Celtic Right To Pursue Nadir Ciftci
It has been happening since time began in Scottish football, the dominant force plucks the best talent from the other sides and they become the greater for it.
In the past Rangers purchased players like Jim Baxter from Raith Rovers and Neil McCann from Hearts after they gave the Ibrox club a bloody nose on various occasions. Celtic did the same thing with when they signed Motherwell’s Scott MacDonald back in 2004.
The Hoops snapped up Dundee United’s talented duo of Gary Mackay-Steven and Stuart Armstrong back in the last January transfer window for a combined fee of £2m. Both have settled in well at Parkhead and will hope to build on that form this term.
It now looks likely that former Dundee United teammate Nadir Ciftci will join them in Glasgow, as Celtic have just had a bid accepted for the twenty-three year old.
After already failing twice with bids for the Turkish striker, the Hoops must have made an offer of around £1.5m to get Dundee Utd’s chairman Stephen Thompson to agree to the sale.
Some like to criticise the top sides like Celtic for buying the best from the rest and making competitors weaker in terms of talent. But I think it’s a good indication that our league is improving as the top sides starting looking at the players within our country instead of buying from abroad. It also sees the money staying in Scotland and benefitting our game in that way too.
I think it’s a really good move from Ronny Deila and the Celtic board. Ciftci has impressed in his two seasons in Scotland’s top flight. He’s so far managed to grab twenty-three league goals in sixty-four appearances in the Scottish Premiership.
Nadir Ciftci is the type of striker that gets in the faces of the opposition and a player that home fans love and opposing fans love to hate. He’s a strong forward, who can be direct and also has a bit of skill about him.
He’s proven during his time at Tannadice that he can be a warrior who will give his all for the team’s cause. Celtic’s defenders can pay testament to that as they have had a few fiery encounters with him in recent times.
Nadir does has a few temperamental issues that will need to be evaluated if/when he arrives at Celtic Park. The thought of playing against a strike-force of Ciftci and Leigh Griffiths could be a frightening prospect for opposing defenders and referees.
But Celtic have a history of calming players down a fair bit. On the park Griffiths has settled down since Deila took over at the club. Captain Scott Brown seems to be another who can now usually keep a lid on his emotions.
Ciftci will have to do the same and learn to channel his aggression into winning battles with defenders legally. Being only twenty-three, he clearly has age on his side.
There is no doubt Celtic need to strengthen in the frontline departments this summer and the sooner they can do that the better.
That’s why this move makes sense. Whenever I’ve looked at Nadir Ciftci play I’ve been impressed by his talent and ability to get under the skin of so many players in opposing sides. Chris Sutton had a similar quality.
At around £1.5m he really could turn out to be a bargain, especially if he can hit the ground running!
I’d expect Celtic would still want at least one more forward in the squad even if Nadir does sign on with the Hoops, but his presence will certainly be a bonus for the up and coming Champions League qualifiers.
Posted on July 7th, 2015 by scott
Filed under: Article
Sorry,but i think you are completely wrong on the transfer of Nadir Ciftci to Celtic issue. The SPL. has been sterile and none competetive for many years now and it is almost 30 years since a team other than Celtic or Rangers won the title. With Rangers unlikely to win the league any time soon that leaves, Celtic! It also makes the SPL the least competetive football league in the world. There are many reasons for this,one being that Celtic’s home league gates outnumber the rest of the SPL’s gate put together on any given match day.Another, is the fact that Celtic have the financial power to buy the best players from among their nearest competetors. This is not only unfair,it destroys any notion of an actual competition,it is also self defeating as even their own supporters are getting fed up with them winning the SPL year after year after year…….. The fact is the SPL should introduce an embargo on all transfers of other SPL players to either Celtic or Rangers. If they refuse to do so the the old firm themselves should voluntarily agree not to buy the players. This is nothing to do with restriction of contracts or the like but a recognition of the facts of football life in Scotland and to bring some fairness were there is none at present.
Would you suggest the same with Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Real and England’s top sides?
All of Celtic’s money would then go out of the league and they’d just have huge youth sides with all the best young players wanting to go there instead of taking a chance elsewhere in Scotland knowing they then couldn’t join the best side in the league.
Maybe it would be easier/fairer to introduce spending caps and wage caps but then would that hamper Celtic in Europe?
I accept that the teams you mention, Barcelona etc., have become more dominant in recent years in their respective leagues but nowhere is the disparity greater than in Scotland. The SPL has become the football equivalent of Groundhog day. As i said previously the reasons for this domination are many and are beginning to become irrellevent, it is the end result that matters. When fireman go into a burning house they don’t stop to discuss what started the fire or what the consequences of the fire will be. This charade has to stop and something has to change. Celtic buying up all the best players of other SPL teams is just perpetuating a grossly unfair situation and also demoralising for the supporters of those teams. They can accept the players wanting to better themselves and going to other leagues but to see those players opposing their own team a week or so later in Celtic colours is asking a bit much.The loyalty of those fans never ceases to amaze me. If the SPL were to become a more level playing field would it not create more competition and make a far more attractive proposition so that other teams,not just Celtic, at least had a chance in european competition.