There are fourteen days to go until the transfer window slides closed. As ever, there’s a little anxiety in the Celtic support about quite what the Hell we are doing. We have money burning a hole in Brendan’s pocket, but little sign of it being spent.
So it looks, on the surface, anyway.
But I’m assured that things are going on behind the scenes. Frankly, they had better be. Brendan has made it quite clear that he wants the squad improved coming out of this window. Celtic fans are being asked to purchase tickets for a Europa League tie. We’re one central defender down going into that match, and now Armstrong is out of it too … we are, by definition, weaker as a squad as new Bhoy Compper can’t play in that competition.
If the club has given up on that tie why the Hell should fans pay to attend the home leg?
Is Brendan really confident going into those games with this central defence? If so he believes in something that, frankly, the rest of us don’t. I have to think some further business will be done in that area of the pitch. I also have to think we’ll get the creative player he wants.
But really, how many signings is enough? Another one, perhaps two. That’s my honest answer. We’ve brought two in already, and I hear there are three more to come, but I’d settle for one or two as long as they were the right one or two.
There are a lot of managers who believe that the only answer to a problem is to sign players. Those guys are not to be trusted in the modern game. Others tweak around the edges, taking time to put the pieces in place, little by little, brick by brick. Brendan has not spent fortunes since arriving at Celtic Park. Every player was signed with a purpose.
Simply put, we don’t need to turn this window into a wholescale rebuilding job because such a job is not required except in the back line. We have a strong midfield. We have good strikers. We could use one more creative player for those big games against good sides or those matches when SPL opponents put eleven men behind the ball … but this is a good squad.
Other clubs are slapping in bids left right and centre. They have to. They have no option. They have squads of powderpuff players who aren’t going to cut it. Even then, their transfer policy seems haphazard at best. Ibrox now has five strikers on the books; Miller, Herrera, Dodoo, Morelos and Cummings. They play one up front most games.
That makes zero sense. But nothing that club does makes any sense. Even the signing of Cummings, which the media has lauded, is pretty unusual. Here’s a player who was long linked with Celtic, at a time when we needed a striker and he was going cheap. Why didn’t we go for him?
Well, perhaps it has something to do with the fact that until the play-off games which send Hibs down he had never scored a top flight goal.
Ponder that. The media won’t mention it, but ponder it.
Jason Cummings had never scored a top flight goal until the Hamilton play-offs in 2014.
He broke into the Hibs team in season 2013-14. He played 16 games, nearly half a campaign.
He did not score once.
His club were relegated that season in spite of his double against their fellow SPL strugglers, and they spent the next three years in our second tier. Where, of course, he scored regularly. It got him his move to England’s second tier … a much tougher football environment. And there, he was a flop.
In his three seasons in the Championship he did very well, but last season he was tied as top scorer with Stephen Dobbie and in the season before that he was second to Sevco’s own Martyn Waghorn. Remember him, and what happened to him in the SPL?
Sevco and others are signing players because they have to. They lack the calibre of manager who can turn around a failing team. They lack the right quality of coaching, which can make players better. The number of times this lot has rebuilt a squad and talked about being “back” – from the dead, one would presume – is pretty ridiculous.
And they do it time and time again.
Celtic, on the other hand, went into this window with a strong squad and I think most of us believed at least one key player would be departing during it.
Now Brendan’s talking as if even Simunovic will be staying at the club.
This is interesting, because there’s genuine interest in the player from abroad and I got the impression that the club wouldn’t be hard to deal with.
Brendan must think there’s more to get out of him.
Whether he’s right or not, he stands and falls by these decisions and time will tell if it’s the right one.
There will be business in the next two weeks, in and out of Celtic Park.
We want to emerge stronger, not transformed.
Let others fumble about in the bargain bin mistaking quality for quantity. We have bigger goals in mind that simply getting through this season. We see further on the horizon than that, and whilst it’ll be a disgrace if we do nothing I don’t expect it.
Keep the faith folks.