Unsustainable

I can’t help but worry that Celtic, with a far higher budget to their SPFL counterparts, ambitions of long term European football, and a transfer model that involves buying from emerging markets and selling for large profits, are in danger of taking player recruitment slightly too far.

After the terrific performances by several young players in pre-season, and in a more recent Turkish friendly tournament football, it was plain to see that in days gone by; these boys would have been on the fringes of the first team, ready to make an impact at senior levels.  But with most of our six summer first team additions not quite hitting the heights, it’s not clear who, if any, and how many, of our first team will be actively moved in in the 2014 transfer windows.   In terms of player development and team spirit, how sustainable is such a large squad with very limited access to the young, in form, players with much potential.  Loads of players not able to get into the team in a bloated squad never sit’s that well with me, and I was happy to see Tom Rogic go out on loan today, keeping his confidence, education, and momentum up in his career, giving him not only a shot at the World Cup with Australia, but a fighting chance of making an impact at Celtic afterwards. 

 

I noticed one of BBC Sport’s leading story today is about Crystal Palace having the largest squad in European football, quoting  that “Palace have 34 players on their books who have played in this or the previous two seasons”.  It’s worth noting that this is more than Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Real Madrid, AC Milan, and Bayern Munich.

 

See the article here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25819091.

Given they are not in or pushing for, European competition, and indeed aren’t likely to have a long run in both domestic cups, necessitating heavy squad rotation, this seems fairly unsustainable right? Added to that their chances of dropping back into the Championship are pretty high, the wage implications are also relatively important.

Well Rangers are sure giving them a run for their money.  Given their use of the trialist loopholes to play signed players whilst under a transfer embargo – by my reckoning Rangers (a 3 tier Scottish Football team!) have also played 34 separately registered players who are still on their books.  With Rangers receiving a miniscule percentage of the £60m TV revenue that Crystal Palace will get as a minimum, it almost gives unsustainable a new meaning.

 

	2013/14
Player Appearances
PLAYER	LEAGUE		FA CUP		LEAGUE CUP		OTHER
	APPS / GLS		APPS / GLS		APPS / GLS		APPS / GLS
Fraser Aird (M)	8 (4)	2	0 (2)	0	0 (1)	1	0 (1)	0
Cameron Bell (G)	16 (0)	0	2 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Ian Black (M)	18 (0)	1	1 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	1 (0)	1
Nicky Clark (M)	9 (4)	7	2 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Robert Crawford (M)	4 (11)	2	0 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	1 (0)	0
Emilson Cribari (D)	2 (1)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Jon Daly (F)	17 (0)	12	2 (0)	2	0 (0)	0	1 (0)	0
Sebastien Faure (D)	15 (2)	0	1 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	1 (0)	0
Richard Foster (D)	8 (2)	0	1 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Scott Gallacher (G)	3 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	1 (0)	0
Chris Hegarty (D)	1 (0)	1	0 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Kyle Hutton (D)	0 (4)	0	1 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Nicky Law (M)	16 (0)	4	2 (0)	1	0 (0)	0	1 (0)	2
Andrew Little (F)	11 (2)	5	0 (1)	0	1 (0)	0	1 (0)	0
Lewis MacLeod (M)	15 (2)	5	2 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Kyle McAusland (D)	3 (1)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (1)	0	1 (0)	0
Lee McCulloch (M)	20 (0)	11	2 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	1 (0)	0
Barrie McKay (F)	0 (2)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (1)	0	0 (0)	0
Andrew Mitchell (M)	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Bilel Mohsni (D)	16 (0)	7	2 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Andrew Murdoch	0 (1)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Arnold Peralta (M)	10 (0)	0	2 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Dean Shiels (M)	3 (3)	3	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Steve Simonsen (G)	1 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Steven Smith (D)	4 (1)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
David Templeton (M)	4 (10)	2	0 (2)	2	1 (0)	0	0 (1)	1
A Trialist (M)	4 (0)	4	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
B Trialist	4 (0)	1	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Lee Wallace (D)	19 (0)	2	2 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	1 (0)	0
Players who played in 2012/13 (and not in current season) who are still on books as at January 2014
2012/13
Player Appearances
PLAYER	LEAGUE		FA CUP		LEAGUE CUP		OTHER
Luca Gasparotto	1 (3)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Ross Perry (D)	15 (2)	0	1 (0)	0	2 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Alan Smith	0 (1)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Daniel Stoney	0 (3)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Tom Walsh	0 (1)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0