So Celtic have finally appointed Nicky Hammond as their Head of Football Operations, a fancy title which you can interpret in any way you want. Is he a director of football?
A glorified link man between the board and the manager?
Is he in charge of recruitment?
All of the above, yes, but with the final say? That’s a more difficult question to answer.
But today the talk is all of teamwork and trust. Lennon is happy with the appointment, as he worked hard alongside Hammond over the summer.
When you consider that our summer deals actually look to have worked out quite well and that none of the targets were on the ludicrous list drawn up by the ineffectual Lee Congerton there are reasons to be optimistic.
Hammond has a job on his hands. Top of the agenda seems obvious enough to me; he has to go out and find us the next Scott Brown.
Not just a player who can fit into that slot, but the next captain, the next club leader, the next player who can dictate a game.
There will be a lot of interest in what business we do in January.
The media would have you believe there is a risk of us selling a top player; that is absolutely not going to happen. Imagine the response of the fans if we did that and then lost the title? Forget about it. Lennon would resign before he let it happen. The club would be in turmoil.
January is about strengthening. January is about giving us an extra edge in the second part of the campaign.
Hammond will already be busy putting the target list together.
It looks as if David Turnbull will be on it; he would be a good addition, but in a role where we’re already looking pretty strong.
We still need another centre back.
But the Brown issue hangs over the club.
There has to be a plan in place for it.
I’ve already suggested that we might make Ajer the lynchpin of the team, putting him on a big deal, handing him the captains armband and putting him in the midfield … to me it looks like a fairly obvious solution, especially if we want him to commit to the club long term.
If it’s not that then then we need to get busy.
We need backup for Brown in the here and now anyway, and someone to help take the pressure off McGregor whilst we’re at it. We also have new deals to offer several players, and Hammond should be getting that done quick smart before the media starts to stir the soup.
He’ll be a busy man.
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