Today Brendan Rodgers is said to be putting the finishing touches to his first piece of business in the January window. I expect we’ll be busy, with a few coming in and a few more going out. I don’t expect it to be dull.
The manager has proved that you don’t need to make a dozen signings to change a team. He has won a trophy and built a league lead that looks unassailable even so early in the season. He has restored some pride in Europe, and given us hope for next year.
In short, Brendan has earned our trust and the trust of the board.
Now rumours suggest that his trust is about to be rewarded by them, as he gets ready to close his first major deal of January. The player he’s close to signing is American midfielder Darlington Nagbe, who was a guest of the club for the recent Champions League tie with Barcelona. This will represent a significant outlay for the club – the fee being mentioned is £3 million – but it will also afford us some opportunities to expand our reach.
Celtic has long coveted a top class American signing, the kind of player who would expand our profile in a country that has gone football mad. This guy would be perfect. And from what I’ve heard and seen in the videos, he would be an asset to the team.
Brendan has delivered, and he’s delivered big time. It is good to see the board is gearing up to deliver for him. If this signing goes through we’ll see what else he has in store. For sure, we’ve been scouting Portugal for a while now … that has to come to something.
In the meantime, it’s worth keeping an eye on the exit door too. A couple of players are certainly due for departure; Nadir Ciftci, Efe Ambrose and possibly young Boyata amongst them. It’s difficult to see any of those guys getting back into the squad.
Patrick Roberts is in his last six months at the club; don’t be surprised if we’re looking at a winger to come in now or in a pre-contract agreement.
That’s just speculation, of course. What we do know is that people at Celtic Park have been very busy, and we’ve already made good headway in selling Darlington Nagbe on the club and on the supporters. That will pay off in spades when the negotiations commence.
The window’s nearly open and we’re getting off to a flying start! It’s ironic that we will probably spend more on this player than Sevco has spent on transfers in the five years of its existence … and even scarier for them, we’ll probably get back every penny, plus change, from our share of the transfer fee which is imminent for Virgil Van Dijk … which means we can tie this deal up without any net spend at all. Leaving us plenty more where that came from.
It’s a nice time to be a Tim, right?
In Brendan We Trust.