Previously on Legacy of the Hoops, we felt the agony of a trophyless season and I clung on to my job by my fingernails. Join us as we aim to bounce back and replant Celtic at the top, whilst hopefully keeping my job!
New Signings!
Incomings are still few and far between as we focus on slimming down the squad like a crash diet. Tomoki Iwata’s loan was automatically made permanent, I brought in some young players to flesh out the B-Team on loan and the big signing was Dundee United’s Dylan Levitt who immediately goes out on loan at FCM. Levitt is a very technical midfielder who will certainly have a future with us. At £1.5m (possibly rising to £1.9m) I consider that a bargain for a player of his calibre.
We made roughly £4m from the sale of fringe players and saved a bucket load in wages. It was a firesale and I was more concerned with getting them off the books rather than battling for every fee. The larger outgoings were Welsh to Watford for £925k, Maeda to Gladbach for £4.3m (£4.8m) and Taylor to Lyon for £3.4m (£4.4m). Quids in, more specifically a transfer profit of roughly 13m. All it will take is a couple of injuries and the B-Team players now have a genuine chance of making the bench and seeing some game time.
Season 2023/24
As the new season dawned, the aim was simple – do better. We had done well to keep hold of some key players such as Jota and Liel Abada but the sales of Taylor and Maeda probably made us weaker overall. Still, it gives a chance for Bernabei to realise his potential and Liam Scales is a handy choice covering full back and left-sided centre back. More importantly, the wage budget is now well under control as we storm towards £100m in the bank. We are rich!
The season opener could have been better with a frustrating 0-0 draw at home to Motherwell. It would be a weird start as we’d quickly go three games behind making the table look odd to say the least, probably due to us being in the Europa League qualifiers – more on those later.
We had the chance for an immediate bounce back as the second game was at home to Rangers. Would we face the same issues as last season where we tended to dominate the game but ultimately come up short?
Thankfully, no. Matt O’Riley in his new central midfielder (attack) role burst forward, took a long pass from McGregor on his chest and slammed a half-volley into the back of the net to take the points. Come on, we can do this! Rangers slipped up in their next fixture away at Aberdeen and it was a season of sloppiness from both of us. In the next ten games, we’d draw with Hibernian and lose to Aberdeen, but Rangers would add that loss to Aberdeen to another loss to Hibernian – it looks like we’ve both got a little bit of competition? Up to the split Rangers would drop points in another nine games, us – only three times. Tremendous consistency for us and a very poor season for the blue half which saw Beale replaced by Wilder.
It was never as easy as it looks though. Going into the second Glasgow derby we were just starting to pull away. A win here would put us in the driving seat however this was a game that we dropped points in. I’m just going to leave a picture to say what I can’t say…
This game will be the death of me.
The third derby game was smoother but not without an opening goal by Jens Petter Hauge. JUDAS! Yes, you heard me, Jens. More on that later, too. If I can bring myself to write about it! Yes, I’m still a bit sore. This all resulted in a bit of a landslide season. The Rangers of season one didn’t show up and thankfully nor did the Celtic of season one. We’d win the league by 17 points.
The cups were a mixed bag. An Abada annihilation would see us trump Rangers 3-0 in the League Cup final but we missed a massive chance at a treble by losing to Hibernian on penalties in the Scottish Cup semi-final. They’d go on to beat Livingston to lift the trophy. And it was all my fault! I got complacent and tried blooding too many youngsters at the wrong time. We were winning 1-0 going into the latter stages and Hibs hadn’t troubled us at all. I brought on Bosun Lawal, Rocco Vata, Iwata and Peter Musa and… Hibs equalised. Bugger. It would be a sore (near) end to a very good season and I only had myself to blame.
We also had an outing in the Europa League as a result of our terrible first season. Every cloud and all that. We landed in a tough group with Celta Vigo, Braga and Sarpsborg for some really entertaining European nights under the lights. It was dog eat dog and us, Braga and Celta Vigo battled it out to progress. Poor Sarpsborg. We’d record an away win against Vigo and lose to them at home, then do the reverse against Braga! All of those games would feature drama, late goals and twists and turns. It was a LOT of fun.
We did enough to face Bayer Leverkusen in the Knock Out Play-Off Round and I thought this was game over. An away draw in the first leg was joined by a 3-1 home win. O’Riley again being the star man.
It would set up another meeting with Celta Vigo, the storylines here were amazing. We began with a narrow home win, 1-0, with a goal from… O’Riley. We fell to a 2-0 defeat in the away leg which was probably a missed chance but European football all the way to March is a step in the right direction. Monaco would be the victors of Vigo in the quarters, a definite chance missed I think.
Squad Building
I think I got a little bit carried away with the season review but not to worry I’m circling back to all things DoF. As always the transfer windows continue to be exciting. Let’s go back to JUDAS. I’d tracked Hauge for a season and a half and when one of my wingers was sold I made my move. With a transfer fee accepted and a contract in place ready to sign… he went to Rangers. I was livid. This was thankfully the only occasion so far of us being gazumped by them but it could have happened on a few occasions.
You may have noticed that I referenced a player named Petar Musa who again I’d tracked for a while. In and out of favour at Benfica he looked like a striking option to compliment Kyogo and when Oh left for Strasbourg for £2.7m I brought Musa in for £3m. However this was after Rangers tried to sign him too but thankfully he rejected them in the summer, he also rejected Bournemouth but said yes to the proper team. I also received a news item that Rangers had signed a striker called Paulinho and I thought hang on, he’s on my shortlist! Thankfully it was a different striker also called Paulinho!
One of our weakest positions was centre back. Yes, we had Carl Starfelt and Cameron Carter-Vickers (and still do) but our depth was Scales, Billy Koumetio and Yuki Kobayashi. These players are fine for domestic football but wouldn’t fill me with confidence for European games. The trouble is that I’m happy with Starfelt and CCV so the player coming in has to be a rotational option, with room to grow in case I lose either of the other two. Scandinavia came up trumps again and in an absolute bargain capture, Adamo Nagalo signs on the dotted line for 3.5m and I let Yuki leave the club.
I thought our winter business was complete but there was a late twist. One which potentially cost us in the games against Vigo but that’s ifs buts and maybes. Last time out, I told you about Abada the contract saga man. To get him to sign I had to put in a £20m release clause and trust me I tried hard to push it higher and to leave it out completely but it had to go in. The best that I could do was put an expiration date on it. That expiration date was 1st February 2024. On 5th January 2024, Bayern Munich offered £12m. I rejected and heard nothing more. Phew. On 13 January 2024, I received another notification, Bayern met his release clause. BUGGER! 2 weeks longer and the clause would have expired. Still, £20m is a good amount of money and I had a shortlist.
Please welcome Emil Ceide from Sassuolo for £4.5m. The transfer profit keeps on coming and we shatter the 100m target in the bank.
There will be movement next summer, that is a given but who it will be or who we would need to bring in is a mystery for now. What it does prove is that my shortlist is working and that I’m a very busy DoF. The target for next season is simple, do better. I want more points. I want the Scottish Cup. I want to do better in the new CL format and… I want more money!
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