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One In, One Out. Celtic’s Squad Will Evolve This Week As At Least Two Deals Get Done.

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The evolution of Celtic’s first team squad for the ten in a row campaign will continue this week as we close one deal in and one deal out.

The incoming player will be Shane Duffy.

The player going out will be Tom Rogic.

Others in, and out, may follow by the time real football – as opposed to this nonsense with internationals – resumes once again.

Transfer rumours continue to pop up all over the place.

Even when Lennon flatly denies that we’re interested in players it doesn’t stop the MSM and others chasing hits and trying to generate news where there is none.

Last week it was the winger from Turkey. This week it is the Sampdoria defender Colley.

When the Celtic boss says “never heard of him” what are we to make of that?

Nothing except that if the deal is done he’s not the one buying the guy. It’s not happening.

There continues to be a steady background drumbeat about James McCarthy.

It’s low-level but it’s there alright, chatter that won’t die down.

The idea that Brown is past his best and that we need a hard tackler and grafter on the books so that we can start easing our captain towards the winding down of his immense career is certainly valid … but we’ve got a young midfielder, Soro, in the squad who, presumably, we signed with that in mind.

McCarthy is a Fantasy Football signing … furthermore, we’ve heard the song so many times that you wonder we don’t hum the tune in the shower. This is the traditional summer rumour now, the Roman Riquelme of the present era … remember that story?

Man oh man, how many times did we see that one in the papers and on the internet, even before the blogs?

Thankfully, we can put the Toney story in the rear-view now that he’s got a club.

Had we actually followed up on our interest the “Edouard is leaving” stories would have flooded our inboxes until we were bailing them out with buckets.

Toney is a decent striker, but he’s spent much of his career so far in the English lower leagues; those who claim that he’s “the real deal” and who sneered at us for going, instead, for a player who scored goals in his nation’s top flight and in the Champions League need to have a wee lie down.

Ajeti has scored twice in Hoops already, from the bench.

That’ll do for me.

He’s got more claim to being of the right stock, the proper pedigree, than a guy who’s never played a game at the highest level and he looks the part already, much to the dismay of the media which was getting ready to give him dogs abuse if he didn’t start like a Ferrari.

This squad still needs a few more footballers; I’d hope for at least one more central defender, someone who can play wide right – we’ve missed out on Martin Boyle in my view – and, of course, a left back as surely Bolingoli cannot return to the squad, ever.

If our signing in that position is to be Aaron Hickey we’ve kept that very bloody quiet until now.

That one is turning into a legitimate saga.

Expect HBO to bid for the mini-series.

International weeks are good for transfer rumours; they are more interesting than the football is likely to be. At a time like this you pray only for the squad coming back injury free. That and some more good stories to occupy us until the real thing starts again.

The Rumour Guy is a Celtic fan and blogger from Glasgow, living off cat-food tins until the ‘August Appeal’ cash comes in … 

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