Greetings form East End of Glasgow!

[Spencer_White]

To be honest if Celtic hadnt taken so bloody long to do a deal over the summer then Ferry would probably be playing every week. Waiting for them to make their mind up we signed David Prutton, who I think is still an inferior player to Ferry. But Prutton is older, with a big reputation and a big character in the dressing room, he's mates with our other best player and captain, Jonathon Douglas, so Prutton plays most weeks. Ferry was brilliant last season, him and Douglas just steam rollered midfields. Ferry's persistance and energy with Douglas who is just a damn hard bastard who batters the oppostion. Ferry has also had some niggling injuries this season.

Caddis, to be honest the jury is still out. He's good going forward but all season we have struggled to form any kind of unit in our back 4. We are pretty crap at the back. I like him, but a lot of fans think hes too lightweight at full back. He showed a touch of arrogance when he went away with Scotland and said he had no idea why he wasnt starting at Swindon. Its because he's struggled to get into a second rate defence, the main reason we are bottom half of the table. He is a defender and working with the other lads to achieve shut outs is his main priority, which maybe he had forgotten?

Scott Cuthbert is the player who should be getting the call ups for Scotland. He is the one player in our back 5 we have been able to depend on every week. Fantastic in the air, and he rarely makes a mistake. Fit, fast, just a class act, I think he is our second most valuable player on the transfer market after Austin.

Charlie Austin has been a dream signing for the club. You can watch the goals for yourself on youtube, is main secret is his desire, his quick feet and his confidence to take a shot early. Right foot, left foot, headers. What you wont see is his build up play, which is absolutely superb, he wins almost every single header, he works tremendously hard and he hardly ever loses the ball, he plays simple but effective passes. But I am 99% certain that he wont be comming to Celtic. Firstly because as proven with Cox, Celtic like to band about their interest to unsettle players and then put in very low bids. We will get a good bid from a southern English club, because he is class. The main reason Austin wont be unsettled by Celtic is because he is a southerner, a small town local boy and he would be mad to come up to that gold fish bowl up there. Theres no way he would be able to handle it. He relies on a lot of other people down here for guidance and without them he wont be the same player.

Another reason why you wont unsettle him is because Charlie is in his early 20's, he's grown up with the domination of the Premier League. I grew up watching Laudrup, Di Canio, Gazza, the titanic stuggle to stop/make the 10 in a row. The last 10 years, at times the SPL/Old Firm has been an embaressment and it wont hold that pull for him as a Premiership club would have.

[Spencer_White]

By the way, our local has just having a few bottles of West Breweries St Mungo Lager from your way, very nice indeed.

[stfcinbmth]

Charlie Austin has been a dream signing for the club. You can watch the goals for yourself on youtube, is main secret is his desire, his quick feet and his confidence to take a shot early. Right foot, left foot, headers. What it wont who you is his build up play, which is absolutely superb, he wins almost every single header, he works tremendously hard and he hardly ever loses the ball, he plays simple but effective passes. But I am 99% certain that he wont be comming to Celtic. Firstly because as proven with Cox, Celtic like to band about their interest to unsettle players and then put in very low bids. The main reason Austin wont be unsettled is because he is a southerner, a small town local boy and he would be mad to come up to that gold fish bowl up there. Theres no way he would be able to handle it. He relies on a lot of other people down here for guidance and without them he wont be the same player.

Another reason why you wont unsettle him is because Charlie is in his early 20's, he's grown up with the domination of the Premier League. I grew up watching Laudrup, Di Canio, Gazza, the titanic stuggle to stop/make the 10 in a row. The last 10 years, at times the SPL has been an embaressment and it wont hold that pull for him, that unsettling effect that a Premiership club would be able to.

Charlie's mum and dad go to most games, if he played in Scotland that would make it very difficult for them. Besides it's friggin freezing up there. I don't think it would be very high on his list of clubs, sorry

[coxyboy]

I really like & rate Caddis, but has shown only on occasions. Ferry is great but is struggling to get into what on paper is a strong midfield, but in reality a midfield that has been far too inconsistent. Cuthbert is in my opinion better than morrison who is supposed to be the one who will eventually go to a "big" club.
As for austin, he is an instictive goalscorer, & will IMHO score at any level. I love his persistence, he will not give up a seemingly lost cause, when a defender has the ball. I would not let him go for less than 3 million, but in reality his current price would be just below 2 mill.

Simon Cox was £1.9m and I'd personally say Austin is better.

[amcc]

To be honest if Celtic hadnt taken so bloody long to do a deal over the summer then Ferry would probably be playing every week.

But I am 99% certain that he wont be comming to Celtic. Firstly because as proven with Cox, Celtic like to band about their interest to unsettle players and then put in very low bids. We will get a good bid from a southern English club, because he is class. The main reason Austin wont be unsettled by Celtic is because he is a southerner, a small town local boy and he would be mad to come up to that gold fish bowl up there. Theres no way he would be able to handle it. He relies on a lot of other people down here for guidance and without them he wont be the same player.

Thanks for very detailed response!

Ferry had a very good pre-season against top drawer teams so dont really think that hurt him - although he could have started mingling with his footballing peers earlier. He normally started in the North American tour and also featured in the Emirates Cup and match vs Sporting Lisbon. Great experience for such a youngster.

I personally think Celtic would be a fantastic move for Celtic (Although my views a biased!). Firstly playing infront of 50,000 fans each week (Home) and a packed stadium during OF matches is something a football can only dream about.

Celtic also have word class coaches, many of which are ex-Celtic players notably Danny McGrain. Through whom he can widen his knoledge and insight of the game. While having a good wage and living in a city which is not at all a GoldFish ball -invented by McGeady as an excuse to move to Spartak.

Europe - another major highlight which is a huge attraction to any player although we did not qualify this year due to transition in staff and so on.. I have no hesitation he will be lured in by this.

Finally the club itself, its Celtic for goodness sake the club with biggest fanbase in the world! Easily greater than half of the EPL teams who can go down any season. It will be good on his CV - there is no point in moving to Millwall or QPR. All tiny teams.

[Simon Pieman]

Would Austin get a starting place at Celtic or would he be a reserve?

Cox was mightily unlucky with his move to WBA which we all thought was a cracking move at the time. His career has gone nowhere fast since. The odd glimpses I've seen of him on MOTD confirm he's still got the touch and confidence. He needs a move back to the Championship and to play regularly there and prove himself at that level.

It doesn't matter how many fans a team has worldwide, a striker will make a name for himself by scoring goals at whatever level.

[coxyboy]

Would Austin get a starting place at Celtic or would he be a reserve?

Cox was mightily unlucky with his move to WBA which we all thought was a cracking move at the time. His career has gone nowhere fast since. The odd glimpses I've seen of him on MOTD confirm he's still got the touch and confidence. He needs a move back to the Championship and to play regularly there and prove himself at that level.

It doesn't matter how many fans a team has worldwide, a striker will make a name for himself by scoring goals at whatever level.

Cox did fairly well at WBA in the Championship but now he seems to be the fourth choice striker - he didn't even get a game yesterday and Odemwingie was injured. The championship is the most suited league for Cox in my opinion but I'm sure Austin can score masses of goals at any level.

[Simon Pieman]

Hardly a regular in the championship though!

[Ardiles]

I think sometimes we have a tendency to over-estimate the capabilities of our top players at higher levels.  Charlie is highly regarded not just in Swindon but by just about anyone who takes in interest in lower league football.  But would he really walk in to the Celtic side?  I doubt it, to be honest.  He would hopefully do well, but he would not have the superstar status he has with us, and would have to fight for his place in the starting line up against players who are just as, if not more, talented.  I appreciate that we've struck up a decent relationship with Celtic over the last few years, but I'm not convinced that a Premiership or Scot Prem move would be best for him.  I know others would disagree here, but I think the Championship would be far enough for him at this point.

Simon Cox was loved in pretty much the same way.  He's done OK at West Brom, but he's not regularly banging in the Goal of the Month on Match of the Day as some were predicting a few years ago.  Sam Parkin: adored at Swindon; went nowhere.  (OK, St Johnstone, via a very circuitous route.)  In fact, other than the loanee starlets like James Milner who we took on for short periods, do we not have to go back as far as Summerbee (N) and Calderwood - nearly 20 years - to find players who went on from us to succeed at the highest level?

[coxyboy]

I think sometimes we have a tendency to over-estimate the capabilities of our top players at higher levels.  Charlie is highly regarded not just in Swindon but by just about anyone who takes in interest in lower league football.  But would he really walk in to the Celtic side?  I doubt it, to be honest.  He would hopefully do well, but he would not have the superstar status he has with us, and would have to fight for his place in the starting line up against players who are just as, if not more, talented.  I appreciate that we've struck up a decent relationship with Celtic over the last few years, but I'm not convinced that a Premiership or Scot Prem move would be best for him.  I know others would disagree here, but I think the Championship would be far enough for him at this point.

Simon Cox was loved in pretty much the same way.  He's done OK at West Brom, but he's not regularly banging in the Goal of the Month on Match of the Day as some were predicting a few years ago.  Sam Parkin: adored at Swindon; went nowhere.  (OK, St Johnstone, via a very circuitous route.)  In fact, other than the loanee starlets like James Milner who we took on for short periods, do we not have to go back as far as Summerbee (N) and Calderwood - nearly 20 years - to find players who went on from us to succeed at the highest level?

But you have to remember that just over a year ago Charlie was banging in goals at non-league Poole Town and nobody thought he would to nearly aswell as he has done in League 1 he has done just as good and we are about 4 leagues ahead of Poole but the teams that are interested in him now (Celtic, Milwall) are only slightly above us and the level of the teams Celtic play are also about our level. Remember, Sam Parkin is now banging in goals at St. Johnstone in the SPL.

[coxyboy]

Charlie has shown that he can go up the levels and play consistently which gives him an advantage over players like Cox, Paynter etc

[flammableBen]

I think there's something wrong with the logic their. I'm sure that if Cox, Paynter, Parkin or whoever could have all scored a fair few for poole town. I'm not sure you can use the fact that Charlie did as a reason he's better qualified to play at a higher level.

The fact that he's fucking ace playing for Swindon is enough. I'm not sure Poole really come into it.

[Arriba]

heard celtic are seriously looking at taking austin.

[Don Rogers Shop]

Yep and west brom strangely

[Reg Smeeton]

 You can go back years to see STFC strikers who've left, but very few end up with more in their goals column for new clubs than what they achieved with us.

 I go back to Ernie Hunt, which was the start of the time when players moved more...and since then there's probably been 2....Peter Thorne and Jimmy Quinn.

 Some like Davis Moss scored a few more for a new club, but he was a winger, others like Arthur Horsfield and Peter Noble, scored a couple more, but by then were playing in defence and in the case of Noble taking pens.

 Which is not to say that the likes of Hunt, Eastoe, Mayes, Rideout, Gordon, Bamber, Fjortoft, Allison, Ndah, Hay, Parkin, Cox...haven't had useful careers and earned some money, just that they didn't score more after leaving us, for sizeable fees, than any one new club.