Quick Passes

By: Matt | August 12th, 2009

As the first SPL match of the season approaches, there have been numerous diverse stories relating to Celtic that have been released the last few days. One of the most noteworthy of these stories is that Eidur Gudjohnsen continues to be linked wity Celtic. An Icelandic newspaper is reporting that Barcelona has granted Celtic and Gudjohnsen the right to negotiate a deal. It is thought that Barca would offer Gudjohnsen on a year long loan, with the option to buy at the end of the loan. This same paper is reporting that Gudjohnsen will travel to Glasgow tomorrow to continue negotiations. Tony Mowbray has played down a possible move for Gudjohnsen and the Icelandic international will make a decision in the next two weeks, according to his father.

-There were talks over the summer about Scott Brown moving to Spurs. That talk seemed to cool down when Tony Mowbray signed. Most figured ToMo would want to keep his former Hibs player to hopefully flourish like the pair did in Edinburgh. However, it seems that Harry Redknapp is still interested in nabbing Brown. Redknapp is looking for a £7million deal to land the Scottish international midfielder, who was a spark plug is a substitute role in Celtic’s 2-0 Champions League win in Moscow. Personally, I would not be selling for £7million after Brown’s performance last week. An offer for Brown should “wow” ToMo, Lawwell, and company.

-Greig Spence will undergo a medical later this week to clinch his transfer from Alloa to Celtic for a six-figure sum. Spence is a 17 year old striker who use to be at Rangers as a schoolboy, but clearly realized better. Seems like another youth movement signing that have been common so far.

-Speaking of the youth movement at Celtic, the Celtic U19 team fared well in a tournament in Villareal. The young Bhoys beat Real Madrid, Japan and AC Milan’s youth squad’s to make the finals of the tournament. In the final, Celtic took on Liverpool’s youth squad, but were defeated in penalties. Still, it was a promising tournament for the youth squad.

-In perhaps the biggest news for Celtic supporters in North America is that Celtic has announced that they will be traveling to Toronto FC’s BMO Field to take on old European rivals Benfica of Portugal on September 2nd. As Whitby Boy showed us in the last post, Ticketmaster broke the news a little early with this site. The game is being played for the annual Canadian National Exhibition. Tickets for the match go on sale on August 14 and range in price from $40 to $125 which includes access to the CNE. Seems like short notice for those wanting to travel to the match, but a good contingent of Celtic supporters should be there. It’s good to see Celtic trying to expand the brand to North America.

-Paul Caddis has made it known that if he cannot crack the first team by Christmas, he would like to take his trade somewhere else. I usually frown upon these first team or transfer me demands to the press, but Caddis seems to contain some talent. It is unfortunate that Caddis is behind a good player in Andreas Hinkel. He definitely has the talent to be in the first team of some SPL squad, it was just unfortunate that he was not born left footed.

-Finally, in our traditional GIRUY! to Rangers, the Houston Dynamo of the MLS U19 team beat the Rangers U19 team 4-0 in the Dynamo’s tour of Scotland. Of course, the next day the Dyanmo youngsters were defeated by the Celtic youth team 1-0.