Ssssh…It’s All-Quiet In The East End

Now, most teams have no returned to pre-season training and managers have had time to have wee conflabs wie their chairmen, chief exec’s or dodgy new owners. These conversations, especially in the EPL and the other assorted English clubs, will be aboot wonga, spondolicks and how to pish it up against the wall.

Sixteen million for Darren Bent, where’s ma cheque book. Over five million for Jason Komas, nae probs, here give him thirty five thousand pound a week as he will need a sweetener to park up in the Lancashire oasis of Wigan.

Wie the top order, breaking record transfer fee’s on a regular basis, the middle order and the have nots in the EPL have raised the bar, for all, by paying OTT fees and wages for, on the face of it, very average players. Before the lure of the Champions League, 60,000 fans and the chance to win honors, not the cash for kind, and the chance to play for one of the biggest clubs in Britain would attract players.

Chris Sutton, Neil Lennon and Alan Thompson, if they were available now- at the age and height of their powers at the time we signed them- we wouldnae have a hope of attracting them to the SPL. A Fulham, Wigan, West Ham, Villa or a Portsmouth would pay a massive fee and give them 60,000 reasons a week to fight relegation or stagnate in mid table nothing-ness.

Perfect example this week is Craig Bellamy. When Bellars was on loan at the Hoops when it came to signing permanently, the rumored stumbling block, was his insistence that a clause was inserted in his contract that allowed him to leave if a Champs League club came in wie six million. Rumors this close season were off that Bellars said he had unfinished business up here and money widnae be a problem.

But money was a problem. The money Liverpool wanted ruled oot any notion that the Hoops would even be in the running to sign him. The money Liverpool asked for him was deemed too much for a lot, Villa especially, of potential suitors and thus Bellars principals that European fitbaw is a must gave way to I’ll take a massive wage, a downward step and make noises aboot the Irons having European potential to convince maself that I’m here for the long haul in a team that is going places.

I’m disappointed Bellars didnae return but I fully understand, dinny accept mind you, why it didnae happen. A player of his ilk and the fact he knows what the club is aboot made him ma perfect WOW signing, as long as he stayed off the karaoke and didnae take his golf clubs on pre-season wie him. Thing is players like Bellars are at the top end off oor market. A player that we would need to go oot on a limb for. A budget-blowing coup that would steal he summer headlines, like Skoosh Broon his close season.

But he is not top drawer enough for the big teams in England, as his spell at Liverpool has proved, they are looking to a different level and Bellars is not of that quality, but any other club in the EPL and wie us, he is the bloody star and he is he dugs bollocks.

Thing is players wie Bellars experience and reputation that has been honed after years and years of scoring in the EPL and CL are now longer on oor shopping lists. The fee’s and wages are oot oor control and even if a player decided he wished to further his career at the Hoops, cause let face it we are surely a better fitbawin option than a Wigan or Fulham, we widnae even be able to sit at the table show oor hand.

Oor predicament is highlighted by oor posturing at the moment. It’s so quiet at CP that I would take any rumor at the moment no matter how outlandish it is. We still require to buy, a striker and full back cover, while getting rid off the proverbial deadwood. The fact of the matter is the SSM and GS should be pouring over offers for oor players, as getting rid is now paramount to us recruiting.

While, I think the fees for players are gathering interest in the bank, the problem is paying the wages. A three million deal means the same in potential earnings for the player, which means a three million gap, or a Tommy G or a Jaro, the suits must find.

Celtic can’t be seen to be desperate. Oor public statements declaring love for all oor squad is only rouse to allow us to charge top dollar for the not wanted. But the other suits in other clubs are not daft. Look at oor neebours in the west dealings this summer. Desperation means paying inflated fees, while a cool as cats demeanor leaves business partners sweating on oor hand and commitment to he deal.

Problem is everyman and his dug knows that us removing the Grav and his massive pay as you play incentives is oor main aim. The fact that clubs have been sniffing means that we have an asset who is generating interest but an asset whom is in a strong position wie regards to getting paid off.

The closer we get to the deadline for signing players to participate in the CL, the mair fraught oor dealings will be. If Grav canny be moved, then others may have to be sold to create the wages gap, or we pay him off weakening oor offers for others and oor long-term targets clubs may get jumpy wie the threat of money being withdrawn for unsettled players.

Unless this game of poker changes soon, I don’t expect any movement, rumors or bullshit to hit oor screens or backpages until close to the August D-Date. This taking care of business in oor world takes a lot longer than in the money laden English leagues.

Forza