The transfer window opens, officially, in the coming week and Celtic has done one piece of incoming business so far; we’ve announced that Mo Elyounoussi will be staying with us for another year.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good piece of work from everyone at the club, but I think we’re all hoping for something bigger, something better, something more substantial. Yet how realistic is that view? Is it possible that the best deal we’re going to seal has already been done?
I thought I’d take a look back at all the windows of the nine to ask one simple question; who was our blue chip signing in that summer, and does it give us anything on which to judge what we’re likely to see in this one?
I think it’s fair to say that it’s been a pretty mixed bag over the piece except in one sense; the last half dozen have thrown up some pretty decent ones, and especially the first two seasons of Rodgers and the last campaign.
Granted, Rodgers’ third year summer window was a flat-out disgrace and almost certainly contributed to his departure, but overall they’ve been good.
One year was a difficult choice. Another was a year where I was forced to make a choice I didn’t want to.
One year already the top signing has been a loanee.
But the general pattern has been of a club which realises that a single footballer – one marquee players – is better than scrambling around looking for bargains.
We have to hope that’s the pattern we’ll see more of.
Let’s take a look at years gone by …
2011–12: Victor Wanyama
The first season of the nine saw what looked, at first, like an underwhelming summer.
We had spent money on only two players, for a combined cost of less than £3 million. After losing the last three titles it seemed an underwhelming response. But two things had happened which were to prove to be major game changers, and we didn’t even know what the first was.
Obviously, events at Ibrox were about to overtake the game but at Celtic we had got things broadly right.
Our biggest signing proved, actually, to be the biggest let-down … it was Mo Bangura, at £2.2 million and who contributed next to nothing.
In that same window though, we’d brought Adam Matthews and Kelvin Wilson on frees, we’d got Fraser Forster and El Kaddouri on loan … but the star of the window, the best signing by far, was one who caused us a pittance; £900,000 for Victor Wanyama.
That was a game-changer.
Not bad for a relative unknown who wasn’t expected to make much of an impact early on.
It showed our scouting system was starting to work.
2012-13: Fraser Forster
Another massively underwhelming window on the face of it, with another pitiful spend of just £3.5 million; we’d brought in almost double that from the sale of Ki Sung-Yueng.
The club’s apparent lack of ambition was shocking.
Amongst the lowlights of that window was that we signed Lassad Nouioui and Miku on loan and the unknown ?uboš Kamenár.
The two players we spent money on were Efe Ambrose – no joke; he cost us £1.5 million – and, of course, Fraser Forster for a cool £2 million.
It seems ironic to be naming him the signing of that summer on a day like today, but he absolutely was.
Even if the rest of the players hadn’t been so underwhelming, he would probably have been the biggest thing we did in that window anyway … and what a bargain he was.
2013-14: Virgil Van Dijk
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This was the window where we weakened the squad before every Champions League round, where Victor Wanyama left for big money and where Gary Hooper and Kelvin Wilson followed him out the door. But we actually reinvested some of the cash.
It’s just a shame that much of what we spent it on turned out to be second-rate junk.
The great irony of course is the career trajectory of Timu Pukki, who we signed in that window along with Amido Balde, for a combined cost of £4.2 million.
They were so successful that we bought Leigh Griffiths in the January window; we’ve never regretted that deal.
It was also the window where we wasted £3 million on Derk Boerrigter, one of the worst wastes of money in the recent history of the club.
We also signed big defender Stephen Steven Mouyokolo on a free.
Fortunately, there were two other signings in that window too.
The first was Nir Bitton, for a shockingly low £700,000 … an absolute piece of daylight robbery when you consider how good he can be and that he’s still an important part of the first team squad today, and capable of playing in both midfield and defence.
The real steal of course was that window’s star man … Virgil Van Dijk, who we nicked for what now seems like an absurdly low fee; £2.6 million.
2014-15: Jason Denayer
A shocking window, absolutely shocking. We allowed our goalkeeper to leave for £10 million and we a total of £2.3 million, and that was wasted on Stefan Scepovic.
Everyone else we signed on loan except for Craig Gordon who we signed on a free transfer.
On no account was Ronny Deila backed in his first transfer window; it was a disgraceful lack of support for him from the Celtic board.
The loan signings were a pretty uninspiring bunch; Jo Berget, Mubarak Wakaso and Alexander Tonev.
Two were decent enough; John Guidetti and Jason Denayer.
Of the two I’m going to say that Denayer turned out to be the better player; Guidetti scored goals and looked like a find, but his appalling decision not to sign for the club blots his copybook as far as I’m concerned.
The big Manchester City defender did a good job for us.
2015-16: Jozo Simunovic
This is a tough one; do you go with the guy who was the best player at the time, or the one who looks the best signing of the bunch right now?
There have been windows in this series already where we spent next to nothing; in this one we did spend nearly £7 million … the bulk of the Van Dijk money.
It’s just a great shame that so many of our signings were underwhelming.
Dedryk Boyata cost us £1.5 million. We squandered the same sum of Nadir Ciftci.
£275,000 bought us Scott Allan in one of the most wasteful transfer deals we’ve ever been involved in; honestly, that was a proper shocker at a time when most people knew he wouldn’t get in the team. Tyler Blackett, Saidy Janko and Logan Bailly arrived too.
None was to make an impact.
Neither did one of the two others we signed, at least not immediately. His name was Ryan Christie and I genuinely was excited about this deal although he only cost us £500,000. But it would be a while before we’d see what he had to offer.
The other signing in that window, of course, was Jozo Simunovic; he cost us £3 million and at the time looked the best of a pretty underwhelming bunch. Boyata turned out to be half-decent, although prone to ridiculous errors … it shows how bad that whole window proved to be.
If you were judging it on what we know now, Christie would certainly be the star of the show … but that wasn’t readily apparent until more recently.
2016-17: Moussa Dembele
This was one of the most successful windows in recent years; it really was a huge success, and the players we brought in during it were almost all excellent.
We got so much right that there were actually two candidates – both very worthy – for who the star signing of the window proved to be.
Let’s get the others over with first.
It was the window in which we completed the signing of Kris Ajer; he had signed the agreement to join in January of 2016, but didn’t formally join until July.
He cost us £800,000, which now looks like another of those great steals we’ve proved capable of.
It was the window in which we signed De Vries and Kolo Toure, who both did a job as squad players but nothing more.
Toure’s real impact came in the dressing room, where he proved such a great leader and influencer that we made him coach.
We also signed the right back Cristian Gamboa; that was a hit-and-miss signing which for some reason didn’t turn out as we all hoped that it might. He looked a decent shout, but it just didn’t fall properly for us and he turned out to be a real disappointment.
Not so with the others, and I struggled to pick a best one … my mate Jonny almost convinced me to go for Sinclair, but you cannot undersell the contribution and impact made by Moussa Dembele, who cost us a paltry £500,000 Development Fee.
Sinclair was a brilliant signing, too, of course, but a hat-trick against Sevco, goals in Europe – and especially the night at Celtic Park against Manchester City – and the coolness of the man in front of goal … there is no doubt, for me, that Dembele was the star.
In terms of the overall impact, I think that was the best window in years … and the one we have to try to emulate in the coming weeks and months.
2017-18: Olivier Ntcham
A pretty decent summer window, overall, with some good signings in it.
There was little doubt as to who the star man was though, although I know Johnny Hayes will forever have a constituency amongst our support!
It was the window where we brought Roberts back on loan, signed a kid called Benyu and of course brought Hayes from Aberdeen.
But the star men of the window were French footballers; it was the beginning of the Odsonne Edouard legend, as he arrived on a one season loan from PSG. Not much was expected of him; he was seen as more of a backup than a first team player.
It didn’t take long before the Lennoxtown coaches realised he was something special … the public saw it first at Ibrox.
But the box-office signing that summer was that of Olivier Ntcham, a player who has a strange ability to divide fan opinion nowadays. It was clear though that this was a good footballer, as a number of very good performances was to prove.
When you sign a kid from Manchester City for the same price we once paid for Scott Brown, you expect quality. That’s exactly what we got.
Looking at that window, you could see we were doing something right … yet the winter window that year was awful; we squandered £2.5 million between the signings of Jack Hendry and the awful Marvin Compper, God knows how much more on Charlie Musonda and also brought in Scott Bain and Lewis Morgan, although the winger wasn’t to arrive until the following season.
It looked hastily thrown together … and was the sign of what was to come.
2018-19: Odsonne Edouard
A dreadful window where we spent money on just one player.
What a player he’s turned out to be, of course, but then you expect that when you smash your club transfer record to sign him.
Eddie was always going to be at Parkhead; we really pushed the boat out though.
Still, we should have known it would come at a cost. We not only recouped it, but we did that in spades as Dembele and Armstrong netted the club a cool £26 million.
Those claiming Rodgers was properly backed in that window are lying through their teeth and I make no bones about saying it. He was royally let down and knew it too … it contributed to his dawn departure with half of the season left still to play.
This is not to make excuses for him – there are none – rather an acknowledgement of the reality of things.
Lawwell’s dithering in the transfer market was scandalous and he should have left the club before Rodgers did.
If the manager had resigned at the end of the campaign the focus would have been on the CEO who had screwed up so royally.
You could write a book on the monstrous clash of egos that almost derailed our season and most certainly contributed to our early departure from the Champions League. Suffice to say that the whole sordid episode was a disgrace. The transfer business bears that out.
Izziguere, back to the club. Mulumba signed at the last minute when he’d been available on a free for months. Scott Bain signed on a permanent. A Manchester City youth player, Daniel Arzani, brought in when the manager had never heard of him.
Filip Benkovic was signed as a late appeaser.
It should not have gotten the CEO off, because aside from not delivering on a couple of the manager’s top targets his game of chicken with Rod Petrie at Hibs allowed one of the best Scottish players of his generation (and I scorn anyone who doesn’t acknowledge that as a fact) slip through our fingers.
Shameful stuff.
But we delivered Edouard, and thankfully that proved to be crucial.
2019-20: Christopher Jullien
The departure of Lustig and Kieran Tierney’s decision to head for England left us with a Hell of a lot to do, but gave us a pot of money with which to do it. Celtic’s response was actually pretty solid, nearly perfect in the way it allowed us to rebuild the most critical area of the team; the defence.
It was a major factor in our securing the title.
Once again, this was not a “net spend” window, but that hardly mattered. We spent money where we had to, with nearly £7 million spent on Bolingoli, Abd Elhamed and Greg Taylor. It would have cost a pretty penny to bring Forster back for a yearlong loan, not to mention the signing of Elyounoussi, one of the most exciting footballers we’ve secured on the wing in years. We also brought in Moritz Bauer, probably because we had no idea what else we had on our hands.
Youth signings were made too, and good ones; Luca Connell, Afolabi and Lee Connor amongst them.
The star of that particular group was an unexpected sensation; Jeremie Frimpong, who has been an outstanding signing and will be a huge part of the 10 campaign.
But the star signing was big Christopher Jullien, who proved that when you go for quality you get what you pay for.
He was immense last season, and amongst his successes was a winner in the League Cup Final, the goal that the Sevco fans still moan about.
In recent years, we’ve seen the club thankfully move away from the model of scrambling after a load of signings and focussing instead on one “marquee” player – the last four years of the nine saw us get Sinclair/Dembele, Ntcham, Edouard and Jullien.
This is a major change from what we’ve been used to seeing, and if that’s the pattern we’re now following then it’s all to the good. This is why many of us do believe there’s an outside chance that the big signing of this window will be Fraser Forster.
At the very least, the fans do expect someone of that calibre, someone who will step into this team at once and make a first team berth their own. We’ve had that in the last few years and it makes sense that this be a pattern that we continue with.
Because it works. It is this kind of strategy that genuinely enhances the squad year in year out. It grows the team. It develops it.
I think the window of last year is the one we have to emulate, where we do what needs to be done in the key positions where the work is most vital; central defence, the goalkeeper position and, if needed, someone wide right to give Forrest competition.
If we do that, most people will be well satisfied.
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