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Who’s Leaving Celtic In The Summer?

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Yesterday John Collins, sounding very much like a man not only planning to be at Celtic Park beyond this season but who has had assurances to that end, told the media what many of us already realised; the squad has become over-bloated and some players are going to be leaving.

I’ll leave aside the notion that Collins and Deila have been told to start working out their plans for the future. We’ll assume that’s so, because otherwise Collins’ words yesterday make no sense.

Who’s staying and who’s going?

Collins has given assurances about Allan and Christie, which makes them safe. Tom Rogic is set to be offered a new deal. The captain is going nowhere, and I would imagine that Johansen and Armstrong are staying.

If balancing the books is part of the objective, Nir Bitton is the one who it makes most sense to sell, in spite of the fact he too has just signed a new deal.

If that happens we ought to be furious, and not only because he’s a top player and we should be hanging onto him as long as possible.

He has been one of the lynchpins of this team and if we’re not going to have him next season then his planned replacement should be in the team already, and to my thinking that’ll be Scott Allan, who’s currently bench warming.

I suspect that Charlie Mulgrew will get a new deal; hints are already being dropped to that effect. James Forrest was being offered one, but everything went quiet there and that looks as if it’s dead.

I think he’s gone, and I think he’ll be followed by Kris Commons.

That’s not going to please people, but if Deila and Collins are still at Celtic Park I full expect that our goalscoring midfielder will be gone. The writing has been on the wall almost since the management team arrived and I think it’s as near certain as anything can be.

Our squad building strategy has been lunatic at best. Our midfield is the most over-bloated in Britain, an imbalance which you could see a mile away and which prompted my infamous close-season article saying that there was no way, no way ever, that we would spend money on Scott Allan when we didn’t need another midfielder.

Of course I wasn’t to know that Tom Rogic was on his way back and that he would be a major success this season.

With that in mind, Gary MacKay Steven could be another casualty, as could Callum McGregor although some people think he’s a manager’s favourite.

Defensively, I can see us parting company with Ambrose, which some people would welcome.

Up front, well I think our policies there have been patently ridiculous. Carlton Cole has a contract which runs another year and our Turkish signing, incredibly, has another two.

You have to think Ciftci will be coming home because otherwise the manager has wasted £1.5 million, although Scepovic is probably gone for good and his transfer fee with him.

None of this suggests we’ll be buying another striker in the summer; if Deila and Collins stay this is what we’re going into Europe with.

It’s hard to think of other obvious candidates except for those fringe players who are already on the periphery and we already know have no future. I don’t expect radical changes; that’s the bottom line. One or two “first team” stars will definitely go and a slew of guys most of us forget were even at the club.

I could, of course, be miles off. Because the team building has been so schizophrenic that perhaps we should have any expectation that the clear out will have any coherence. Everything about our squad building strategy has been hopelessly wrong under this management team and I don’t expect that to change now.

It’s one of the biggest criticisms you can level at them.

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