A Calm Deadline Day For Celtic, Whilst Elsewhere They Desperately Scramble.

Yesterday, I talked a little about how, in the period before Eddie Howe said no to us I had started to get very anxious over the length of time it was taking.

The season was almost upon us. We were in dire, desperate straits. The risk if Howe knocked us back was that we would rush to appoint someone totally unsuited to the club, whose name was plucked out of a hat.

It was a natural concern, as we all know that the club has been there before, oftentimes on an annual basis. We call it Transfer Deadline Day.

The story is so familiar to us, and so disappointing.

We drag our feet on deals.

It gets right to the wire, as if a sense of theatricality was all that concerned some people inside Parkhead.

Then you spend the final hours of the window biting your nails, hoping deals go through.

And sometimes they don’t, of course, and that’s when the club does stupid stuff.

We’ve signed some real dreck on the final day of the window, because we’ve messed about so much that we’re left with very little choice. We’ve seen deals collapse at the final hour and ended up with nobody.

Transfer deadline day is too often a sweat.

But not this year. Because all of our business was done early, and done well.

Which is more than can be said for other clubs, clubs which have dropped points at this most crucial time in the title race, who are smarting under the suggestion that they haven’t shown enough ambition and are now urgently scrambling for deals which will appease their fans.

The press is running with a good one this morning; Aaron Ramsey.

And I daresay there are talks over it.

But he earns hundreds of thousands per week and even if the club was only pay 10 or 20 percent of that it would be an expensive gamble. A madly expensive one.

But it’s the kind of expensive gamble you take when you are desperate.

Everything about the story sounds ridiculous – from the size of his wages to the loan fee the Ibrox club would have to pay for a 31-year-old who hasn’t played since October – but there’s one thing we’ve learned from watching that club over the years; nothing is too stupid to be true.

This is exactly the sort of thing they do over there … and it has never been more necessary to plug the holes that are springing up all over their club. This is a shoot-for-the-moon roll of the dice.

The moment we scored against Dundee Utd this kind of thing was certain … it’s the move of a club which is all out of good options.

That is why this is not a great surprise.

It reeks of something that you do when you need to take a mad punt … and this might be the maddest punt in a long time.

We are going to have a nice relaxing end to the window.

The idea that our club is still on the lookout for a special deal is obviously encouraging but nobody will be dreadfully disappointed if we don’t manage to find something.

We are done with doing things for the sake of appearances.

We are no longer panicking.

Over there, they are doing what we have been guilty of time and time again; desperate scrambling right up to the final bell. On top of that, if there is to be game-changing late drama it is most likely not going to be the sort that will make their fans particularly happy.

Enjoy the day folks, and focus on Wednesday.

That’s where the real action is for us, and the whole of the club is preparing for that.

Eyes on the prize.