Celtic And The Need For Another Striker: Is It Really A Problem Needing A Solution?

The injury news we didn’t want was delivered just the other day, when we found out that big Oh is going to be missing for up to six weeks. It’s not a disaster. It might better be characterised as a warning. There are some who believe we still need another striker. This isn’t the last time we will have an injury to a key player … is it a position where we are weak?

There are things to consider here.

First, there’s an argument for saying we aren’t exactly short. I don’t agree, but a case could be made. We have two fine forwards in the squad still, Kyogo and Maeda, and Forrest and Abada have both played through the middle before. There are goals all through the midfield.

But obviously, if we’re going to play Maeda out wide that’s a problem, because you’re asking these guys to play every week without a break. If we’re benching one of them then that’s a little better, but is our team better off for that? I would argue no.

Oh is going to be out for a while, but this isn’t a six month injury or anything like that. He’ll be back with us by the end of September if not sooner, and although it’s a blow, what are we supposed to do about it? If there’s a plan for the signings to come, should we ditch it because of something that will be resolved in a matter of weeks?

See, this is what troubles me about the modern fan mentality.

Something like this induces panic, and the demands to spend money to rectify it. But say you had directors who saw spending money as an acceptable solution to this problem. What would happen?

They could go out, spend a few quid – and neglect other areas of the team – and for what? In six weeks time, when Oh is fit again, we could have at least one of our strikers permanently cooling his heels.

Of course it’s a risk. But spending the money on a new striker just because Oh is injured would be even dafter. If a new striker was part of Rodgers’ plan we’ll get one in due course but not some silly stop gap measure, but someone in because that’s what was being plotted behind the scenes for a while. We aren’t signing a right back just because Johnston is out and he, it could be argued, is a bigger loss to the side in the short term than Oh is.

I’ll be honest with you; although the tone of this article might suggest otherwise, I thought we needed a fourth striker even before this happened and I reckon we need one. I do support the idea of signing another one, and he has to be a good one, because we will be rotating this team and we will need as many top players as we can get.

But I also think endlessly about the squad size and we’d have to lose a couple of players from the midfield if we were even seriously entertaining it. There’s talk tonight of Abada being linked with a move to France or Germany; I hope whoever the interested parties are that they come with plenty of wonga, because they will need it.

But with Jota already out the door selling Abada as well cannot possibly be allowed to happen unless we’re replacing both and with top talents … I don’t believe we’re emerging from this window weaker, in part because I still expect something big to happen before it closes … but selling Abada would leave us markedly worse off than we are right now, and excuses and half measures would not suffice from anyone at Celtic Park.

I have defended the policies of the club thus far, but there’s an awareness in the stands of how colossally unprepared we are at the moment for the Champions League.

I don’t think we should spend mad money just on the off-chance it closes what might be an insurmountable gap, but some signs that people inside Celtic Park take the prospect seriously would certainly not go amiss.

Only a handful of fans place a greater store in what’s in the bank than what’s out on the pitch, and although I’ve defended like Hell the fiscal strategy because it is sound and it is sane, it would be indefensible to leave the manager and the team out on a limb when that’s not necessary. People will be really pissed off if this window closes without that being addressed.