Within 10 minutes of Football Scotland revealing that Mateusz Bogusz won’t be joining Celtic the Daily Mail was publishing details of how Celtic had rejected an offer of £10m from an un-named French club. Michael Nicholson wasn’t having the best of days.
Even in these days of rolling news it is quite a coincidence that those two stories were published almost side by side with good transfer news thin on the ground for Celtic fans.
Brendan Rodgers let go of his transfer frustrations after the 3-0 win over St Mirren on Sunday which put the spotlight on CEO Nicholson and his limited negotiating skills.
Anthony Joseph of Sky Sports News had been keeping Celtic fans sweet with updates on LAFC midfielder Bogusz who was involved in the League Cup Final in the early hours of Monday morning.
Hopes of a deal were running in parallel with speculation that Arne Engels of Augsburg was Celtic bound but the Bogusz deal was put in doubt when the player was included in the LAFC squad for the three hour flight to face Seattle Sounders (Bogusz appeared as a 68th minute substitute in LA’s 1-0 victory).
At 18.23 Football Scotland revealed that Celtic ‘were no longer in pursuit’ of the midfielder, at 18.31 the Daily Mail popped up with the good news that an unknown French club had failed with a £10m Hatate bid.
McGowan out with the word of lawell 20 minutes after the deal for the polish guy is ‘put on hold’ 😆😆😆😆😆😂 is there seriously any daft bastards in our support who believe this shite? In fact don’t answer that 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️😆😆😆😆
— DANNYBHOY88 (@Danielh15215783) August 28, 2024
With less than two days left in the transfer window Nicholson has only managed to add a 20-year-old left-back on loan from Barcelona to the outfield options available to Brendan Rodgers.
Every hour is precious at the moment but the Celtic CEO is expected to be with Peter Lawwell this afternoon for the reflected glory of being involved in the Champions League draw with a trip to Celtic Park top of the wish list of the other 35 clubs in the draw.
After beating Hibs in the League Cup on August 18 Rodgers said that he would need two midfielders if O’Riley was sold, with three days to go until the Glasgow Derby the Celtic boss has yet to have any new players to replace the Danish international.
It now appears that Augsburg can extract a fantastic price for Engels 19 months after they paid Club Brugge £100,000 for the Belgian u-21 internationalist.
While Nicholson tries to salvage something from another disastrous transfer window the usual outlets will be on the stories providing Celtic supporters with updates of business although the Champions League draw will provide a useful distraction from 5pm.
Countries bidding for players now, no mention of any specific club?! Sounds like made up pish from the club to mask the Bogusz deal falling through. Another Celtic transfer window calamity.
— Rory Cavanagh (@rcanagh) August 28, 2024
Just as Celtic fail to pay the going rate for another target. Sounds like troubleshooting to me, pure PR. Peter Lawwell has no shame!
— StuRam (@Sturam78) August 28, 2024
Lawwell straight to his pals in the media to release a feel good story after the news that they’ve fucked up the bogusz deal
Shameless, & treating the fans with contempt
— Matty (@_mjoneill67) August 28, 2024
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8 Comments
by Sean
The worst club in the world at helping their manager
by Unrepentant fenian
I tried to post the following on another site but it wasnt allowed
One of the celtic scouting staff a ?????????????????? ?????????????????????? ??????????????? in training was telling my friend 4 weeks ago that we wouldnt be bringing in anyone till MOR was sold and so it has come to pass bernado and idah dont count as they were here last year until Liewell and his ilk are cleared out nothing will change liewells son wasn’t sacked he was put on gardening leave we are still paying his incompetent offspring for his disastrous tenure
Celtic 1st Celtic forever
Hh
by Justshatered
Why not sell Hatate?
Follow that up by disposing of Carter Vickers and Kyogo, then sell the rest of the squad and buy cattle to roam about the pitch.
Or better than that buy sheep, the board are used to dealing with them.
by john singleton
I called it weeks ago that the board would sell MOR, let lots of speculation go about who we would buy but ultimately buy no one. In the past they would grab a few future bargains that won’t trouble the first team. We will get the message that Brendan will have money to spend in the next window. He has had that for three windows now and we are no stronger. We are weaker now than last month. The board are no supporters of this team. They are supporters of themselves. Financial stability is one thing but this is now pure greed and we are funding it
by Pan
Celtic’s biggest enemies are the Board.
They treat the fans and the manager and coaching staff with utter contempt and have no integrity whatsoever. I am sick of what is happening to our club. They are destroying everything Fergus set up and they do this to satisfy their own greed. What a bunch of hypocrites! I fear for the future.
by Pan
We had an absolutely excellent CEO in Dominic who showed he knew how to do the job. That was enough for Lawwell, who promptly got rid of him. He hates being shown up.
by Clara
What makes anyone think that DD is a Celtic fan? He allowed the 10 IAR season to decend in to a even bigger disaster by leave Lennon in charge just to make a stand and spite the fans, that’s not the action of a supporter
by James Ward
The usual disastrous window .I will not pay good money to see my beloved hoops getting thrashed in the CL . The board at Celtic are holding us back big time. Nicholson as for someone who doesn’t like the limelight he has put himself right in it with his last three disastrous windows. Cronyism is alive and kicking at Celtic park. Absolutely scunnered.