+ Visit Cardiff FC for Latest News, Transfer Gossip, Fixtures and Match Results |
Celtic may struggle with their current squad, but they'd become a much richer and better club almost overnight. They'd be playing for a top four place within three years.
Three years would be very ambitious, unless they would throw some stupid money at it. They don't have anything close to a top 4 squad at the moment. Theyd need to change pretty much every player at theclub. They would have money, but then so do other clubs. Man city spent big for several years before they made progress.
Patrick Roberts is one of the brightest prospects in Britain, Sinclair has proved he's too good for the Champ and Dembele is wanted by AC Milan if reports are to be believed. As JRH says as well, they'd benefit from having a game every week.
A lot of their squad are internationals as well, nobody else in the Champ boasts that sort of experience. If you compare their side with Newcastle's, I know who I'd rather have.
This is the Newcastle side that played against us, and the same weekend the Celtic side that played Rangers.
Elliot, Clark, Dummett, Mbemba, Yedlin, Colback (Shelvey 73), Hayden, Diame, Perez (Sterry 90), Atsu, Murphy (Mitrovic 66)
Gordon, Lustig, Simonovic, Boyata, Tierney, Brown (Kouassi), Armstrong (Rogic), Roberts (Forrest), McGregor, Sinclair, Griffiths
Apart from Shelvey, I don't think another Newcastle player gets in.
Roberts is a big talent, bit if he was one of the brightest prospects in British football he would not be playing at the equivalent of league one level.
Sinclair is a good player, probably lower pl and dembele is also good, but his scoring rate was 15 in 43 games at championship and 17 in 29 games in the SPL. Again he would be very good but he wouldn't be blowing the league away.
The idea that Celtic players would have had a better season if they were playing against better opposition is a bit strange though?
Dembele is only 20. He scored 15 goals in a bottom half side in the championship in his first full season at 19 years old and bagged 32 in all competitions last season at 20. He's now being linked with all the top clubs in Europe yet you don't think he's all that
Hes got more about him than any of the Scandinavian Ex City players you rave about.
I didn't say playing against better players would have made them have a better season?
You said they wouldn't look half as good in a more competitive games in The Championship but I said it could work the other way and make them better players by having more competition.
There's a school of thought in sport, not just football, that you play more competitive opponents it makes you raise your game and improve as a player.
Celtic had won the league by Xmas without having to get into top gear and they would probably welcome more competition.
Man City were bought by the Arabs in 2008. By 2011 they qualified for the Champions League and by 2012 they were champions. Maybe 3 years is a bit ambitious for Celtic to be a top 4 club, but they'd find it a lot easier to sign top players and they'd have the third highest attendance in the EPL. They wouldn't be as rich as Man City or Chelsea, but they'd be up there with Liverpool and Arsenal.
Yeah within a few years theyd have a similar financial clout as teams like that, but they would also be starting from a much lower base. And they wouldn't have European football to rely on to be able to attract players.
More importantly though, when man city broke through there were really only 4-5 elite level teams in the league that were competing for the 4 champions league spots.
These days there are already 6 teams competing hard for those 4 spots and throw rangers and Celtic into the mix and there are 7 or 8 teams. It is going to be a much harder group to break into than when man city did it.