Jack Harper moves to Malaga

[Caledonian Craig]

On 5/7/2017 at 7:24 PM, ceudmilefailte said:

He was on the books at Real Madrid we all thought wow then he wen't to Brighton and couldn't get a game for their under 23's so we all shut up. Now he is at Malaga and scoring goals for fun we are all saying wow again

No I refuse to say wow over a player scoring frequently for a reserve team. It does show how desperate we have become when we are lauding such a thing.

[Caledonian Craig]

On 5/7/2017 at 6:42 PM, Malcolm said:

That's because in international terms they are not really potential superstars.  This has gone on for years....   our press are deluded and like a headline.   Remember Simon Donnelly was the new 'Kenny dalglish'...  Eoin jess a bit before that...  we have not produced any world class players since the 80s.

Hmm I have a slightly different theory. Nowadays our youth players/talents are finding it far harder to break into first team football due to the amount of foreigners now playing in Scotland and England. Clubs would sooner dip into the transfer market and look overseas for instant success than to bring through youngsters for long-term gain. It means less first team football means less experience less confidence and less chance to grow into a world class talent.

[Malcolm]

I think we have less players playing football now... kids are playing other things and hobbies

[er yir macaroon]

10 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Hmm I have a slightly different theory. Nowadays our youth players/talents are finding it far harder to break into first team football due to the amount of foreigners now playing in Scotland and England. Clubs would sooner dip into the transfer market and look overseas for instant success than to bring through youngsters for long-term gain. It means less first team football means less experience less confidence and less chance to grow into a world class talent.

There were more foreign players in the 90s. It should be easy for youngsters to break into the senior teams because the standard is so low. Actually, most teams in Scotland have a reasonable number of young scottish players.

[Caledonian Craig]

I am thinking chiefly of them progressing through to top English clubs which they used to do. And look at Celtic yes they have Scottish players but also just as many (if not more) foreigners in the starting line-up. It never used to be like that in 70s and 80s when we were at our most successful in qualification.

[Boynze]

6 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

I am thinking chiefly of them progressing through to top English clubs which they used to do. And look at Celtic yes they have Scottish players but also just as many (if not more) foreigners in the starting line-up. It never used to be like that in 70s and 80s when we were at our most successful in qualification.

they are not progressing because either the standard at these clubs has gone up, or the standard player we produce is going down, I suspect its a bit of both.

comparing to 70s or 80s is pointless, the whole footballing landscape has changed since then. we need to be looking forwards to come up with strategies that imrove our game, not looking for excuses as to why we have declined.

[andyD]

23 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

No I refuse to say wow over a player scoring frequently for a reserve team. It does show how desperate we have become when we are lauding such a thing.

Who's lauding it?

The article is from the spanish local press, that's hardly Scotland fans being in awe of it.

Edited May 10, 2017 by andyD

[andyD]

I'm pretty sure celtic starts 6 Scots more often than not. the same is true of all the top 6 sides in the SPFL iirc. So, the opportunity's there in our domestic league. I talked about this a fair bit in another thread; the mix of opportunity, quality of coaching and the mindset of your players. I think opportunity is the only one we've actually got right at the moment.

Coaching and mindset are the two places i think we're failing, and they're quite closely linked.

 

[PASTA Mick]

46 minutes ago, andyD said:

I'm pretty sure celtic starts 6 Scots more often than not. the same is true of all the top 6 sides in the SPFL iirc. So, the opportunity's there in our domestic league. I talked about this a fair bit in another thread; the mix of opportunity, quality of coaching and the mindset of your players. I think opportunity is the only one we've actually got right at the moment.

Coaching and mindset are the two places i think we're failing, and they're quite closely linked.

 

The number of Scots playing well for Celtic under BR is one of the most pleasing things for me this season.

It will be interesting to see how different the team looks next season. I can't see any Scottish players being bought (other than McGinn but im not sure it will happen). I can see players coming in that push McGregor, Griffiths, and maybe Forrest, down the pecking order. I can see Henderson, GMS, Allan and Christie all leaving. 

I can see more of the younger players pushing for a place but I expect it will be tough for them, especially if we do buy a couple of quality players as has been suggested. 

[Hertsscot]

On 09/05/2017 at 10:12 PM, Malcolm said:

I think we have less players playing football now... kids are playing other things and hobbies

Given the absolutely astronomic sums of money that modern day footballers can get paid you might think there was a bit of an incentive to make the most of any talent you had rather than playing computer games or whatever.

[andyD]

On 10/05/2017 at 7:14 PM, PASTA Mick said:

The number of Scots playing well for Celtic under BR is one of the most pleasing things for me this season.

It will be interesting to see how different the team looks next season. I can't see any Scottish players being bought (other than McGinn but im not sure it will happen). I can see players coming in that push McGregor, Griffiths, and maybe Forrest, down the pecking order. I can see Henderson, GMS, Allan and Christie all leaving. 

I can see more of the younger players pushing for a place but I expect it will be tough for them, especially if we do buy a couple of quality players as has been suggested. 

BR has said they're buy very few players. Focusing on quality. I haven't watched a massive amount of Celtic this season but I'd expect a centerback (as Toure steps up to coaching), an attacking center mid (looking for a big step in quality above Rogic/McGregor), and an agreement to reloan Roberts.

It's fair to say I can't see an obvious Scottish player to come in at centerback or attacking center mid who will make a difference at Champions League level. We simply don't have any centerbacks of the required quality, and while it would be interesting to see Cairney in there with Brown and Armstrong, I'm not yet sure he's on that level, and I'm pretty sure Celtic have the £20mil that Fulham would want for Cairney assuming they don't go up.

Still, that'd leave 4 starting certs in: Gordon, Armstrong, Brown and Tierney..
plus other regulars of: Griffiths, McGregor, Forrest.
And I think you're the about some of the younger kids stepping up, so fingers crossed some emerge positively from that.

[borojock]

4 hours ago, andyD said:

BR has said they're buy very few players. Focusing on quality. I haven't watched a massive amount of Celtic this season but I'd expect a centerback (as Toure steps up to coaching), an attacking center mid (looking for a big step in quality above Rogic/McGregor), and an agreement to reloan Roberts.

It's fair to say I can't see an obvious Scottish player to come in at centerback or attacking center mid who will make a difference at Champions League level. We simply don't have any centerbacks of the required quality, and while it would be interesting to see Cairney in there with Brown and Armstrong, I'm not yet sure he's on that level, and I'm pretty sure Celtic have the £20mil that Fulham would want for Cairney assuming they don't go up.

Still, that'd leave 4 starting certs in: Gordon, Armstrong, Brown and Tierney..
plus other regulars of: Griffiths, McGregor, Forrest.
And I think you're the about some of the younger kids stepping up, so fingers crossed some emerge positively from that.

Im not a Celtic fan but really appreciate the work celtic doing with the young scots there seems to be more up and coming scots with better potential at that club that any other at the moment

[wanderer]

In papers today that he has been promoted to the Malaga first team for next season, with a view to either have him in the first team squad or loaned out for the first half of the season.

[bookerman]

3 hours ago, wanderer said:

In papers today that he has been promoted to the Malaga first team for next season, with a view to either have him in the first team squad or loaned out for the first half of the season.

Good to see that his form in there second team has been noticed. Lets hope he kicks on now and shows his worth.

[Super_Scotlandfan]

Watched two of Malaga B's play off games, and tried to watch their main season highlights when I could (incredibly sad...I know). 

He does seem very impressive technically, his touch and vision look like his best assests. I'm not sure if he'll end up being an out and out goal scorer, he tends to play behind the striker/wider. Does have a good shot on him though. 

It's hard to tell what level he was playing at...all the Malaga B players were comfortable on the ball, played good football though. And there were one or two players that actually looked better than Harper.

Hopefully this step up to the first team goes well. Would be exciting to see a Scottish player in la liga. Let's wait and see though...

[TheBiggun]

2 hours ago, Super_Scotlandfan said:

Watched two of Malaga B's play off games, and tried to watch their main season highlights when I could (incredibly sad...I know). 

He does seem very impressive technically, his touch and vision look like his best assests. I'm not sure if he'll end up being an out and out goal scorer, he tends to play behind the striker/wider. Does have a good shot on him though. 

It's hard to tell what level he was playing at...all the Malaga B players were comfortable on the ball, played good football though. And there were one or two players that actually looked better than Harper.

Hopefully this step up to the first team goes well. Would be exciting to see a Scottish player in la liga. Let's wait and see though...

It didn't sound like his technical ability was the problem, sounded like he has a bit of a shit work ethic. Hope that's not true but only one way to find out.

[LewisEDI]

6 minutes ago, TheBiggun said:

It didn't sound like his technical ability was the problem, sounded like he has a bit of a shit work ethic. Hope that's not true but only one way to find out.

ehh? where u come up with that? Harper by all accounts has very good work ethic, he struggled with injuries during his time at brighton who were the completely wrong team for him to go to and he's wasted a couple of years there, delighted he is back in spain and making good progress, still looks like a long shot he will be involved with scotland but heres hoping

[bookerman]

1 hour ago, LewisEDI said:

ehh? where u come up with that? Harper by all accounts has very good work ethic, he struggled with injuries during his time at brighton who were the completely wrong team for him to go to and he's wasted a couple of years there, delighted he is back in spain and making good progress, still looks like a long shot he will be involved with scotland but heres hoping

Agree with this, Easy to forget he was born in spain and brought up in the spanish way of playing, So always thaough at the time  moving to the industrial style of the English Championship was a strange move at the time. If he going to make any progress his best bet is staying in spain.

[kmcca5]

On 28/06/2017 at 11:10 PM, bookerman said:

Agree with this, Easy to forget he was born in spain and brought up in the spanish way of playing, So always thaough at the time  moving to the industrial style of the English Championship was a strange move at the time. If he going to make any progress his best bet is staying in spain.

Industrial style of the English Championship? Not sure what football you have been watching pal but that shows a total lack of footballing knowledge. A. he didn’t even get a first team start in the "Industrial" Championship and only started rarely and mainly featured from the bench in the under 23's/Reserves. He wasn’t good enough, just because he played at Real Madrid as a kid dosn’t mean he’ll be a world beater.

Watch a bit of how Anthony Knockaert plays for Brighton and see how “Industrial” the football is down here.

 

 

[Parklife]

52 minutes ago, kmcca5 said:

Industrial style of the English Championship?

Yes. Like all English football leagues, the Championship undoubtedly places a higher value on physicality than football in almost any other country in Europe. 

[bookerman]

1 hour ago, kmcca5 said:

Industrial style of the English Championship? Not sure what football you have been watching pal but that shows a total lack of footballing knowledge. A. he didn’t even get a first team start in the "Industrial" Championship and only started rarely and mainly featured from the bench in the under 23's/Reserves. He wasn’t good enough, just because he played at Real Madrid as a kid dosn’t mean he’ll be a world beater.

 

Watch a bit of how Anthony Knockaert plays for Brighton and see how “Industrial” the football is down here.

 

 

 

Think you taking it a bit personal thinking i'm having a dig at Brighton. Could have been any Championship club he moved too would still say the same. The kid was brought up in in a more techinal style of play, So there no suprise he was going to struggle moving into that style of football and just cause it did not work out at Brighton dose not mean he not good enough, time will tell if he is or not.

[aaid]

22 hours ago, Parklife said:

Yes. Like all English football leagues, the Championship undoubtedly places a higher value on physicality than football in almost any other country in Europe. 

Fair point, but Harper didn't play in the Championship.  He played in the U23 league which is not a particularly physical league - the bulk of players are actually U21 and below - and he didn't exactly set the heather on fire.  

Lets see how he gets on but I'm not holding my breath.