHO.

Esc - I was talking about how much he was worth when we were looking at him, not how much he is worth now.

Queb - Hooper was a find. It still took 10 signings to find him though.

Bubble - agreed that we can't sign expensive players anymore. More reason to keep Hooper. We are only losing the 2.4 mill we paid for him.

Queb2 - Agree with that too. Big clubs will pay to bench a player so other clubs don't have them.

There's one major flaw in your argument.

Hooper was an unknown quantity signed for 2-3mil.

So to say we can't sign a 25+ striker for that money again is wide of the mark

And how much did one Mr Henrik Larsson cost? £750k was it not?

Had you heard of him prior to him signing?

Juke, that's what he's saying.
Goal scorers like that are few and far between in the bargain bins.

I hear that Celtic will be sponsoring a polar bear instead of signing anyone this season

Michu was 2mil.

There's plenty of bargain strikers out there. Just because they don't play for a big team, or an established team, or in a league that's rated doesn't mean there aren't any out there

And with our scouting system I'd be surprised if we missed any.

Bangura was 2 million as well.

As I said they are there, but are few and far between.

Oh and the minute a big league team with possible C/L comes in for such a player we're down the list.

The teams we can compete against are very rarely ever champions league sides. Its ussually also rans in the bigger leagues who can blow us out the water on wages.
CL fitba is the only draw card we have

Also Michu is playing in BPL and his wages would be a little bit higher than Celtic would pay.

Has anybody read about Laudrup needing 200 million to improve Swansea?
WTF???

I could probably buy 5/6 players for 20 million each and pay them 50K a week and improve the team.

Can't believe some of these plonkers

JBJ

It's interesting to note that, of the 14 who participated on Sunday, no fewer than 10 have been with us for the full 3 years of Lenny's reign as permanent manager. The other 4 are Commons (2.5 seasons), Wilson (2 seasons), Lustig (1.5 seasons) and Ambrose (1 season).

That's good as we have had continuity, but bad in that we don't that often sign someone who hits the ground running and becomes a "first pick" right away - hope that changes in the summer

Juke - Hooper was a find, I stated that, but he is one in 10. I am not saying we won't find anyone at that price, but its tough.

Miku - Loan - 2 goals
Lassad - Free - 2 goals
Bangura - 2.2 mill - 0 goals
Brozec - Loan - 0 goals
Hooper - 2.4 mill - 82 goals
Stokes - 1 mill - 40 goals
Murphy - 1.4 mill - 3 goals
Fortune - 3.8 mill - 10 goals
Kamara - Loan - 2 goals
Keane - Loan 16 goals
Rasmussen - 2 mill - 2 goals

Theres a list of the last 5 years of strikers signed. Keane and Hooper were very successful, Stokes was a positive. The rest all failed to do their job. By that list alone, we have a one in 5 chance of finding a bargain striker that will produce for us.

3/11 of those players have done well, so that's better odds than 1 in 5.

You're also forgetting that John Park wasn't here for the earlier signings, and that we had a fud in Mowbray picking the signings.

Then there's the fact recent signings haven't been given a chance, so haven't had the opportunity to perform.

Where's Tony Watt from your lost? 7 goals in 23 games, and he's not even 20, so we've got many more years out of him.

That brings the those odds to 4/11. There's strikers out there that don't cost an arm and a leg, you just need to know where to find them and as I said, with our scouting network we're more than likely to find them before many other teams.

I did miss Watt, but I wouldn't say he is a huge success yet. I think he will be, but 7 goals total is not successful. Stokes is not a replacement for Hooper nor has he returned the same goal to game ratio as Keane. He is a success definitely but not in the same league as the other two. They are 30 goal a year strikers.

I would be happy that Hoopers replacement would perform as well as Stokes.

Fact of the matter is, Hooper is a 30 goal a year striker. Only Larsson, Hartson and McDonald scored that many in a season for us in the SPL. They are rare. 3 diamonds in the rough in 16 years and one at 5.5 million.

Others that came close for us.

Viduka, 28 goals, 3 mill
Sutton, 26 goals, 6 mill

So 1 in 5 chance on my list of finding a bargain 30 goal striker, even 25 goals. 5-6 mill would get us this.

You also have to remember that Park spotted Musona and Diawara, 2 players Neill was quoted being interested in and they have done nothing.