Now that we’ve gotten past the lunatic in his clown car, now that Lennon has slapped him back into his box, we can analyse things rationally.
I think that almost all of us agree that this was a hell of a good transfer window from which we’ve emerged notably stronger.
We’ve lost a couple of players, but none of them was key to our ten in a row quest.
Hayes has gone, but I’ve never considered him more than an SPL player. Simunovic has gone, but he spent more time out injured than in the team. That he hasn’t found a new club yet is telling. We wish him well, but it’s not entirely surprising that he’s still without a side.
We lost Forster. That was a blow, and a big one. A couple of other fringe players left.
We didn’t lose anyone significant.
Ntcham, Ajer, Edouard, McGregor and others are still at the club.
Who would have predicted that?
Even Tom Rogic is still here, and I thought he was an absolute certainty to be sold in this window.
Yet he remains to play his role.
Leigh Griffiths is still with us and he’s back in the squad. His winning goal at the weekend was a clear sign that he still has something to offer us.
So we have last year’s three forwards and we then went out and added another one, and not only a good one but one with a claim to being the best signing of the window.
Elyounoussi is back for another campaign. He’s been unimpressive so far, but we know he’s a major talent and will do a good job for us.
We signed a £6 million keeper as a direct replacement for Forster; let the critics blubber as much as they want. He is a vast improvement on Craig Gordon and so most of us understand that it’s a good bit of business.
David Turnbull was one of the best young players in Scotland playing out-with Celtic Park and we have secured him for the long term. That’s a fantastic signing.
So too is Shane Duffy who’s already brought steel to our defence and poses a real threat at the other end of the pitch, with two goals so far to prove it.
Last night, of course, we secured the services of our left back, Laxalt from Milan, who is a far better signing than many of us expected. He seems keen to get into it, and should provide us with something a little different. We needed this deal in the aftermath of Bolingoli.
I don’t know a single Celtic supporter who is not thrilled with how good the business has been, and the thing that stands out most is that these guys are all first team footballers, all capable of going right into the team. There are no projects here; every one of them enhances our team and that is something we’ve not seen from this club in a long while.
The manager is right to be delighted; we should all be delighted, because this has been one of the best transfer windows in recent memory.
We emerge from it greatly enhanced, far stronger than we were before it opened, in almost every position in the team.
Congratulations to Celtic for not only bringing the quality in but for being steadfast in building on the footballers who are already here.
Some of them may have wanted to leave, but the club has shown its strength.
They will get their time … but we are having ours first.