Celtics Communication breakdown
By Carys Baptist
August 9 2004
The lack of communication at Celtic has brought to the attention of the media two completely different stories when it comes to Alan Shearer and a move to Celtic.
The lack of communication at Celtic has brought to the attention of the media two completely different stories when it comes to Alan Shearer and a move to Celtic.
Chairman Brian Quinn claimed
“The interest in Alan Shearer was not generated by us in the first place, it was generated by the other side – by the player and his agent.
It was a question as to whether Alan Shearer was going to move, whether Celtic would have an interest.
You don’t turn around and turn anything down without thinking about it
So we had a interest buy it never crystallised into a formal offer.”
He continued to say that Shearer’s Agent was the one doing the talking and that he is the one in charge of the situation. He also admitted that Celtics chances of signing the former England Captain is rapidly decreasing.
However in complete contrast to Quinn’s story Martin O’Neil has revealed that it was HIM who approached Shearer and NOT the reverse.
This was announced AFTER Sir Bobby Robson had spoken about the approach made by O’Neil – one, which was furiously denied by Quinn.
“I think what sometimes happens is that I don't relay the messages properly to the board.
I was making inroads. We've lost a quality centre forward and we'd like to replace him with a top-class player. I might as well start at the top and work my way down.
Not that I want to argue with the chairman but I made the initial conversation with Mr Robson.
We were looking round to see who could provide around 30 goals a season for us if that's possible.
And when you do you might as well look upwards and see if anything is available.”
O’Neil looked at several players including Shearer in a bid to replace Henrik Larsson but failed to reveal any more details.