The signing of Bangura is a classic example of the Board's reluctance to buy their top transfer targets in favour of cheaper options. In this case, out of Baba Diawara of Maritimo and Bangura of AIK, Bangura was definitely the cheap option. The excuse was that there was a visa problem with Baba Diawara, but when you combine the fact that Diawara commanded a fee that was £2 million higher than Bangura's and Lawwell's famously frugal approach to purchasing players, it's easy to draw your own conclusion. Despite being the bargain buy, Bangura still commanded a £2 million fee as well as a glowing reference from club legend Henrik Larsson. In the end, though, he had absolutely nothing to show for it. In every game he played for Celtic, only 11 of them in total, he scored 0 goals. Meanwhile, Baba Diawara was continuing to impress at his club Maritimo, scoring 10 goals in just 15 games for the Portuguese side. So what's the big deal? Clubs make bad signings all the time, what's so terrible about Bangura? As you'll read in one of my first articles, Bangura ended up having to play against Celtic while on loan from the club at Elfsborg. Celtic made a bad decision in its own right by trying to talk Bangura out of playing against them through the media, and the Celtic fans weren't too happy to see him play against them. At Celtic park in the return leg, there was a memorable incident culminating in Bangura feigning injury to try and get Kelvin Wilson sent off. Bad move. It's not often you end up paying £2 million for a striker, only for him to fail to score in any games and then end up trying to score against you.
As a recent university graduate and a huge supporter of Celtic FC, what better way to use my inevitable free time to write about my favourite football team? I'll cover most things that the supporters are talking about at the moment, which includes things that directly and indirectly involve the club. At times I may also stray into matters concerning English clubs.
