Celtic youngster loan decision made after rival interest
But the Daily Record is now reporting the decision has been taken to send the 19-year-old to Somerset Park.
Celtic are in talks with the Honest Men about entering into a co-operation agreement after plans to team up with Queen's Park were binned. And pathways manager Shaun Maloney is said to have been impressed by the setup.
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That is why Celtic B team captain Ure will make the move, joining teammate Jude Bonnar who has already made the same move.
Ure won the Celtic academy player of the year award and has been involved with the first team in pre-season, appearing against Queen's Park, Cork City, Estrela da Amadora and Sporting CP.
He is highly-rated and Ayr is seen as the next stage of his development.
After missing out on the midfielder, Partick Thistle still hope to land goalkeeper Josh Clarke on loan from the Scottish champions.
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Scotsman
a minute ago
- Scotsman
Hearts money, investment, budget and transfers put to the test
SPFL Premiership progress will determine the worth of the overhaul Sign up to our Hearts newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Player contracts and transfer fees totalling millions of pounds are designed to restore Hearts as one of Scottish football's main challengers. Four new coaches and seven new signings are in place. Paperwork is signed and stored in the Tynecastle Park filing cabinet, which remains unlocked for more new deals to be added. The bulk of a necessary overhaul is done. The work is now about to be properly tested. The William Hill Scottish Premiership kicks off this weekend while new-look Hearts look on. Their opening game is delayed until Monday night for the benefit of Sky Sports. After a frenetic summer of activity, Derek McInnes' team is primed to take on Aberdeen. McInnes and assistants Paul Sheerin and Alan Archibald left Kilmarnock for Gorgie in May, followed by set-piece coach Ross Grant and seven new recruits. At least two more will follow. The changing face of Hearts has literally cost millions in compensation, transfer fees, signing-on fees and wages. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad We are about to discover whether it was all worth it. The Aberdeen game alone won't define the campaign but over the coming weeks it will become clear just how much McInnes, Tony Bloom and Jamestown Analytics have rejuvenated Hearts. Finishing seventh in last season's Premiership wasn't acceptable, hence the change of manager and influx of new players. The management team will watch rival teams open their league campaigns over the weekend in anticipation of a powderkeg fixture at Tynecastle on Monday. 'We're all getting out to watch games this weekend,' said McInnes. 'I've seen Motherwell, picked them up this season, and picked St Mirren up this season already. You always like to see what teams are doing, new signings and whatever. Like last season: What teams are playing a back five? What teams are committing to a back four? You try and get a flavour of how they're going to be and you always see what the new signings are like. 'There is that interest to see what players are bringing to different clubs, but I think tactics and systems can sometimes be a bit overplayed. I think it's all about whoever makes the good signings. That can be key because I think clearly there are a lot of people doing it their own way and a lot of people are investing money. 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'It's been a long week. It's one of these unusual weeks when you have to wait to the Monday,' admitted McInnes. 'Players had Sunday, Monday off, just on the back of the schedule they've had. We've worked three pretty tough days, three proper working days. We had the bounce game [against Dundee] on Wednesday. It still feels Monday is a million miles away, though. 'Normally, you get to this point in the week and you're getting the juices flowing for the game, but they're making us wait for this game. I think it will be worth the wait. I do think the positives of the game being Monday allows us to maybe get one or two closer to playing through the injury side of it. and obviously it gives us a wee bit longer to get one or two players registered and signed as well [Kabore and Magnusson]. We are trying to take the benefits of that. 'The game itself is everything you want from the first game of the season. A home game, live on Sky, sellout, up against a good team with good players. 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Daily Record
a minute ago
- Daily Record
Alistair Johnston gets Celtic penalty pain perspective from fellow newlywed as key question answered
Aberdeen defeat threatened to put a dampener on Johnston's big day until getting sage advice from another groom to be It was a summer of mixed emotions for Alistair Johnston. An agonising penalty miss at Hampden handed Aberdeen the Scottish Cup and ended Celtic's Treble dreams in the cruellest fashion. For Johnston, it wasn't the way the season was supposed to finish. Especially not with the biggest day of his life around the corner as he prepared to marry his long-term partner Peyton. It can take weeks to get a defeat like that out of the system. Especially when it's usually Celtic doing the celebrating on the podium. But after a heart-to-heart with close pal and ex-teammate Greg Taylor, it wasn't long before newlywed Johnston was smiling again. He said: 'I talked actually a lot to Greg about it because he had done something similar the year before. "He had his wedding the week following the cup final. I asked him, 'Does a result kind of really affect the wedding?'. "He's like, 'Look, once the season's done and you're fully focused on your wedding, it's the biggest day of your life'. It's exactly that. "Once I got there, saw my friends, family I pretty quickly forgot about football. You remember that there are still more important things in life, your family, your wife. "It was nice to kind of put the failure of that cup final behind me and kind of really just reset, focus on the people that were there and then get ready for the internationals. "Once we got through that tournament, I remembered, 'Okay, we've got something to come back and try and win back when I get back into Scotland'. "So I think there's an extra level of motivation now. You can see it through the entire group. "There's definitely a bit of a burning passion there to get back what we think is our trophy. So that's something that we have a challenge of this year.' Now entering his third full season at Celtic Park, Johnston has already racked up an incredible seven trophies - including a Treble and back-to-back Doubles. But the Canada international - who helped his country reach the quarter-finals of the Gold Cup - is determined to make amends this season. He said: 'If you never lose, then you kind of forget what the feeling of winning really is. "I want to sit here and say that I want to win every single trophy. That is the case. "But, at the same time, when you do lose one you probably come back with a bit more of a fire in your belly to go out there and really kick on that following year. "So I don't think that it's necessarily a bad thing. It is in the past. Obviously, we would have loved to have won a treble. It didn't happen. "But now that gives us all the extra motivation to go out there and try and make it happen this year. "So I think that that's a really positive thing that comes out of it. I think you need to try and find what are the learnings and the growths from that match so we can learn from it and make sure that doesn't happen again. "But at the same time, that's football. You're not going to win every single match. "We'd love to do that. So I think that, you know, going into this year, it really does just kind of add a little bit of extra fire to everyone that's in this. "You want to put things right and ideally to have our trophies back is kind of the plan.'
The Courier
18 minutes ago
- The Courier
4 Dundee United talking points: What will Tangerines bank from Euro progress?
Iurie Iovu was Dundee United's European hero in Luxembourg, heading home the only goal of a scrappy contest against UNA Strassen. The win in Differdange secured a 2-0 aggregate triumph and teed up a tantalising crack at Austrian giants Rapid Vienna. Courier Sport was in the Grand Duchy to analyse the talking points from a victorious night. For those lucky enough to get one of the 1,018 golden tickets or the fans viewing on SolidSport, it was a tough watch. United, visibly a work in progress, surrendered possession too often, were second to myriad loose balls and left huge gaps for Strassen to play through, especially in the first period. With better finishing from Daryl Myre or Matheus de Souza, the Terrors' aggregate lead could have been wiped out. One can safely assume future Premiership opponents, and Rapid Vienna, will not be so profligate. And, to borrow a phrase from the dominant tongue in Luxembourg, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. A completely revamped team, containing 11 new players from across the continent; yet the questions surrounding Jim Goodwin's preferred 3-4-3 shape are identical to those being asked at this point last year. Namely: is there enough cover in midfield? Particularly when possession is turned over. United certainly have more mobility in the engine room this term but, unless they look after the football with more care, the tactic can be alarmingly open. United looked more solid after going to a 3-5-2 after the break. As the squad gels and on-field relationships build, United's 3-4-3 may click but, as Goodwin stated himself, 'that has to happen quickly'. Ideally by Sunday, because the Premiership opener at newly-promoted Falkirk is an occasion 15 years in the making for the Bairns and they can be expected to explode from the blocks. They will also be fresher and able to call upon far more match-specific preparation. Forget Rapid; John McGlynn's men are a sufficiently onerous prospect for the moment. The room for improvement is patently clear. But that should not blind fans to a solid achievement. After all, the result is what matters. Prior to Thursday evening, United had only won a two-legged European tie by keeping a clean sheet in both legs three times in their entire history. One must go back to Celtic against Nomme Kalju in 2019 for any Scottish side achieving that feat. Only three other bosses – Jim and Tommy McLean, and Jerry Kerr – had ever managed the club successfully through even one round. Goalkeeper Yevhenii Kucherenko has now played 60 minutes against PEC Zwolle, 45 minutes against St Johnstone and Oldham, and two games against Strassen and is yet to pick the ball out of his net. Similarly, centre-backs Krisztian Keresztes, Bert Esselink and Iovu are yet to concede a goal as a trio. United, meanwhile, progressed through a continental tie for the first time since 1997. Scottish clubs, United included, have not earned the right to greet that with a blasé shrug. No one who remembers the Terrors' ill-fated MyPa-47 tie in 2005 – or Rangers' visit to Progres Niederkorn of Luxembourg in 2017, for that matter – should take the Tangerines' qualification for granted. That is especially true when considering that, this time just two years ago, United were kicking off a gruelling season in the Championship with a trip to Arbroath. It's been a hell of a journey, navigated in remarkably swift time. The prestige of a European clash against the 32-time champions of Austria, Rapid Vienna, is priceless. However, the monetary value of progressing to that rematch of United's 1983/84 European Cup quarter-final is not to be underestimated. United's continental adventure is now guaranteed to bank the club £750,000 in prize money. That is before considering the likelihood of a bumper, lucrative gate at Tannadice against Rapid – especially if the tie is still alive after next Thursday's trip to Vienna – and associated broadcast revenue. If they had exited against Strassen, they would have earned £440,000. A sizable chunk less. So, while the performance may have left plenty to be desired, progression was all that mattered – on the pitch AND the balance sheet. At a time when United are still actively seeking reinforcements, that additional £300,000 could make a material difference. 'My biggest wish is to be healthy throughout this season.' Words that now echo with cruelty. The Macedonian winger lost months of last season with persistent hamstring issues and, even when he regained a semblance of fitness, the former FK Shkupi man didn't hit the heights of his early form. As outlined to Courier Sport earlier this week, Trapanovski has worked tirelessly over the summer to ensure he reported for duty in peak condition. His form in pre-season was heartening. Then, just 41 minutes into the second leg against Strassen, he clutched the back of his leg as he sought to catch a long pass. Another hamstring strain. One can only hope, for the player's sake and United's, that the damage is nothing too severe.
