Today there is the faintest suggestion that we are, finally, on the brink of doing some proper transfer business as links to Charlie Wyke continue to grow and reports suggest that we’re also trying to get a deal for a new goalkeeper over the line.
I will do a fuller piece on the goalkeeping issue shortly; that requires a deeper dive than I want to do in this article, but some signs of life in terms of squad building would be most welcome here now that the manager is in the UK and talks with the incoming CEO have already started, and are focussed, at least in part, on who we’re going to go for.
The need could not be greater. With the signing deadline fo the Champions League ticking down we really ought to be in a better position than this, but at last it looks as if the Celtic Park machine is about to start rotating through its gears.
I’ve already done a piece on Wyke and why I think that someone knows what they’re doing there, although on the surface it’s a pretty uninspiring piece of business. He will give us certain qualities our forward line presently lacks, and I look forward to seeing how he does if we can get the deal over the line. A big “if” as we’ve all learned to expect the unexpected.
Of course, the news that we’re in negotiations is, itself, not exactly a sign that business is imminent; Celtic moves at a glacially slow pace. I think we need a minimum of four, and probably six, new players in by the team we play our first pre-season game.
Will we get them? I very much doubt it, you know. But nevertheless the manager should be making it clear that it’s what he expects. They have hired him and tried to convince us that he’s the right man … they need to act like it now.
But deals for Mat Ryan and Charlie Wyke would be a start … it is important that Dominic McKay gets those deals done as quickly as he can now that he and Agne have had a chance to discuss their priorities for the coming campaign.
Hell, I think the fans would be most impressed by the simple act of his working fast and well.