Ibrox’s Last Minute Transfer Sweat Is Hilariously Like The Celtic Ones Of Old.

As we get used to being a club which gets its transfer business done smartly and fast, it is worth remembering – cause it’s not that long ago – that it didn’t always used to be this way for us. As recently as just two January’s ago Neil Lennon got nothing at all to spend and lost a key player in what was to be his final window at the club.

The year before that he got one in the middle – Klimala – and one at the end – Soro.

We had needs in other positions which were not fulfilled. The window dragged by because it seemed that we went into without a real plan. Certainly no work had been done in advance.

It’s the 27th of the month today and Ibrox has managed to get one deal over the line and they are still low-balling on two others. It took them until this week to secure the free transfer of a Norwich City player with a reputation for huffiness and being lazy.

This is so much like a Celtic transfer window of old, feet dragging, penny pinching, dithering and waste that it’s hilarious. Their fans must be pulling their hair out.

On top of that, there’s no sign at all that their club is in a good position when it comes to the players who are out of contract, although The Mooch is talking, hilariously, about keeping guys like Helander.

To sign Nicolas Raskin will cost them a little over £1 million, if you believe reports in the media.

If he’s such a hot-shot why don’t they just pay that? Swansea’s Whittaker will cost them not much more than that. They should be able to find £2 million to get these deals done, shouldn’t they?

They are, after all, the players the manager wants most.

So what’s with the feet dragging?

Didn’t he sit in front of the media several weeks ago and promise the fans that a double or even treble signing would be made within days? He’s already dropping hints that they need to back him like Ange has been … but Ange had to sell top players for the money for his rebuild and Ibrox is fresh out of those.

More and more you get the impression that this guy is already chafing at the restrictions.

Smart people – i.e. the Celtic bloggers – have already noticed that when he spoke recently about the Whittaker deal he made sure to point out that what Swansea were saying was different from what people inside Ibrox had told him … a classic case of openly criticising his bosses which the media steadfastly refused to pick up on.

When Ange made noises about deals not being done fast enough for his liking in his first transfer window the press took notice. More importantly, so did people at Celtic and a rash of signings quickly followed. But we had the resources to do it.

Ibrox fans are facing a tense few days, both in terms of who goes out as well as who comes in. It is something we’ve had to deal with before and it’s hardly pleasant.

Watching it unfold over there is, on the other hand, which is why we should all enjoy the show.