This Window Closed With Celtic As The Winners No Matter What Others Might Say.

So the window shuts without a sixth signing.

No matter. The manager made it clear that we would only do business if a special option presented itself.

(Did no-one tell him that there was a superstar available, virtually for nothing, who didn’t care about money and was just dying to trade Serie A for the glory of a title tilt in Scotland? Was that an oversight on our part do you think, or am I just being sarcastic? Do you need to guess?)

Because I’ll tell you something, I am delighted with our signings. Delighted.

The window shuts with our business done early, and done well, and done in a manner which has already put points on the board.

Let nobody kid you on about who “won” this battle. Our early signings slotted into the team and made a big difference, helping us close the gap, giving the whole club a huge lift.

The final day ends with another club making the headlines for a bling signing who by his own admission isn’t even going to be fit for Wednesday night. He says he could make it for the weekend.

Ha! That will be interesting to see; a player who has not kicked a ball in anger since November making himself available for a blood and thunder game at the end of this week.

Today’s papers will be all about that signing.

Ignore them, and all their lofty predictions.

He may or may not do them a turn for the duration of his deal but the hard fact is that by the time he even gets up to speed the league race might be in our hands instead of theirs.

That will be because we spent early, we put in the hard yards over weeks and months of planning and it has paid off. We didn’t do a desperate last minute scramble in a panic near the end.

Since signing, Maeda has scored in a critical game. Hatate has scored in a critical game.

Riley put in a sterling performance against Hearts and then against Utd at the weekend.

That is the very definition of your signings hitting the ground running. Since the deals for the Japanese were completed our rivals, who sold a key player, have shipped four points.

But the press will tell you that their window produced the goods, whilst we were left stranded in their slipstream.

Anyone who believes that is a mug.

They can claim the marquee if that makes them feel good, but our new boys have already produced on the park, and that’s a stone cold fact however the hacks might want to let their imaginations run away with them.

In time, I reckon the record will reflect that it was Celtic who did the better business, and who brought in the more effective footballers. And it won’t be too long until that’s clear to all involved in the game here.

For the first time in ages, we did it right.

We have the better squad now. We have the better manager. We are moving in the right direction as a club.

They are making it up as they go along.

We are set for an exciting end to the season and we are confident of victory.

They are terror-stricken at the prospect of defeat.

The euphoria over winning the back-page war will last only as long as it takes for them to turn up at Celtic Park tomorrow night … and then it will die on the lips of their fans as our new boys, and the others Ange has brought in, complete the turnaround and put us top.