Kris Commons: A Luxury Celtic Can Afford

The news that Kris Commons has signed a new two year contract is marvellous for Celtic, and for the player himself.

It is the news that puts the tin hat on an excellent transfer window where the club signed the two main targets Ronny had identified earlier this season, and where we lost none of the key members of the first team squad.

It is the perfect seal on a week which started with a comprehensive and effortless win over Sevco in the cup.

I’ve been laid up with the flu since the start of the week, so there’s been no article on those signings, but the Commons news was enough to get me out of bed and in front of the computer.

Not only is he a wonderful player, but his decision to renew his contract is symbolic.

First, it shows – along with the results from the transfer window – that we are in a very strong position vis-à-vis our playing pool.

We all suspect that Virgil will be sold in the summer; indeed, he appears to have reached a point where he talks like a guy who expects to go. In those circumstances we won’t keep him, whatever we might want to do.

Yet, if our scouting team is on its game we should find an adequate replacement before ever allowing him to leave.

Virgil aside, the rest of our first team squad looks secure in place for the next few years. The captain has extended his contract and now Kris has committed his future to the club. Once again, we look like we are actively building something rather than transitioning backwards.

Mackay Steven, Duffy and Armstrong are young, talented players who will be at the club for years to come.

The competition for midfield places will be intense, and that’s how it should be. We have a team full of international players, any of whom would walk into any other team in the land.

This creates genuine pressure on each individual, and that can only benefit Celtic.

Critics are already suggesting that Mackay Steven and Armstrong will be bench-warming. I disagree. I suspect both are good enough to secure – and hold down – a place in the starting eleven. Had Commons left at the end of the season, either player would have found it easier to bed into the team and his decision to stay makes their lives harder … which is partly why I am surprised that the club was willing to shift its stance slightly and give Kris the security he craved.

Simply put, I thought either of these signings would have effectively replaced him in the team. That he’s signed this new contract is notable because we appear now to be looking for strength in depth, of a sort we probably haven’t had since the O’Neill era.

When the club exited the Champions League earlier in the season, I think a lot of us thought there would be severe knock-on consequences, with the first team likely to be weakened significantly.

That it hasn’t happened speaks volumes about our financial stability and bodes well for the future development of the squad.

Purely and simply, I didn’t know if new signings on top of retaining the current pool was something that could be achieved.

Celtic did not need to retain Kris Commons. He has featured more sparingly this season than in previous years, and his impact has been less than normal. Two quality signings in a similar position further strengthened the case for letting him go … yet he will be a Celtic player until 2017.

I am delighted by all of this, and this news in particular. His performances of recent weeks have been excellent, like the Commons we came to depend on.

His goal against Sevco was magnificent.

He is clearly still an asset to our side, and will play frequently and I expect will do well when he does.

Yet for all that, with the strength of the team throughout the midfield you could make an argument that retaining him on a longer deal is a luxury.

This news does more than just give Celtic fans a lift. It is a timely reminder to Scottish football that whilst the media obsess over a shambolic state of affairs at Ibrox that other clubs are going about their business in a professional fashion, with long term goals and short term decisions going hand in hand with one another in a sustainable way.

If Commons is a luxury, he’s one Celtic can well afford.

Ronny Deila has a very good dilemma on his hands here in that he now has so many wonderful players to choose from.

Team selections can now be made with numerous options and tactical possibilities in mind.

Oh what a wonderful problem to have!

It helps, of course, that he clearly has another luxury not afforded everyone else in the game.

He has the luxury of being able to decide who to drop …