Much has been made of Celtic's recruitment failures in the past few transfer windows. The transformation from Champions League knock-out participants to European also-rans wading through domestic chaos has been staggering and surprising all at once. The removal of Paul Tisdale as head of football operations has created a bit of a vacuum which will take time properly to fill.
Sometimes you need to zoom out for the full picture to come into sharper focus.
Much has been made of Celtic's recruitment failures in the past few transfer windows. Understandably so. The transformation from Champions League knock-out participants to European also-rans wading through domestic chaos has been staggering and surprising all at once.
It goes to show how quickly, and profoundly, things can fall apart if the wrong people are minding the shop. The removal of Paul Tisdale as head of football operations has created a bit of a vacuum which will take time properly to fill.
This is a mess entirely of Celtic's own making: a club preparing to hit the re-set button across all departments. Which goes a long way to explaining why loanees have been jetting in lately as opposed to permanent signings. The five players they've brought in might turn out to be valuable additions to the squad. They may also all disappear in June amid another period of turbulence.
Not that the board didn't try to spend some money. One of the most interesting revelations of the January window was that Celtic had actually agreed to give Italian second tier side Frosinone around £6m for a winger with little top flight experience anywhere, and who cost the Serie B outfit a whopping £300,000 two years ago. Talk about hyper-inflation.
It was apparently Fares Ghedjemis himself who pulled out of the move to Scotland at the last minute, fancying a crack at promotion to Serie A instead. He may turn out to be a very fine player. He may also have done Celtic a massive favour. What if the next Celtic boss didn't fancy him?
Therein lies the quandary for the Parkhead power-brokers as they try to navigate from one crisis to the next. Martin O'Neill turns 74 next month, there is every chance, come the summer, that he retires. Again. Should he win the Premiership before then, however, he should be given the keys to the club for as long as he wants.
Let's assume, however, that a new man comes in. He'll likely want an entirely new set of players. A massive rebuild at a prohibitive cost, never mind the five loan players. Would anyone be remotely surprised if Japanese stalwarts Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate moved on? Could Celtic seriously hold on to Arne Engels if Nottingham Forest come back with anywhere near £25m in a few months' time? Not with a squad rebuild on the go.
The Celtic team that starts the 2026-27 season is likely to bear little resemblance to the one that finishes this campaign. The club has forced itself into a state of ongoing flux.
At present Mark Cooper is heading up recruitment, assisted by ex-Chelsea man James Bell-Walker. Their job is at once easy and difficult: come up with a better calibre of player than those recruited last year but do so at pace and in great volume. Oh, and it may all change depending on the next manager's preferences.
No wonder temporary sticking plasters are the order of the day for the moment. When they're all ripped off, though, it may not leave a pretty sight in the summer.
Category: General Sports
