02 Feb 2021 10:02:46
There's no where to look for blame other than ourselves this season and I'm certainly not trying to do so but you couldn't write it or make it up. The perfect storm indeed.

Reportedly one of the quietest transfer windows in Engerland for many years yet we still get gazumped for the one player we're interested in and badly need.

'Liverpool just happen to be missing experienced centre-backs Joel Matip out for the rest of the season and Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez out with long-term injuries while midfielder Fabinho who has been standing in at the back is also out. '

So Klopp turns his attention to the one man in our sights who it sounds like he's never heard of until we were interested.

Read this for a statement from Klopp.

'On the arrival of Davies from Championship side Preston Klopp said: "It's probably clear that in a normal transfer window without any issues we would not look at Preston [to see] if there's a player for us or something like that.

How arrogant is that.

" (But) since our situation got clearer and clearer - the problems we had - when we saw him we got really excited about it and thought: 'Wow. '

Aye did ye aye.

"We see the quality and we see the potential as well because he's 25 and there's a lot to come for him. "

How depressing is that.


1.) 02 Feb 2021
02 Feb 2021 10:20:06
JFP1888 I've got a feeling Davies will end up at sevco on loan next season.


2.) 02 Feb 2021
02 Feb 2021 10:23:01
my concern is the fact that so many clubs we try to do business with get disgruntled about the way we do it, Hibs with Mcginn, Preston with Davies. is this Hammonds approach or Lawwell trying to squeeze every penny out of a deal.

{Ed007's Note - Why would Preston be disgruntled with Celtic when they done absolutely nothing wrong? Petrie and Dempster have left Hibs and taken their dislike of all things Celtic - and Petrie's personal hatred/jealousy of Lawwell - with them.}


3.) 02 Feb 2021
02 Feb 2021 10:31:51
That's what I was thinking also Phil.


4.) 02 Feb 2021
02 Feb 2021 10:32:12
Why do we leave everything to the last minute of a transfer window, we knew that we needed a centre back, once we had identified Davies as what we needed, why didn't we offer what Preston wanted, why do we have to bother with faffing about talking about pre contracts, we could have had the deal done before Liverpool became aware of Davies.

{Ed007's Note - Preston were adamant that Davies wasn't for sale and only the other day Alex Neil said he expected Davies to be there until the end of the season. We had agreed a pre-contract but it wasn't signed, once that was signed Celtic planned on opening talks with PNE about getting him in during this window.
No matter how much Celtic offered Davies was always going to Liverpool after they made their move and he told PNE he wanted to make the move to Merseyside.
There was no deal to do before Liverpool became involved and once they did the player had a choice to make, sign a pre-contract with us and probably stay at PNE until the summer or tell PNE he wanted to move to Liverpool.}


5.) 02 Feb 2021
02 Feb 2021 10:45:26
Ed agreed bad bounce rather than bad business.

{Ed007's Note - There was nothing Celtic could do once Liverpool got involved. Celtic went in for the pre-contract and a hope that PNE would fancy cutting their losses once that was signed. The guy's moved to one of the biggest clubs in the world, the current Pub League Champions that have been in 2 of the last 3 CL finals, he'll be getting wages that he probably thought he would never get near and the signing on fee will probably change his life alone - he hasn't even needed to move house or uproot his wife/gf and any kids they have.
But it's all Peter Lawwell's fault 🤦‍♂️
One of my mate's is still adamant that Lennon chooses who we sign, so I said to him who signed Barkas, he answers Lennon so I ask him who decided to not sign Ivan Toney and he said Lawwell 😂😂
So "bad" players we sign are Lennon's fault and good players we don't sign, well that's down to Lawwell.
I rest my case M'lud.}


6.) 02 Feb 2021
02 Feb 2021 11:04:22
Why didn't they open talks with PNE first, offer them some exorbitant sum, that Preston can't refuse, then talk to the player, before Liverpool shows any interest, .


7.) 02 Feb 2021
02 Feb 2021 11:08:15
I'm sure I seen Preston said out of courtesy we let them know we was in discussions about a pre contract with Davies which we didn't need to do. So I don't get where these stories are coming from that Preston wasn't happy with how we do business. With Toney it was more down to Peterborough making our interest public so they could try start a bidding war which annoyed Lawwell.


8.) 02 Feb 2021
02 Feb 2021 11:09:29
Do we have an “ all eggs in one basket “ approach to signing targets? And why don’t we have a deadline on offers that would allow us do the deal or move to the next target. I get that these things are complicated but surely a club of our size should not be left dangling at the tail end of a window by players who are not exactly high end of the market. Don’t mean to be disrespectful to any player but we need to take more control of these situations, make an offer, set a deadline or move to next target.


9.) 02 Feb 2021
02 Feb 2021 11:50:37
I would of thought we would of got Davies pre contract and tied up a loan for another defender until the end of the season. Youd like to think there was a couple of defenders being looked at and not just relying on davies getting brought in. Liverpool offered a player in exchange aswell as money so im guessing that's how they got davies easier than what we would.
Maybe the uncertainty about what's happening at the club aswell has players not wanting to come in aswell. Frustrating but hopefully there's a youngster or two that will step up now, that would be the only thing good to come out of the season if we found someone who could make that step.


10.) 02 Feb 2021
02 Feb 2021 12:13:34
If we bid for him 2 days ago he would be a Celtic player it's as simple as that.

{Ed007's Note - No he wouldn't because Preston would have rejected the offer as they didn't want to lose him and expected him to stay until the summer. The pre-contract was Celtic's bargaining tool when it came to trying to sign him in this window. Once Liverpool registered their interest the player told PNE he wanted the move, whether he would have done the same for Celtic if he had signed the pre-contract we'll never know.}


11.) 02 Feb 2021
02 Feb 2021 12:18:20
Celtic have been free to talk to Davies since January 1. They could have started earlier than they did.
A report said 500k rising to 1.1m. We could afford that.

{Ed007's Note - So when did Celtic start talks with Davies agent? The fee has nothing at all to do with it.}


12.) 02 Feb 2021
02 Feb 2021 12:30:13
Ed. Only saying if we bid a solid offer then we would have got that accepted and had our man that's what I believe. clubs come out all the time and say we don't want to sell but it's not always the case.

{Ed007's Note - Davies had to tell PNE he wanted to move to Liverpool - not quite a written transfer request - that's why they sold him. The player told them he wanted to move otherwise the chances are he would still be at PNE or if he signed our pre-contract Celtic would have then tried to sign him this window. Preston didn't want to sell him, there was no fee to offer or agree until the player himself told them he wanted the move to Liverpool.
This is nothing to do with money or when Celtic spoke to anyone, this is down to Ben Davies making a personal decision.}


13.) 02 Feb 2021
02 Feb 2021 12:42:33
Do you think he would be a Celtic player right now if Liverpool didn't come in for him?

{Ed007's Note - I think if he had signed the pre-contract there's a good chance of it, Liam.}


14.) 02 Feb 2021
02 Feb 2021 13:01:15
Agreed ed.

{Ed007's Note - 👍 Remember though, he didn't need to sign the pre-contract last month. He had 6 months to decide on that.}