i remember celtic signing stubbs, that was a good bit of buisness, 3.2 million was it?

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Stubbs yes- who at the time was being tipped for the VERY top.
One of the top English prospects of the day.
I remember being stunned (and worried) when he signed for Celtic.
It was the first time in years I'd been unsettled by a Celtic signing.

zachsda

for a few years there i was like "this is it, iv f.. had enough!!"

last day of renewals comes and i cave

can honestly say though, the atmosphere this year left me in no doubt about renewing, was terrific.

get your point though, lesser players for more money.

zachsada makes a good point I feel.The thing is wages are as excessive as entrance fees to some grounds and you wonder why they choose quarter full stadiums at full price as opposed to trying to bring in new fans with decent offers.

maryhill

i remember when rangers signed prso i was a bit concerned, my pal said who cares his goal records awful, but i told him there was more to his game than goals

As much as I hate Aberdeen, i always feels a tinge of sadness that they are now reduced to filling their team with League One players.

Symoblic of Scottish football's descent into the wilderness methinks...

Yes I agree simply because the standard of football has declined rapidly in the last 10 years.

Also the Premiership/Championship is getting worse and worse for over inflation of a players transfer valuation. Any average Premiership player who has a decent run for will go for 7/8 million.

Also with the financial climate Celtic and Rangers competing with teams like Bolton/Blackburn..ect.. for a player is at all time low.

Lennon has the right idea, players like Kayal and Izzaguire are out there for cheap, just needa find them and I can see in a year or two Celtic making a tidy profit on them.

Have to say that I'd never heard of V.Hooidonk, Cadette or Di Canio before we signed them.

We are cursed by living next door to the richest league in the world.

hooijdonk was a bit unknown but cadete and di canio were pretty well known.

di canio was a class act

I'm not a great follower of other european teams players but I do remember TB saying that we were going to love him during our pre-season tour of Holland...How well he knew us.

I agree for the most part but I think Celtic have unearthed a couple of players that would have made it into those teams you talk about ... Kayal and izaguirre & Jelavic would have made most rangers teams in the past decade or 2

I'll take the point on Van Hoijdonk - but Di Canio (Juventus Napoli and Milan) and Cadete (Sporting Lisbon) had a very good pedigree.

SJb,

I think it's way too early to say that about Kayal, Izzy and Jelly.

They are up against sub standard opposition every week, and the Celtic pair especially have yet to prove they can hack it in Europe where the standard is much higher.

i think kayal in europe would be an asset, in the right midfield, celtic werent settled enough for europe last year, im hoping this year with brown, kayal, ledley, commons, in the midfield will be more settled and prepared for the challenge.

izzys a bit more of a forward thinker though, that could leave us exposed, im thinking 3-5-2 for europe.

Neils naivety was exposed in europe, gung-ho no worky!

He will have learned and expect 4-5-1 away in europe, maybe even the reason he gave Samaras a new deal.

Good article mate

I must admit that up until last year, I used to get excited about the prospect of signing great quality players, only to be disappointed. Now though, I just expect to sign up a much lower quality of player.

I think it's way too early to say that about Kayal, Izzy and Jelly.

They are up against sub standard opposition every week, and the Celtic pair especially have yet to prove they can hack it in Europe where the standard is much higher.

=========================

If i'm not mistaken Kayal has played more than 10 games in the Eroupe for Maccabi Haifa.

I really dont feel I need to see them in europe before saying that they would have got into the team of the past because I have watched the teams of the past and know from watching them week in week out that Izaguirre is the best left back Celtic have had since I was old enough to watch Celtic and kayal is the best all round midfielder Since McStay.

But thats just my opinion.

What I do find funny about this is isnce rangers went on there financial decline, we have probabaly had our best seasons in Europe

UEFA final, last 32 nad 16 of the CL league.

When we had our so called Euro/world class players we were getting humped of Grasshopper Zurich.

LennyisfromVenus,
Granted, that is a strange one, though I think our ultra defensive tactics now, and our niaive Euro gung-ho tactics of the mid 90s can explain some of that.

Is it also a coincidence that our Champs league run in 92/93 was a team largely dominated by Scots, as was our Uefa cup final run?

I relly think it is that very thing Maryhillbear, we need to keep the player who knows all about the jersey and mix in with one or two class player.

I like to call it the Ne Zealand World Cup 2010 phenomenon, pride and heart overcomes reputations!

True - and it could, just could, be the reason, why we pipped Celtic's foreign legion to the title...

Love to see Timmy advocating 5-4-1 formation after all they said about Walter adopting it.

Rangers... only team to go to Old Trafford last year and not concede a goal.

Where Rangers lead, others follow.

WATP