Now we find out, folks.
This coming week we find out whether or not this club really is as well run as it looks from the outside. The collapse of the deal for Rivaldo Coetzee, announced last night, leaves us in a real quandary. That signing was supposed to answer our central defensive crisis.
Some think it was supposed to allow Erik Sviatchenko to leave, although I can’t pretend I’d have been in the least bit impressed by such a piece of transfer market sleight of hand which saw an experienced, known quality, depart to replace him with an unknown, option who even with the best will in the world would have needed a settling in period.
In some ways we’ve just been very unfortunate. No-one could have seen a crisis like this coming. To have so many players out at the same time is the worst luck in the world. It’s to Brendan and the team’s credit that we’ve done so well.
But it’s not tenable. It will not do. Solutions need to be found. Nobody expects us to win games against elite clubs, but you want to have some kind of chance and with the current backline we don’t. Will it be expensive? It needn’t be, not necessarily. If we’ve done our homework and really do have a list rather than just one player in mind then we can get the job done in the time necessary. But we badly need another central defender.
I have to admit, on one hand I was glad for the opportunity to see how well Brendan’s team of last season would get on in the qualifiers. It was natural to want to see how much progress had been made, and I think overall we saw that it’s a lot.
But it set this scenario up, just as I knew it would, where with only days left we’re now in a scramble.
I know someone above Brendan’s head took a decision to wait and see if we qualified, but it was reckless and had we not made it I suspect I’m not the only blogger who would have been furious.
The pursuit of Roberts has taken a ridiculously long time. He will move in this window, and I suspect he’ll be back at Celtic Park, but if he’s coming here on loan at the cost people have been talking about, I’ll be honest I’d have preferred we spend the money on a permanent signing instead of pouring more into the coffers of the world’s richest club, who if the numbers are accurate are just screwing us for the satisfaction of it.
With the news that Dembele is going to probably miss the first Group game the need to sign a third striker is acute, and no time should be wasted in getting one in.
Look, we are a well-run club. We follow a very specific plan, and I don’t need convincing of the rightness of that plan.
But we don’t half make it hard at times; our transfer business should have been concluded weeks ago, and the players already bedded in.
The excuse that there are more players available at the end of a window is one I just don’t buy and I never have, because you know what? The final days are invariably not that different from the days and weeks before them … empty of news and activity. We generally don’t do a lot of business unless it’s to shock the supporters with a sale.
Benyu on a free transfer; one for the future. Jonny Hayes … I’ve gone over that so many times that it warps my brain.
I’ve seen no sign at all from him that I was wrong to brand him an SPL calibre player who will do well domestically but offers us exactly nothing on the bigger stage.
Oliver Ntcham is our signing of genuine quality, and will be a star.
And that’s our transfer business as yet. No third striker. No new options at the back. In fact, the back line is weaker for the sale of Izaguerre which leaves us in the appalling position, should anything happen to KT or, you know, we decide to give this kid a break for a week or two, of having to put Hayes in his position or play another young kid in a role he’s not suited to. The one hope is Calvin Miller, who is a phenomenal prospect, but seriously … do you want to see him line up in the Allianz Arena or against Neymar?
Overall, this is pretty unimpressive.
Overall, it’s not what we were hoping for.
Overall, it’s pretty weak actually.
But of course, there’s a week to go. A week in which we’ll see where we are, and what the people who work on our transfer business are made of. We’ll see what they can come up with, and what our squad looks like at the end of it.
The supporters have come through again in this window; the season tickets are bought, the new shirts are everywhere, the merchandise machine is chugging along quite nicely. The board owes the fans, and the manager, and no mistake.
It’s delivery time.
Get it done, Celtic.