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| <-Page | <-Team | Sat 23 Dec 2006 Dundee United 0 Hearts 1 | Team-> | Page-> |
| <-Srce | <-Type | Herald ------ Players | Type-> | Srce-> |
| Valdas Ivanauskas | <-auth | GRAHAM SPIERS | auth-> | Charlie Richmond |
| 33 | of 066 | Paul Hartley pen 54 ----- | L SPL | A |
Strachan remains patientGRAHAM SPIERS, Chief Sports Writer December 23 2006 Celtic retain hopes of signing of Steven Pressley next week, though it looks as if Shaun Maloney will almost certainly be leaving Parkhead and signing a pre-contract agreement with a Premiership club sometime after January 1. Maloney is about to enter the final six months of his contract at Parkhead and has provided no intention of signing a new deal with Celtic. Aston Villa remain the favourites to sign the striker. Transfer business in and out of Celtic, during the January window, became potentially more pressing following the confirmation yesterday that full-back Mark Wilson has again been injured and will be missing for at least four weeks with a damaged knee. Gordon Strachan, the Celtic manager, admitted yesterday that, while Pressley and other players remain high on his agenda for January business, the loss of Maloney was something he was bracing himself for. "We are still trying to keep [Maloney]," said Strachan. "To be fair, it has reached a stage now where I just let Peter [Lawwell] get on with it. But nothing solid has happened in the past week to make us think that Maloney is going to sign any contract [with Celtic] next week." Dumitru Copil, the highly-prized young Romanian footballer, looks set to sign for Hearts – and not Celtic, as has been reported – on January 6. Strachan said he remained hopeful of Pressley's arrival at Parkhead. He and the former Hearts defender spoke once more yesterday morning, though the player has yet to announce his decision. "I've spoken again with Steven and we're trying to get him," confirmed Strachan. "But I wouldn't force anybody into a quick decision. He's got to make the right decision and I understand his predicament. He's thinking about his future for him and his family and I've been there myself, so I understand what he's doing." The Celtic manager has put a number of wanted names to his board, though he refused to be specific yesterday. "You don't want to be forced into buying people for the sake of buying people, and it may depend on how well our injuries come on," said Strachan. "There is money there, but you might have to plan on players going out, which would make more money available. "We've had meetings over the last couple of days over transfer-targets for January, and there are a lot of different scenarios. I can put a name to the board and they might say, 'Well, we've only got X-amount of money, but he looks a bargain at that price, so maybe we should go over it.' So it's not like it's ever just a simple figure. And we've got to ask: is any player a good investment for the future? "There's not a budget as such, but if I come up with a name which the board thinks is value for money, then something might happen. Every manager at every club has got to convince their board that this or that is the right player at the right time. "I'll give you an example: at first I didn't think we could afford Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink. But because the board thought he was a right top player, with some good years left in him, they said, yeah, fine, maybe we can push the boat out a bit more than we first thought. Jan might have cost us £3.2m when the club had originally only been prepared to spend, say, £2m. But because they thought £3.2m was a bargain, that was the way we went. "But you don't necessarily want to bring people in, just for the sake of it when other players are injured. Because then you are left in a situation, when your players are back and fit, of saying: 'Have we got better players than them, or do we have people who are just the same?' That is the problem." The Celtic manager admitted that the loss, yet again, of Wilson was a blow to the club. The full-back, described yesterday by his manager as "one of the best in his position in Britain", was injured during the Old Firm game at Ibrox on Sunday. "We've had some big players injured this year, but somehow we've got by," said Strachan. "We've been without Maloney, Gravesen, Vennegoor of Hesselink and Gary Caldwell. And now Wilson, whose attitude is fantastic. Somehow, though, the team just gets on with it."  Taken from the Herald |
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