DMAA

Would be great to get a fee for him. Should make a decent profit on him too because we've brought him on signficantly and he's featured several times for Wales in that time so would be a popular signing at Swansea.

We've still got a number of players who we need off the wage bill. It's a bit of disaster if they're all still here in 24 hours because England is the most obvious destination for most of them.

A bit of a pointless post maybe, but I'm surprised the club haven't been linked with Souleymane Coulibaly at all. He was brilliant at Kilmarnock, moved to Egypt for 800k and hit the ground running there before quitting the club. He's now a free agent but only 23. He responded to an Aberdeen fan's tweet a couple of weeks ago with thinking faces after the fan had said announce Souleymane Coulibaly.

I hadn't thought of that! Looks very unlikely at this stage however as valuations of both Winass and Tavernier appear to be miles apart. I'd bite their hand off if they offered anything like £5m for Tav but £2m is easy to turn down. In the unlikely scenario a club really want Windass or Tav today, the fact we're playing is a great negotiating tool and would push up their values.

For a change there are actually a lot of questions over what the team will be. Ejaria vs McCrorie Kent vs Murphy Candeias vs Windass Ejaria over McCrorie would be an attacking move because Arfield isn’t a defensive player. However it’s probably the right move because we need to be able to retain possession tonight and Coulibaly and McCrorie in the middle wouldn’t do that. That’s a pairing for an away day.

My take on it is that enquiries/bids were probably made on one or both but we’ve walked away. I think that’s why he stressed “currently”. No reason to disbelieve the president of the Koljic’s club that we made a bid. Of course as the window goes on maybe we’d decide the high price we were quoted might after all be our best option so it’s not necessarily done.

I actually thought that was a fair question. If we’d meant any attempt to hold onto the ball against Aberdeen we’d have seen the game out.

Gerrard denied interest in any Bosnians unfortunately

That’s disappointing

I’m aware of that but to be unbeaten in 3 out of 4 of the non Liverpool games is very impressive.

Contrary to what a few have said I think Maribor will be a noticeable step up in quality from Osijek and will pose a genuine threat. Skupi were terrible and Osijek were bang average whereas Maribor performed very well in the Champions League last season and have a strong track record in Europe. It's very exciting to see how we hold up against a European side with genuine pedigree. I think they will be playing for 0-0 and it could be a very frustrating game for us.

Disappointing really. Though we have weeks left to add to the squad and Gerrard seemed keen to suggest we’re in no hurry and not to expect much just now.

Sounds like a very promising candidate for sevco of the week

Jack had 2 of his 4 rescinded. The Stevie May one was a clear red but the Hamilton one was an incredibly harsh second yellow. The kind that really highlights the total lack of consistency with these kinds of decisions.

I think it’s 3?

Absolutely. The failure to show Ball a red was a poor decision. But this decision was more than poor, it was absolutely inexplicable and outrageous. All the more so given the yellow shown to the St Johnston last year for an unprovoked proper kick last season. Big consolation is that Morelos is back and McKenna has got his karma and will miss the best part of 2 months. Serves him right for what was unprovoked genuine violent conduct.

Tell me about it! Alan Brazil on Talksport was seriously suggesting Liverpool should join the race for Boyata because he "proved in the World Cup he could play at the very highest level." Never mind the fact he only played against England's B team and two walkovers against two of the worst teams in the tournament in Tunisia and Panama. As soon as Vermaelen and Kompany recovered from injuries he was back to being 5th choice centre back and didn't feature for the rest of the tournament when Belgium were really tested (Japan, Brazil, France, England). Absolutely incredible nonsense like that goes unchallenged.

Elvir Koljić actually looks like a target man type, seems strong in the air and offers a different dimension from what we have. He could be an exciting addition. I'm guessing with interest in these guys that we've decided to leave Lafferty until the winter or next summer on a free. If so I feel a bit sorry for him because we got his hopes up.

Elvir Koljić & Armin Hodzic both fit the profile we should be looking at. But I'm surprised we're not in for someone with genuine aerial prowess. Koljic is 6ft1 so maybe he's good in the air. But we've been playing a lot of long ball and Morelos and Windass haven't been winning anything because it's not their game. We need to be retaining possession from those long balls.

On paper he sounds fine, 23 year old Bosnian with 5 caps from Croatia’s top team. But 6 goals in 24 in a poor league playing for the champions isn’t the pedigree we’re looking for surely.

Would have much preferred St Johnstone or someone like that so he could play against our rivals.

April 2018 Tavernier - Martin - McCrorie - Halliday Bench: Hodson Holt - Dorrans Bench: Goss, Docherty August 2018 Tavernier - Goldson - Katic - Barisic Bench: Flanagan Coulibaly - Jack Bench: McCrorie What a difference in the back 6 Celtic will face this season compared to 4-5 months ago. Granted injuries were involved but the lack of defensive ability in that back 6 was staggering and virtually unprecented at Rangers. I predict the days of the old firm drubbings are over and the signing of Barisic - when we weren't desperate for a left back by any means - just emphasises how important Gerrard believes real quality in defence is. Souness more than halved the goals conceded in his first season and Gerrard will be aiming to do the same.

The other thing is we have two right footed left wingers in Murphy and Kent. As we saw with Wallace and McKay a left footed left back benefits a lot from a winger who cuts inside in front of him because of the space is opens up for him. John has the pace to benefit from this but Barisic has the delivery to.

FK Ufa scraped past Domzale (3rd in Slovenia) on away goals, and only qualified for Europe because the team who won the Cup didn’t get their license in on time. They look to have some talents in their side including a quick Nigerian winger they call Sly, but if we’re good enough to beat Maribor this tie looks very winnable.

Everything is a far cry from last season