The first signing of the Rodgers era at Celtic is almost upon us, but this isn’t a “Brendan Rodgers signing”, of course. This one was part of the Ange plan, and was probably in the pipeline for weeks before our change of manager came about.
It’s a lot of money to spend in an area of the pitch where we already have a lot of players. But if you accept that we’re going to lose Mooy – which we almost certainly are – then maybe it’s a sensible bit of business.
Rodgers has certainly signed off on it; when you consider what happened last time he was at the club it would be a truly horrendous act to inflict on him a player he wasn’t keen on.
Whilst I’m sure he has signed off on the deal, he will have his own ideas. It’s just that we’re going to have to wait a little longer to find out what those ideas are. I would imagine he’ll want some defensive reinforcements. I would imagine he’ll want one more out and out striker. We’ll just have to be patient until we know.
In the previous piece I cautioned against expecting a massive amount of money to be spent without us selling at least one player; I still think we’ll spend far and away more than any other club in the league, but maybe not as much as reports suggest.
Still, the player in question – Odin Thiago Holm – sounds more impressive the more we learn about him.
His place on The Guardian’s “best 60 young players” list in 2020 was interesting enough, but what you find when you check that article out is that it has the updates for 2021 and 2022 as well and he’s been getting glowing reviews unlike a lot of the players who briefly show up on these sorts of lists and then disappear. His progress has been steady.
This isn’t a project player we’re signing here. Valarenga’s head coach reckoned that he was easily the best player at the club, a kid just 20, and one who was sought after by the academies at Anfield and at Juventus, which he turned down to play first team football early … and that decision has paid off for him in a big way. He’s quite the talent.
This boy can in the three key parts of the midfield diamond; defensive midfield, central midfield and attacking midfield. He’s physical and strong. He has a good passing range. He is a perfect first signing for the new era at this club, and you can see why Postecoglou liked him and why Brendan Rodgers has agreed that we should be moving for him.
Wilfried Ndidi is one of the more fanciful names from Leicester who Rodgers has already been linked with as he tries to stamp his own mark on the team here. That’s not going to happen. There is serious interest from clubs around Europe and rumours that he’s a target of this insane round of spending from Saudi Arabia. His wage demands will be enormous. He is well and truly out of our range, and so are most of the other Leicester players.
But Rodgers will definitely be shopping in markets he knows well, and he will augment that with the recommendations made by the scouts and analysts currently at Celtic.
How well he’ll do – and he’ll have to do very well as Postecoglou’s record is exceptional – will be what decides how many points we’ll win the next league title by.
Agree we definitely need tae strengthen our defence and find another out and out striker. Think tho a tough, midfield enforcer is a must as well. Only reason imo, the ibrox club (or any other club) managed tae put us under any pressure last season, was when they out- muscled us in that area. Need a mix of football players and nae nonsense tacklers in our mid.
We have a decent team/squad but only a few were exceptional and Rodgers will need money to improve and/or replace. We, too many, got a bit carried away with the AP love-in me thinks. He was no O’Neill or Stein and looking back I wonder if he would have ever even have gotten us to the last 16 CL. Not exceptional at all but he did take us from nowhere to somewhere and I’m grateful for that. However let’s be honest, there’s much for Rodgers to do.
We need another decent goalie for the squad or 1st team and defo another big footballing CB, a left footer would be ideal. Should have kept Jenz imo. AP did make some very good signings but not all fit into the exceptional category as we seen in the 2nd part of the season when we looked tired, went stale and the squad players looked vulnerable.
Kobayashi needs more time to settle into the role. I hoped Ange had this right but not so, at best not yet. Bernabei fits into that category too, maybe an SPL cover player at best. So LB will have to be looked at too but to supplement not replace Taylor, unless he is exceptional.
We may well lose some players and we need 2 good players for every position and AP didn’t provide that no matter how much you loved him. He didn’t provide us with all round exceptional singings, only enough to beat a poor rankers and win the SPL.
Iwata has something more about him and seems ahead of the other squad players if we keep him and this new bhoy if he signs seems like he may be another good option but no guarantees.
I defo think we’re going to lose a few forward minded midfielders/wingers. Mooy, O’Riley, Hatate, Maeda and Abada possibly though I hope none of final 3 names go tbh. Add another big striker too probably maybe 2 if Kyogo is tempted away for big money. Oh is just that. Oh I’m not sure, again not yet.
That’s a massive team and squad rebalance potentially and will cost more than £20m to build. With the right support I hope Brendan will take us to the next level, not just SPL success. We deserve it. HH