There are, as ever, plenty of rumours circulating about our club and the transfer plans for the summer. What will happen? What positions will we be aiming to get stronger in? A lot of the talk revolves around us wanting another striker.
This is intriguing, and some of the names are intriguing. Yesterday’s name, that of Zan Vipotnik, is an interesting one as he’s scored a heck of a lot of goals for someone his age and seems tailor made for Celtic. Who knows if the story is true? It has come from his agent, and that makes me wonder right away if this isn’t just drumming up interest.
But broadly speaking, he fits the profile and ticks all the boxes, so I would not be terribly surprised if there was some truth in this.
What makes it tremendously exciting is that the last two weeks of the campaign prove that we already have two excellent forwards at the club. We all know about Kyogo, but it’s become pretty clear that Hyeon-Gyu Oh is emerging as a major player for us.
I thought he was excellent in the Hibs game, easily the best player in the Celtic side.
He scored one, hit the crossbar and forced an outstanding save from the keeper with a brilliant piece of footwork in the box. He was superb against Aberdeen after coming on, and he took his tally to seven goals.
He’s hit his stride. Next season, I expect him to be a sensation.
This makes the quest to find a third great striker for us more than a little intriguing. Ange clearly does plan on putting us on a whole other level season and that’s already evident in the way he’s talking.
Even if we lose key players, the idea that will, to borrow a Johnsonian phrase (the handful of right-wingers, I know you’ll appreciate this) “build back better” leaves me with no concerns at all on that front.
We will be stronger next season than we’ve ended this one.
Which should be vaguely terrifying for those sides which are going to have to line up against us.
We almost shattered all the records this season, and although Ange only cares about the end result and what goes in the trophy cabinet the signs are that we’re planning on being even more ruthless and dangerous in the next campaign.
If we’re signing a striker to add to the firepower … Good God.
How are the rest of the teams in the league going to cope when they are struggling to contain us right now? This is clearly a measure for Europe as well as the domestic game … and I can’t wait to see where we go with it.
Imo a center back is priority
Would be a great move tae bring in a big target man along wi Kyogo and Oh, tho our central defence and mid are the main 2 key positions we should prioritize and strengthen before the CL campaign starts imo, with possibly another couple of players in other areas as well.
We are going 2 up front, we need a third.
Been looking at how the squad for next season CL could look like next season for a few weeks now.
A squad for CL is mainly made up with 2 players in each position with a 3rd choice keeper (bain) plus 2 others (being Scottish) to get the numbers right within a squad.
We have seen over the past few weeks that this remains quite worrying at present, and even moreso if Ange were to stick with the current formation, as the need for another striker is nowhere near the top of the list, where other positions priorities far more so.
Always amazes me the way names are thrown up, without any thoughts put into how and where they are going to fit into the current squad.
Oh is potentially the easiest to look at, I personally still don’t think he is ready for CL next season, yet still has a huge part to play within the SPFL as is developing very nicely at present.
So hardly an easy conversation for Ange awaits with Oh and could throw yuki with a few others into that mix also imo.
I still see the squad getting formed into a 343 moreso than sticking with the inverted full backs, especially with CL in mind.
Don’t believe we are seeing the best from Oreily or hako either in there current positions within the squad either at present, which makes me think a change in formation could well be more likely next season imo.
The horrible stark fact at present is although we can still produce a very decent team in its current format, we still remain way short if injuries occur to key players within the starting line up.
However I still strongly believe that we still haven’t seen the best from an Ange team yet, and that can only be confirmed with better success within CL.
This stands to be by far the hardest transfer window that Ange has to negotiate himself with since his arrival.
We are no longer looking at players that can survive at a SPFL standard like the scum are currently having to do.
We need to be looking at improvement upon that, which isn’t going to be easy especially with players under contract, yet failing to make much of an impact within SPFL, so how can they be considered to be good enough or depended upon within CL?
The squad needs to be expanded upon the 25 needed for CL next season and Oh and yuki can help provide that, and even moreso when the expansion of the CL kicks in for season 24/25.
A very interesting summer awaits and even moreso with far bigger decision making to be made before looking at getting in the extra striker, I would say
The next level requires two CBs who can handle it at European level, not one. A left back as good as Johnston on the right. And a striker with a physique to cause different problems to those posed by Kyogo and Oh.