The transfer window at Celtic moved into another gear today when a series of media interviews revealed what we all suspected; Brendan wants more signings in and expects to get them. The three front player have given us options there. He wants greater competition in other areas of the field now, most notably, you’d think, at the back.
This is what our opponents and rivals would have feared of course, that the manager would get the chance to add a half dozen players to our team. Yes, a few will depart on loan or whatever – including, it’s thought, young Lewis Morgan – but the squad will be a lot stronger than it is right now and that’s the key, that’s the issue that matters.
Crucially, the manager has confirmed that this window is about strengthening for the Champions League qualifiers as much as it’s about bringing in the players we need to get the eighth title, and the Treble Treble, over the line. It is an important window, especially as January went some horribly wrong.
To the credit of all at Celtic Park, they appear to know it.
Things have moved quickly, much more quickly than I would have thought.
To have gotten three signings over the line already is good going, and whilst I agree that we needed to resolve the striker situation before any of the others, the need for us getting in defenders is particularly acute. A move for Castagne, the right back at Atalanta, now looks unlikely …
I hope the club has moved past that and onto fresh targets.
There’s no point dragging our feet.
The central defence is another key area; the manager has suggested that Boyata will be at the club until the end of the season. That’s a £9 million mistake, and it’s going to cost us, but he appears comfortable with the decision. I disagree with it entirely, but these are the decisions he is paid to take and he doesn’t look like second guessing himself.
This is fair enough. The manger clearly knows what he wants, and if he didn’t have some sort of guarantee that he would get at least one centre back in this window I don’t think he’d be very happy, and particularly not when he’s talking about letting Jack Hendry go out on loan; that in itself suggests that there’s business to be done.
One thing is for sure; we can’t be rebuilding an entire backline in the summer. It just won’t work. There has to be progress made in the here and now.
With our forward positions now covered, and Brendan wanting more, it is clear that the defence is next. Will there also be a midfield player? It’s entirely possible, but it won’t be the American Will Trapp; the club has expressly denied stories linking him to us.
Things are getting interesting now. We’ll see what the next few days and weeks have in store for us, but for the moment things seem to be proceeding in the manner the manager wants. That’s good news for us all of us going forward.
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