JimmysGers
Well-Known Member
I happened to skim through a very Celtic-minded article recently about Martin O'Neill's time there, and how they've more or less dominated ever since. Their train of thought was that, excluding the Mowbray season, all our title wins have been won on the last day. We were obviously good in those seasons, but Celtic weren't far away. Just not quite good enough of course
They claim O'Neill's tenure finally changed the mindset of a losing club. He made some pretty decent signings. Sutton, Lennon, Thompson, Valgaeren, Agathe and later Hartson and Balde were all pretty successful you'd have to say. They all stuck around for years. You can chuck Rab Douglas in as well I suppose, despite him giving us our own good memories. Keeping Larsson fit obviously helped.
Anyway, that's more than enough about them. It brings me Advocaat and the money spent. I'm sure the discussion has already been had on the various podcasts etc. these days. Just how many of his signings were out-and-out successes? I know we had to replace an ageing squad but the money could have been spent far more wisely. Was the scatter-gun approach necessary?
Numan, Gio, Wallace, McCann, Klos, Reyna - absolutely. I'll reluctantly give him Moore. Was Kanchelskis really worth the money?
Mols, of course. Dodds probably. Not sure Tugay can be classed as a complete success.
Lovenkrands and Ricksen through McLeish, yes. De Boer. Flo's fee will always go against him.
Caniggia and Arveladze, yes. Difficult to include Ball given the fee.
14 players and I'd say that's being generous. How much money spent?
They claim O'Neill's tenure finally changed the mindset of a losing club. He made some pretty decent signings. Sutton, Lennon, Thompson, Valgaeren, Agathe and later Hartson and Balde were all pretty successful you'd have to say. They all stuck around for years. You can chuck Rab Douglas in as well I suppose, despite him giving us our own good memories. Keeping Larsson fit obviously helped.
Anyway, that's more than enough about them. It brings me Advocaat and the money spent. I'm sure the discussion has already been had on the various podcasts etc. these days. Just how many of his signings were out-and-out successes? I know we had to replace an ageing squad but the money could have been spent far more wisely. Was the scatter-gun approach necessary?
Numan, Gio, Wallace, McCann, Klos, Reyna - absolutely. I'll reluctantly give him Moore. Was Kanchelskis really worth the money?
Mols, of course. Dodds probably. Not sure Tugay can be classed as a complete success.
Lovenkrands and Ricksen through McLeish, yes. De Boer. Flo's fee will always go against him.
Caniggia and Arveladze, yes. Difficult to include Ball given the fee.
14 players and I'd say that's being generous. How much money spent?