The REAL Signing News of the Week

By: JT | June 23rd, 2007

You wake up from a ten hour bender on the couch for some reason. It is your apartment after all, so what the f*^&? You try to enter your bedroom and the door is locked. This can only mean that your girlfriend (her word, not yours) is pissed at you, but why? You fire up the old laptop. You bypass the news of some self-worshipping Frenchman moving to The Capital of Massive Egos. Then you see what undoubtedly is THE transfer news of the weekend. Your club, Celtic FC has fought off some quality Italian clubs to sign Massimo Donati, formerly of Milan, for the paltry fee of £3 million. Two trips to the porcelain goddess later, it’s time to sit down and think about what this means for your club.

This has been my morning till this point.

Consistently in the press, Donati has been described as a winger, but that’s making no sense to me at the moment. Gatusso, who shares an agent with Donati, compares him to Celtic youngster Evander Sno, who is a defensive midfielder. Donati’s only scored a handful of goals on his loan travels, and Gatusso specifically said that he thought Donati would be filling a need for Celtic with Neil Lennon departing. Donati was expected to return to Milan this season, and while I know very little about calcio, I know Milan have a few decent midfielders.

If Strachan plans on sticking with the 4-4-2, I’m not sure I like this signing all that much, because it would mean impeding Sno’s development.

Unless Gordo plans on changing to a 4-2-3-1 formation, this means that Sno is not going to be seeing much first team action, which is a real shame because he’s got great potential. I can see the 4-2-3-1 working with the type of squad that we have right now, although some of these guys are definitely surplus to requirements at Parkhead. Sno & Donati in front of the back four, any of Brown, Naka, McGeady, Gravesen, Hartley, Jarosik, or Riordan in the three midfield slots, and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink up front. That should be how we line up in Europe.

In the league, I maintain that we have the squad to be playing a 4-3-3. There Donati can hold, with Sno, Brown, or Gravesen as the other two. McGeady on the left, Naka on the right, and Jan the Man in the middle should do the trick up front.

We have a HUGE squad right now, and some trimming must be done. For all we lose in leadership with Lennon’s departure, we gain in athleticism, which can mean Celtic are ready to break out some up tempo stuff. The possibilities are endless with how this team can play, and Donati’s arrival can only add another dimension.

This could be fun, but the next few minutes may not be because I just heard the bedroom door unlock! Pray for me people!