ACSOM this afternoon shared details of Neil Lennon signing a player that he had never seen or didn’t want.
Rami Gershon. A left-sided defender signed on loan in January 2013. At that point Celtic had qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League and been drawn against Juventus.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE LEVEL?
Going through was going to be a tall order but two months after beating Barcelona it seemed that helping out an agent took priority over preparing for a Champions League knock-out tie. Gershon played three matches, scored one goal then returned to Standard Liege.
With Efe Ambrose on international duty at the African Cup of Nations Gershon was brought in as cover.
Tom Rogic was the other January 2013 arrival, he fared much better although it took him a while to settle which included a loan spell back in the A-League with Melbourne Victoria.
Earlier in the day Paul John Dykes had enjoyed an entertaining exchange with Jamie O’Hara on TalkSPORT. It is fair to say that the chunky former Spurs man came off second best.
Back on ACSOM duty Dykes was joined by JP Mason for a topical discussion of all things Celtic.
THE SEARCH FOR A MANAGER
Recruiting a manager is the obvious priority. It is now 18 days since Brendan Rodgers resigned, the only update came from Sky Sports that various candidates had been spoken to in London. No names on either side. Who was speaking for Celtic or who the candidates were.
Finding a credible manager to work under the constraints of Celtic is going to be a tough task.
It seems that all matters recruitment related are managed by Paul Tisdale who scaled the heights of managing Exeter City.
Michael Nicholson then gets down to negotiating terms. When it is all agreed he then emails around the directors for permission to sign off.
While other clubs have structures, Directors of Football and strategies Celtic have their own bespoke set up. Unique in football.
THE BREAKDOWN
The Celtic Academy has long since being of any use. Most areas are dysfunctional but every now and then selling a Jota, Nicolas Kuhn or Matt O’Riley covers up the cracks.
In Scotland that allows you to bask in the glory of being a well run club. Malmo, Maribor, AEK Athens, Cluj, Ferencvaros, Midtjylland and Kairat Almaty have a different opinion.
Going through recruitment failings the name of Gershon cropped up.
After 36 minutes the conversation got back to where Celtic were during Lennon’s first time in charge
DYKES: We also didn’t have a real recruitment plan. We relied on agent tip offs. I mean how many times did we buy a player because of Dudu Dahan? How many times?
I mean, Remi Gershon, we brought him in as a favour, we brought him in as a favour and gave him game time.
MASON: That’s fact. That’s not you talking out of school or anything like that. That is actual fact, that Neil Lennon has said that from his own mouth. So when he’s sitting there on Sky trying to stick up for the people in charge, then you know for a fact that he’s had players foisted upon him that he had no interest in
He actually said that he wanted X player and then it was like ‘no, no you’re getting this guy RamI Gershon because he’s got a bit of a personal situation and needs to get out wherever he is’ and it’s like ‘all right okay cool’.
‘I’d never watched that guy before in my life. never seen him kick a ball’ but suddenly he’s got his name in the back of a Celtic top and he’s standing in front of a a horde of paparazzi and you’re like, ‘What? This is mental.’ What a weird situation to be in.
NOTE: When Boli Bolingoli joined Celtic in 2019 he gave an interview to Celtic TV before speaking to Lennon.
Describing the circumstances leading to Gershon’s surprise January 2013 loan move the Celtic Wiki reports:
Rami Gershon came out of the blue on loan to Celtic. Known from reports only for having played few times for his last club (Standard Liege of Belgium), he had spent much of the last two seasons out on loan or on the treatment table. So was it to be the same again coming to Celtic as a loan, which is always a gamble. The Israeli international had made it clear from the outset his ambition was to convince Celtic to exercise the £1m option to convert his loan deal to a permanent contract.
After three appearances that produced one goal Gershon returned to Standard Liege.He stayed on in Belgium for four more years then returned to Israel, joining Maccabi Haifa.
Initially recruitment under Lennon was outstanding.
Pooling his own knowledge with Alan Thompson, Garry Parker and John Park some absolute gems were signed on the back of Aiden McGeady’s transfer fee. Lennon was heavily involved, he knew what the team needed.
Gary Hooper and Anthony Stokes scored for fun. Joe Ledley, Beram Kayal and initially Egrain Juarez revived the midfield. Fraser Forster was an inspired replacement for Artur Boruc. Emilio Izaguirre arrived after playing at the World Cup for less than £1m. In the summer of 2011 Viktor Wanyama arrived.
Slowly things changed. Alongside Virgil van Dijk Celtic signed Amido Balde.
In attack alone they signed Mo Bangura, Miku and Lassad Nouioui. There were other strange signings. Recruitment is a long running problem.
Anyone thinking that a new manager will bring a fresh approach is in for a shock.
Whoever is appointed will be working from the Tisdale analytics. It won’t be the case of the new manager identifying January signings. He’ll be told to make the best of the players identified as fitting the model of the former Exeter boss.
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🇨🇮 the midfielder Ismaila Soro has successfully completed a medical ahead of his proposed transfer to @celticfc pic.twitter.com/lBSHZDMIH3
— Dudu Dahan (@dududahan555) January 22, 2020
