Abada update, buck stops with Nicholson, January delays and Haley’s chance

Compared to most other hacks in the Scottish mainstream media, the Celtic fanbase generally regards Stephen McGowan of the Daily Mail with more respect. And there’s a good reason for that—he’s been covering Celtic for a long time, and his reporting has been more accurate than anyone else’s. This morning, as Just an Ordinary Bhoy commented on earlier on The Celtic Star, McGowan’s daily piece is about Liel Abada, the horrible circumstances in Palestine and pressure on the player from his homeland to leave Celtic in the January transfer window.

McGowan seems to be writing mostly about the situation as it was at the beginning of October rather than how it is today. Furthermore, Liel Abada has not been called upon by Israel to quit Celtic, unless we have missed it. Exists undisclosed pressure operating behind the scenes? Perhaps, but even in that scenario, the reporter for the Daily Mail makes no indication that he has any fresh inside information.

Rather, an accumulation of facts and interpretations of facts leads one to believe that Abada is dissatisfied with his role at Celtic since Celtic supporters back the Palestinian cause. Given the developments of the last several months, it will be challenging for them to locate an ally who will stand by Israel outside of his native country if that is the case.
However, as Just an Ordinary Bhoy noted, due of what the Israeli government and military have done, no one in the Celtic camp harbors resentment towards Liel Abada. Upon returning from a lengthy injury layoff to play for his country, Abada was greeted with great cheers from all 60,000 Celtic supporters inside Celtic Park when he came off the bench against the Rangers.

Similar to what happened at St. Mirren earlier this month, Abada stayed behind the group of Celtic players who cheered the supporters at the final whistle. During these post-match festivities, nobody was insulted, and it’s a fact that nothing improper was spoken about the athlete.

The Celtic Star has verified that, based on their prior investigation, Stephen McGowan’s conclusions this morning are correct and that there is no reason to believe that Liel Abada will be departing the team in January. The athlete does appear to be content at Celtic, in fact. So there you have it.

With several players potentially going, assuming deals can be struck, Celtic is anticipated to make three additions during this window. The recruitment team, led by Michael Nicholson and Brendan Rodgers, is working on this, although Peter Lawwell, the chairman of Celtic, is not one of the guys participating. Any compliments or criticism should be aimed at the current CEO as they are the ones who make the final decisions these days. His trading days in January are long gone.

Frustrations at the lack of signing activity began to boil yesterday, ten days into the window; yet, the fact that there have been no signings three-quarters of the way through the window implies that other markets are being compared to the last few years.

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