Like everyone else in our support, I warmly welcome our new signing Maik Nowrocki to the club, and hope that his time here is hugely successful both for him personally and for Celtic as a whole. It is a fine signing, in a position where we needed to be stronger.
Every single one of us knew that a central defender was necessary. Kobayashi was reasonable last season without blowing us away. We needed another option at centre back, and especially with the possibility that Carter Vickers might not be fit for the start of the campaign.
It looks as if he will be. Still, we do need that additional cover and competition.
Now that we have it, the very worst thing that we can do is to leave us scrambling all over again by doing something daft like selling a centre back. Rumours swirl about Starfelt; not bad, considering that he is widely derided by the media and by a section of our support which I do wish would chill out a bit and stop rushing to judgement on people.
Starfelt himself should not be interested in a move back to Russia. We rescued him from Rubin Kazan and the war with Ukraine still sees their clubs banned from European competition. It would be a crazy backwards step and he would be mad to take it. I don’t believe either that the interest from Spartak Moscow is real or that he’d go if offered the chance.
Still, it would be just like Celtic to do something daft like this, although it’s been a few years since we did something this blatantly stupid.
Starfelt has formed an effective partnership with Carter Vickers and although our new boy can’t have been signed just to sit on the bench it’s important that we do not mess with a settled defence just for the sake of it.
Create competition, yes, but there are certain parts of the team you are better off leaving alone, and the central defence is the main one, where you can help it. Let our new boy grow into his surroundings before being considered a first pick, or to be seen as effectively challenging to be one when everyone else is fit.
This squad is starting to look very promising. As long as no-one else leaves, a couple more signings, just to strengthen certain areas, and I think we can look ahead with confidence. But I repeat; as long as no-one else leaves. We’ve solved a big problem today.
Let’s not create a new one to replace it.
Well done to Celtic for getting the deal over the line, our third in a week.
This is more like it.