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Does Ronny Deila Have A Coherent Transfer Policy?

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Another day, another transfer story linking Celtic with a player.

Once again, that player is a midfielder.

It begs the question; what does our manager have about midfield players?

If it’s true that we’re really trying to bring a young Man City attacking midfielder to the club on loan then I’m worried, seriously worried, about what this guy is doing.

Because it makes zero sense.

We have a very good attacking midfield player – Scott Allan – who already must be wondering exactly why he bothered to sign for the club.

And why the club bothered to sign him.

Seriously … was it really about upstaging Sevco?

Isn’t that petty, moronic and insulting to the player?

Our midfield is the most overloaded part of the side, and I cannot fathom why we’d want to weight it down any further.

It frustrates me. It concerns me.

Other areas of the team need attention.

I’m also worried that we’re getting a reputation as some kind of feeder club where Premiership sides can send their young players to be blooded.

Every one of those guys we bring to Celtic Park takes up a place in the squad which isn’t being filled by a footballer we’re developing for ourselves and our own growth as a club.

It’s a place not being given to one of our own young stars, like Aidan Nesbitt, who I’d prefer to see in the team in front of a loanee.

This is dreadful stuff, Celtic.

When do we start thinking past the here and now and actually begin to move our own club forward?

So much of what we do at the moment seems built on providing short term answers to long term questions.

This could be just be speculation, of course, but a lot of the names we’re linked to at the moment seem to be in the same area of the pitch and so I continue to be baffled as to exactly what Ronny Deila’s plan for the squad is.

This transfer window is supposed to be The Big One, something we’ve heard repeatedly over the lsat few years.

This one is supposed to be the one that prepare us for the Champions League qualifiers next season, and the crucial issues we have to address need to be dealt with here and now or we’re going to have very serious problems by the time those matches come about.

If Deila is still the manager then his style emphasises the importance of two wingers.

Now that the ludicrous pipe-dream over Aiden McGeady has been sufficiently dealt with and the overdue denial has come we can look at realistic targets … is that being pursued?

I see a lot of rumour and conjecture, but not much action.

We’re almost halfway through the month.

Time is running out here, and fast.

We’re allowing some fringe players to go out on loan, and I said in a recent piece I can’t think of anything more sensible than allowing guys like Stokes to go out to Hibs and other teams in the Championship. It’s good to see that’s emerged as a possibility.

But it’s who’s coming in that will ultimately decide the manager’s fate.

I expect very little to happen in the crucial areas of the team – out wide and at central defence – if I’m being entirely honest.

Last season in January we got it mostly right; that was the exception to the recent rule, but we then saw that used as a partial defence for the complete lack of spending before the closure of the last window.

They really do treat us like mugs at times.

Here, we’ll be told the usual nonsense about how hard it is to get players in at this time of year and we’ll be promised jam in the close season.

I’m already wearily ready for all of that and more.

This the moment, this one right here, for acting decisively and restoring some faith in the direction of the club.

This is the most important transfer window since the Wilo Flood disaster because if we don’t get it right we’re going to be haunted by it from now until this time next year, when I strongly suspect a different manager will be at the helm.

Here we are, looking at more midfielders.

Exactly what we don’t need.

Ronny, you are fast running down the clock on your Celtic career.

It was David Grohl who sang “A little bit of resolve is what I need now.”

This is the moment to bring out yours.

You need to make the right calls here, and you need to be strong enough to stand up for your vision, whatever that it, and get the players you require to see it come to fruition.

There are 18 days left.

Your Celtic career will depend on what you do with them.

It’s time to show us what you’ve got, and it needs to be better than this.

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22 comments

  • mickydee says:

    Every manager we’ve had in recent years has been obssessed (Sevco word) with the midfield. We’ve had a glut of players for this position. Also Scott Allan doesn’t convince me as a player who will go on to be a dominating midfielder.

  • Benny McGuire says:

    Clueless , we are being conned constantly by board and coaching staff.

  • Yourhavingalaugh says:

    Got to agree,short term act filling a position that will be vacated by the understudies before next season and a more professional back room team also brought in.

  • schoosh71 says:

    You have answered so many of your questions there, but none of it with facts. So the bigoted SMSM make up ‘pish’ and because The Mighty Glasgow Celtic haven’t reacted they are somehow in the wrong. Young Allan has a teammates called Rogic and Mcgregor standing in his way and when he get his chance again, he’ll need to take it. That’s football. HH

  • swiss says:

    James

    “I strongly suspect a different manager will be at the helm”…..you never said a truer word!
    There is no doubt about it…..Ronnie will be gone in less than a year and i suspect if he loses one of the “cups” he will be axed although see out the season ( unfortunately).
    Peter Lawell will have this scenario in the back of his mind thus the imminent arrival of more players brought in on loan deals……a feeder club indeed

  • Patrick Street says:

    The acquisition of this midfielder makes no sense from two perspectives. In the first place he is presumably arriving to get some first team playing experience. How is he going to achieve that when we not only sent Liam Henderson to Hibs because we could not provide him with that very experience but also acquired another midfielder in the shape of Scott Allan in the meantime?
    Also the temporary nature of his contract does not in any way show that we are building for that early run at European survival in the summer by allowing a new player to bed in. He will be gone by then and Ronnie Deila, if he is still in charge (or is he really in charge?), will be judged on his success in the summer.

  • John G says:

    This is a helluva long article based on rumour about one of a hundred names we’ve been linked with. All this is based on speculation – why not wait and write about something when it actually happens?

  • Daviebhoyy says:

    Signing Allan to upstage Sevco might be petty, but wasn’t it you who suggested loaning out players Hibs in order to stop Sevco winning the League? Isn’t that petty?

    I don’t really care if that was the reason we signed him. He’s here now and I hope he takes his chance when it comes because he looks like a good player to have.

    • James Forrest says:

      No it isn’t petty in the slightest.

      Game time for our fringe players and strengthen the anti-Sevco teams in the Championship.

      That’s sensible and good business. You’re mad not think so.

  • Gavin says:

    Bang on. Let us get a quality striker and a few CB’s in ASAP.

  • Chico67 says:

    Cannot believe I’m hearing a Celtic supporter I think saying mngr away if losing a Cup this is usual piss from smsm Do not buy or believe shit printed by smsm always wait till we produce player before I believe who we r signing HH

    • alexbirrell1967 says:

      Spot on chico67

    • John says:

      Spot on

    • owen dolan says:

      Guess you must be deaf mate as a very large number of supporters are saying,and have been saying Deila is a dumpling.Heading up to two years of Deila and we have dropped at least one or two levels since he came,another year of him and we will be fighting to stay in the top six.HH

  • Billy says:

    Time to sack the board as they don’t care about support

  • Jimbo6770 says:

    Yes James I’m wondering too. We have enough MFs for 3 teams and yet we scabble about from game to game for CBs and Ws. What happened to the principle of sorting the spine and supply to Sts?

  • Thewildgoose says:

    I think it is hard for Celtic to bring real quality during the window as we can’t afford fees and wages and the best players do not want to come and play in Scotland. So I think the current system of looking for relatively unknown players ( Wanyama, Ki, Forster, Van Dijk) and buy the best domestic (Armstrong, GMS, Allen, Christie) is now what any Celtic manager has to deal with. However I do not think Ronny is the man to take us further but the really depressing thing is I don’t think it would matter who the manager is because of the conditions he would have to work in.

  • Jbhoy says:

    So your crying that we’ve got a player on loan from man city that we haven’t actually said we will bring in, and how we’ve got 18 days to do what exactly? and the manager is to blame because some half wit types some nonsense and you lap it up… And how we won’t give youth a chance because we want to be a feeder club and just have players on loan… exactly how many games is Blackett getting ahead of kieran Tierney? Did Leigh Griffiths get the faith kept in him? Did biton? Did rogic? The problem is not Delia the problem was we had a CB that wanted out and if we got into the cl he was going no where, watch who made the mistakes against Malmö and whether meant or not he cost us dear. most teams will falter when their back four are torn up, ours had a stumble and it cost us glory when we were damn close to it. If we punt stokes and get Cole fitter we will do the treble. We don’t need much else for this season, the plan is for the cl next season and for that we need a fit team and nothing else the balance and depth is good, boyata will come good, and so will cifti. Armstrong needs to rest to get fit and gms a little more focus. Can’t honestly believe people think Ronny isn’t all that, and somehow Collins because he upset the medicority at hibs and got them to win something is no better than a pub team manager. We are lucky to have both, and they want to be at the club and achieve the impossible which is what we all want surely?

  • Maurice McKenddrick says:

    This manager lost the dressing room after Maribor last year. He is unidimensional and doesn’t understand the game. Obvious to everyone watching the pish on the pitch EVERY week. However, getting rid of Deila will still leave us with Lawwell – a pure crank if ever there was one.

  • jim mulder sayers says:

    cifci wwas a mistake all he score are offside or whwn the goalie not in the box

  • Samson says:

    Still have faith in Armstrong but GMS and Cifti look very poor however don’t believe Ronny had any say in signing the Dundee Utd trio. With a budget next year of £2 million we will competing against English League 1 teams. It doesn’t matter who the manager is we will, most likely, have an another Euro horror show to look forward to. Getting humped in Europe not only means more empty seats on a Saturday but devalues the squad – which goes against the boards business model of buying cheap and selling on a a profit.

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