With the amount of striker we have been linked with I thought it was about time I put a name in the hat, Gary Hooper of Celtic.
Hooper, 24, who was born in Harlow, could be tempted in a move back to London, but recently has come out and said he is happy at Celtic and is looking forward to Champions League Football. Last
week I said seven million pound would be too much for Jay Rodriguez but for Hooper I would be tempted to dip into the war chest if I was Sam Allardyce.
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The Celtic number 88, number on the back of his because of the year he was born, has a fantastic goal scoring record, and some of the cynics will say “yes in the Scottish league” but whatever league you’re in you need to find the back of the net, and he has done that with regularity scoring 44 goals in 68 appearances, including five in one game during last season’s final game against Hearts.
The former Scunthorpe and Southend striker is said to be a Hammers so a move to the east end could tempt him, a natural fox in the box striker could be the difference between survival and
relegation. And Hooper could prove to be the perfect foil for Carlton Cole picking up on Cole’s flicked headers.
He was described by the Daily Record as being one of the most skilled attackers in the SPL. They also said that he had shown that he could deal with the physical nature of the Scottish game, due to his ability to ride a challenge well. To me that makes him sound like a mixture of both Ricardo Vaz Te and Cole, a skilled finisher and someone who can hold up the ball.
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If the Hammers could tempt him down to the Boleyn, he could become a firm fan favourite very quickly; we all love a player who is one of us, and a play who can take on the Cottee role on. One
stumbling block is for sure the fee involved, the Hammers maybe unwilling to offer up a fee of around 7-10 million for one player.
Meanwhile, the Hammers have told Leeds United to name the price for Snodgrass and are desperate to sign Yossi Benayoun and will today bid for Wilfried Zaha, after initial talks broke down. All this information has come from Bradley Palmer, so take it or leave it.
Come on you Irons!
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You lot have no chance of getting super hooper, he is looking forward to playing in the Champions league, not fighting a relegation battle with the ammers.
88 actually signifies the year of Celtic’s birth
Not in the case of Gary’s shirt.. It was always because of his birth year, it was just coincidental that it fits into the Celtic history… Unlike the squad number of Wanyama for instance which is selected because of club significance not a number directly related to the player 🙂
You lot all rate vaz te , right? Well hooper had hit 50+ goals in the spl. Your man vaz te couldn’t get a game at Hibernian. No brainier ! £ 12 million and we’ll maybe think about negotiating!
Look at Jelavic and the impact he had for Everton and he played for rangers in the SPL. Look at Larsson and what he achieved after the SPL. Hooper is a top class finisher. Believe me he would be some asset. We had Di Canio and you all know what he was like. Glasgow Celtic are a massive club, we know a player.Hooper is worth 10 million all day long.
you wonder whether he will be able to cut it at west ham..??ricardo vaz te couldn’t get in the hibs team which was nearly relegated and hes done alright for you. southampton who niicked second place from yous had two of our cast offs who couldnt get a game regularly in their starting line up. but my bet is he will stay at Celtic for now anyway.. he has often spoken about how happy he is in Glasgow on and off the pitch and will want a crack a the champions league.
‘yes it’s the scottish league’….. Personally I hope he stays, but if you look at Big ‘jellyfish’ over at Everton, he’s done his bit since singing from Rankgers
Hooper is a good finisher who showed up really well this season in the Europa league against udinese , Rennes and eventual winners athletico Madrid
His partnership with fellow strikers is fabulous as his one touch quick passes are excellent..
But if you TRUELY rate Vaz ye then hoops is worth £9m plus
Vaz te was a MAJOR flop in the SPL last season ?
Very balanced article I am very impressed 🙂
As a Celtic fan, and a keen on looker of scottish football in general I really appreciate writers such as the one in this article who has been very balanced and fair when discussing scottish football, which often gets a bad press in terms of the quality of the players and the overall quality of the league in general.
Gary is a top player whom I fully believe will get a chance with Roy in the England set up before long. But he will inevitably move on to an English club eventually as Celtic will not want to risk losing a possible transfer record tabled bid (ie anything above the 9.5 million paid for Aiden) with say only just over a year on his contract… (He has two left on his current deal)
88 is a fascist number isnt it? 8 represents the eight letter of the alphabet….HH Heil Hitler….
hmmmmm……
FACIST. grow up.
typo. FASCIST. still grow up
Who’s Henry Hitler??
Btw, 67 comes in as FG!
Frank Goering??!!
Got to be more than a coincidence!!
PMSL!!
Ps. WH, Walter Himmler? LOL!
Pps…..hmmmmmmmmmm……..
Keep dreaming! go and get a striker off a smaller team, theres no chance we’d lose our best striker to the likes of you, especially for only £7m
who the fuck are west ham? where do they play and have they even got a ground
The number 88 is because of the year of his birth, not when Celtic were founded. He tells you this on his official website
Can all the Celtic fans commenting on this article get a grip! If West Ham came in for Hooper he’d be off like a shot. Celtic are a massive club but play in a piss-poor league, if he came to West Ham it’d be a great base to launch an England career and play in the top league in world football for a club with prestige and history.