The January Window At Celtic Has Been Much Busier Than Any Of Us Imagined.

When we were signing some players in December, and getting ready for 1 January, I think most of us thought we were going to have a reasonably quiet window.

Good God, but it has been anything but.

This window is going to bring to an end a very business period in which four players (at least) will come into the club and an equal number will be heading out.

I would not have guessed several months ago that Abildgaard, Giakoumakis and Juranovic would all be heading for the exits.

I didn’t know until yesterday that we’d lose Jenz. Any club which lost these players in one window would be regarded as in crisis … but we’re not, and in fact as I wrote yesterday we are probably going to be stronger in squad terms.

Jenz and Abildgaard have not come close to achieving what Carter Vickers and Jota did last year, so the club was never going to attempt to sign either of them.

When you realise that you realise that these guys are better off moving on, although I do like Jenz and think we could have done something there. The manager has a different view, and fair play to him.

Giakoumakis and Juranovic both want to go, of course.

So four major players out and four major players in.

Two of the four who have gone out wouldn’t have featured much. All of those who have come in will play and will play regular football. It’s clear that the manager is the driving force behind this.

For all that, I think I’ll feel a little whiplashed when this window shuts, particularly as so much of the action is being crammed into the last week of it. It feels a bit like days gone by, when we took our time and dragged our feet to get to where we were going … and yet it’s nothing like that at all, with the bulk of our business done early and well.

You get the impression that had we gotten our first choice striker – the original target in Korea – that we’d have it all just about wrapped up by now. As it is, the last piece of the jigsaw is about to slip into place. The question is, what then?

Are we done when Giakoumakis’ replacement is in the building and he’s on his way or does this madcap last couple of weeks have one or two more twists in store?

No key player will depart at this stage … but you wonder if we might bring one more in.