So ends the transfer window. And it shuts with a dull thud.
There are people who will try to tell you that it was a great success.
They must think you button up the back.
One of the signings is a short-term loan. Another was signed to replace somebody who left because he missed his girlfriend. It took us over a month to replace Jota and we don’t know how successful that endeavour has been.
We signed four central midfielders, including Iwata because we had a deal in place for that. One of our signings, we might see again sometime in January, when he’s been moved out on loan.
But for the record, we now have Iwata, McGregor, Turnbull, Bernado, O’Riley, Hatate, Holm and Kwon all competing for three central spots. None of them is the experienced, powerful, ball winner the manager wanted and who we clearly need.
We have a head of scouting who must know that’s the brief.
He’s had the whole world to look at, and he hasn’t found somebody.
So instead, we signed four somebodies.
And people look at the size of our squad and our wage bill and wonder how it ever got so outrageous and bloated and over the top. This would be one of the reasons … this and our obsession with wingers.
We have seven wingers. Amazing.
We signed three of them in this window. Three.
And even if we hadn’t signed one to replace one who was leaving, that’s still two more than we really need.
It would be different if they were both obvious upgrades … but they were punts. That the one we’ve seen looks not half bad is something that I don’t feel in the least inclined to give these people credit for.
Neither of these signings was necessary when there were far more important places to spend the money.
On the left there’s Johnston, Maeda and Palma. On the right there is Forrest, Abada, Yang and Tillio. And for all that, we have two recognised out-and-out strikers.
One is just back from being injured and the other needs a shoulder operation. Did we strengthen that area? Of course we didn’t folks, because Maeda, Palma and Abada can play centre forward in a crisis.
It doesn’t seem to have dawned on our “scouting department” that none of these players is a penalty box bruiser in the Champions League mould, and which every good Champions League side has.
The guy we know we did make an offer for up front is a Danish Under 21 who is 5’8.
If you think the pieces don’t all fit then the manager agrees with you.
We have signed three central defenders.
Two of them by necessity, and one to provide cover and competition.
It’s the one area of the pitch which, but for injuries, I feel we’ve done worthwhile work.
Because we sure as Hell haven’t done it anywhere else, but much of that has been forced on us by circumstances.
So we still don’t know if we’re better off for it.
Which brings me to problem area number one; our left back options are Taylor and Bernabei, neither of whom is remotely good enough for the Champions League, and that’s hardly news as every editorial in every newspaper, every fan site, every forum, and every talking head has highlighted this as a critical area over and over and over and over and over again.
It is frankly scandalous to send the manager into the Champions League with those options, when there’s so much unspent cash, and when he knows as we all know that they virtually assure that serious damage will be done to us.
The only area where I think the left side of defence will have competition for mistakes that cost us goals is with the keeper … and that’s another glaring hole which nobody has bothered to fill.
If we go out of Europe because Greg Taylor, Alesandro Bernabei and Joe Hart between them conspire to assure that outcome, I won’t blame them. I’ll blame Mark Lawwell.
I’ll hold him personally responsible for that, because he’s supposed to be an elite level scouting head and he had the whole world of football to scour for an entire summer and he can’t find a better option to back Taylor up or supplant him than the guy we’ve already got and who it’s obvious to all of us is as much a defender as I’m a brain surgeon?
He’s in the wrong job if that’s the case, he’s no more ready for the role he has at this club than Rocco Vata is to cover for Kyogo while he gets that shoulder op. But it helps to have friends in high places.
Even more so if one of them is your daddy.
Unfair? So what?
Who cares whether it’s fair?
I said in an earlier article that they created the perception that this club is run on nepotism and cronyism and when mistakes are made that’s what people are naturally going to say.
They created this situation and they could have avoided it easily, by simply giving the job to somebody else. You will never convince me that there is not someone out there who could have done this job just as well, or better, than the chairman’s son.
I cannot say this enough times; this is how companies get into trouble.
This is how countries make catastrophic decisions which collapse economies and even lead to wars.
A handful of people, isolated from any but their own opinions, deciding everything … and these people have been in those jobs for so long the idea that they have fresh thinking to bring to the table is manifestly ridiculous.
The thing about giving the job to your own kid is that he has to be perfect.
He can’t make mistakes; he doesn’t get any benefit of the doubt.
But this is a Lawwell transfer window, just like the dozen or so we saw in years gone by.
It’s so textbook, it’s so on the nose, right down to the pissed off manager, that if you wiped my brain of the last 12 months and I didn’t know who the chairman was and who our head of scouting was, and you told me about this transfer window, I’m 100% certain that I’d be able to tell you the names of the people in those two high profile jobs.
I wouldn’t even need to phone a friend.
We had a Champions League windfall. We sold Jota for a major sum. We sold Starfelt for a decent amount of money. We’re coming out of this with a starting eleven which is arguably weaker than it was at the end of last season, and we have a net profit.
To say this board has backed the manager is nothing but a barefaced lie.
They gave him the backing they thought he should have, not that which he and this team needed.
We haven’t even spent the transfer cash we brought in.
And those who say “Aaah but we kept our best players and some of them signed new deals”, I’m afraid that’s not going to cut it either because you’re asking that I praise these people simply because they didn’t further asset strip the side.
Brendan Rodgers, on the day he sat down in front of the fans, said he wanted pace and power.
He said two weeks ago we needed some experience.
They gave him a Benfica youth midfielder yesterday and you heard what he said about it, expressing his feeling precisely in pointing out that it’s another young player to “develop”.
They call this many things, but when you are so laser focussed on doing things in one specific way, even when it’s plainly leading to mistakes, that’s not a coherent plan, that’s a fetish, that’s no longer rational. They couldn’t just have given the guy one, just one, experienced footballer? And why not? Because it doesn’t tick the boxes on their wee checklist?
Are these children or grown men?
He’s the goddamn manager of this football club … and they’ve treated his opinions with nothing but contempt. They’ve heard his pleas and very publicly given him the finger.
They failed this guy, and there are no two ways about that and what makes it worse is that they plainly didn’t even try on his behalf.
They didn’t try on our behalf either.
The minute he said that they were making the transfer decisions I knew how this was going to end, and yesterday was a depressing walk through a very familiar landscape I hoped we’d never have to pass through again … a transfer window run by the bean-counters in accordance with “the strategy.”
It doesn’t serve the needs of the manager. It doesn’t serve the needs of the team.
It’s an ego trip for those who think the football department is their own personal plaything.
Well, they’ve got their share of my money for another season. They had the cheek to send out advertising for a new shirt yesterday and it doesn’t even matter that I like it, it’s a piss take and they can sod off.
I’ll wear the one I have until it comes back into style rather than give these people more money so they can stuff a mattress or heat a driveway or whatever the Hell else they’re going to do with it so they don’t have to give it to Brendan Rodgers.
Champions League money? They can get that from me when they take the competition even semi-seriously, and since they don’t then I’m not going to either. They’re getting nothing else.
That’s the only language they understand and they used to be able to hold over us the idea that if it wasn’t for our money they’d have to weaken the squad. Wow.
They’ve rendered that an empty threat since that’s what we now expect anyway.
Doubtless you will hear excuses for this window along the lines that players don’t want to come to Scotland, and how we can’t afford to pay big fees and how it’s difficult to do business in the summer (remember when they told us that about January transfers? Last January, and every January?) … it’s all bollocks, I’m afraid, that and this peculiar lunacy of leaving stuff to the final day when if you fail to fill any of the key positions you are essentially out of time.
Don’t let anyone kid you that this is somehow enforced on us, that this is the way we have to do things and that there’s no other option … this is a choice. This is deliberate.
This is how our club chooses to do this.
We haven’t been pushed into anything, we’re here because of conscious decisions made inside our own walls, to limit our spending to the point where we’re run for profit, to sell our best players the moment an acceptable offer comes in, to force every manager now to accept projects and development players and hope that their coaching can make something coherent out of what is all too often a mess of names and bodies in positions where we don’t need them.
When Brendan Rodgers sits there and tells you, himself, that the club has “a strategy”, well folks this would be what he’s talking about.
This strategy which leaves us short of a midfield enforcer, a left back, a backup striker and a decent goalkeeper, going into a Champions League Group where we would have a chance of getting at least third if we weren’t hamstrung by the policy, and this at the end of a window where we’re posting a transfer trading surplus in spite of bringing in ten players and which leaves us with six centre backs, seven wingers eight central midfielders and a manager who looks increasingly pissed off.
i also entirely agree james….
i wasn’t in favour of rodgers return – no idea why he did….shame on him for accepting such working conditions…has he no self respect at all? i hope he wakens up, smells the coffee beans and walks…..sure, lawwell’s favourite poodle, lennon, is available!
the height of out board’s ambition is clearly just to keep 1 step ahead of sevco…just spend enough to be SPFL champions and therefore claim the champions league riches…doesn’t matter how well the team performs in the group matches…who cares ? as long as they bank the euro millions…premiums….premiums….premiums !!!
the ironic thing is, i think the huns could just about beat us to the title this season…right now, i couldn’t care less…..
celtic fc are a fukn JOKE of a club.
HH
Fuckin named it,my friend.
I’ve been shouting from the rooftops since the new year WE NEED A FUCKIN KEEPER !!!but it has fallen on deaf ears.
I’ve also said l hope l see the day when l can personally take a dump and piss on the graves of every one of those involved in this shitshow !!
Remember tho, how when lawwell came back, we were all wonderin not if, but WHEN, he would start takin over again. Now we know. Power freaks don’t take long.
Before slagging any new players off as projects, at least give them a chance !!!
Given we have offloaded some amount of utter dross left behind by Lennon & Ange, is it 14 x players, that alone makes it a success for me. The 2 new CBs look a lot more comfortable on the ball than Starfelt ever did. We might even score from a corner. We will NEVER see Hart – Taylor & Bernbei together in CL game.
Yang looks useful, excited to see Bernado, Palma…the fact we still have to move on MJ – Turnbull – Scales – Welsh – Sieghirst – McCarthy shows the shambles BR has inherited and you expect it to be resolved in ONE window ????
Injuries have hurt us badly but given a rub of the green we can put down a marker..Kyogo, Oh, Maeda up top. New contracts for key players, turning down multi million pound bids for players shows we are keen to make an impact. Stuff the domestic cups they are mere fixture fillers…The League and Europe is ALL that matters.
Ange lost his first 3 x away games we have lost ONE and the panic merchants are out. Wanting us to spend millions on anyone….remember Scheidt – Ajeti – Barkas I am happy to wait and get it right.
We are being set up for the game at Piebox with the referee and VAR clown…but this game won’t define our season merely drive us on
Not the best window, but way over the top with your criticism, it seems celtic fans, particularly bloggers and podcasters thrive on negativity, overtaking mainstream media in your contempt towards the club,, its a mindset now,, the thought of celtic having a challenge and they wet there knickers,,, what a brittle spirt
The contempt is reserved for the so called ‘Custodians’ of our Club.
It’s because we care that we call out the Nepotism of employing Lawwell Jnr in such
a senior role within our Football Dept when there is nothing in his previous Man City job profile
to suggest that he is equipped to do the job.
It’s because we care that we continue to rebel against the lunacy of allowing the Club to become someone’s
personal fiefdom. Lawwell Sen was employed as an Accountant became CEO and Ruled the Club for 17+ years ( the average tenure for a PLC CEO in the EPL is around 5 years, there’s many reasons for that and they underscore the deep rooted problems we have as a Club irrespective of the Healthy bank balance).
Desmond doesn’t own Celtic he is just the largest shareholder and his priorities are radically different to those of the supporters. The Board see us as merely repeat customers with a loyalty to the ‘Brand’. They overlook the fact that our love is for the Football Club and NOT the Plc.
As Customers if we don’t like the end product we are offered then there comes a point when we have a grave decision to make. Most of us don’t want to make that decision. Some will accept what’s on offer based on the emotional attachment we have to the Club. Others will be lost to the game. They won’t switch loyalties. Yet others, and they are a growing number, will criticise the Board’s ludicrous policies, protest against their lockstep love hate relationship with the £BLUE, will castigate them for their inaction over the corrupt nature of the Scottish Game’s Administrators and Refereeing and for their failure over all these years, as the biggest Club in the Country, to Lead and push for the reforms needed to safeguard our Game’s future.
I think tomorrow’s game against the doppelgänger Klub will be a case in point to illustrate why our Custodians need to change tack.
I’m hoping for the best but suspect the outcome is already preordained.
I’m 61 Celtic have always been run by families Celtic always will be
Let’s give them a chance beat sevco with offside handball penalty in 110th minute and celebrate as sevco implodes we are celtic not entitled semi illerate goons support the players support the club keep the Faith HAIL! HAIL!.
Remember when you were telling us all a few weeks ago that we are stronger than last season?
You were so determined to go against the smsm assessment because you decided to take it as an insult rather than for what it was – the truth.
Yeah I was supportive because I believed that Rodgers was in charge of transfer policy and that we would see a major shift in the focus of our signings in the last two weeks of the window. Alas, Rodgers decided to confirm that he was not in fact in charge. After that point you’ll notice that I radically changed direction because from that moment on it was painfully obvious that we would not get the signings we wanted. The media was ranting because that’s what the media does. They were writing negatively because they always do wehen it comes to Celtic. I only ceased supporting the policy when it was clear who was running it. Different thing entirely.
James, incase you don’t know or have forgotten, Iwata is a defensive midfielder. He was that good playing that role that he won player of the year in Japan playing that role. Why we haven’t played him in that, his favourite & best position I don’t know.
Maeda is a striker, that is his role for Japan & for his previous club. We have been playing him out of position. Rodgers wants to play him there, that’s why he bought wingers to fill that role and to allow Maeda to play as a striker.
We clearly have let PL control the transfer dealings this summer or else his son doesn’t know how to tell his dad to keep out of his business.
Again the another transfer window shuts with the club making a profit.
This article is the best I’ve read in years, absolutely nails it, well done James.
The apologists are already out despite area’s in our team needing badly strengthened and another profit added to the bank balance.
Fans are only asking Celtic to be the best they can be and I ask the apologists why don’t you want the same?
Here’s what should happen next. The board should be told that if Celtic lose the league and we’re already out of a cup due to the policy,then these people must pay with their jobs. We would be ultimately losing millions and trophies andthat has to have consequences.
Great article James. Nails the mess we have created pretty much perfectly.
It’s hard to watch the Club being run in this way.
Totally understand the anger James, upon how the whole transfer window has been handled.
Personally left in total confusion, that’s stemmed from the board, into the management and coaching staff, players following suit out on the pitch, and us supporters left totally bewildered at what is actually going on within our club?
So what actually is this so called “Strategy” and planning that has gone into the season ahead?
We have to name a CL squad in a couple of weeks, and yet as a club, we still remain without any real idea as to who will be making up that 25?
One things for certain by the looks of thing’s, is names will be included, that stand to offer us nothing within an SPFL campaign, yet some who miss out on CL will possibly be required throughout the course of the Scottish season?
A totally unbalanced structure, that I feel very uncomfortable about, especially with trying to keep players happy and content?
The whole process involved, seems to have been taken without any real direction involved, that’s left us looking totally lost as a club currently imo.
Already the blame game has started, which has the potential to explode with a poor result tomorrow?
Of course this all could well be an over reaction if tomorrow goes well, and Rodgers has an unexpected vision for us moving forward.
Haven’t seen it so far, so remain very sceptical and confused at present.
Tomorrow match is possibly the biggest we have had in years, not because of the result, because nothing gets decided within in the SPFL regardless.
It’s to actually see potentially what direction this team is heading, and far from over confident that it’s going in the right direction, regardless of all the extra directions it could take, with the amount of extra additions to increase the number of routes, yet still not enough being added to the map?
Very confusing
Spot on James- this about the Directors deciding to put a limit on Celtic’s ambitions- and yes they have spent money – but have they actually invested in the areas that require it? Clearly not. As directors of a business -you either grow or you stagnate -and your investment decisions should be about growing the business in football terms that means getting better in all areas. And the jury is clearly out in this regard.
I think they like being a big fish in a small pond- I think most Celtic fans have bigger ambitions than that.
Brian,l don’t agree with you !
In my opinion, the jury most definitely is not out.
They gave this sit on their hands board all the time that was allowed until the window slammed shut to get their act together and now that jury is passing their verdict down.
For all but the usual board apologists, the Celtic fanbase have decided for whatever reason, be it keeping their beloved Old Firm Franchise alive and well or just through ingrained parsimony where they have to show us as being a “for profit” organisation,that they are not even paying lip service to the fans and hopefully Brendan Rodgers aspirations.
The $64,000 question is………What do we fans do about it !
Do we start by declaring a boycott of Champions League Packages or do we roll over yet again and stump up over £100 of our hard earned to watch our great club getting a gubbing.
I’ve made my mind up,anyway.
No surprise.
Lawwell is back !
I don’t for a minute believe that Brendan Rodgers has been backed like he was promised when he took the job again. Stinks of Peter Liewell pulling the purse strings tightly shut again.
Great article once again, James.
How anyone can argue against the plain facts of what you’ve stated is beyond belief.
I have been arguing with happy clappers all summer long and they’re still pretending that they don’t get it, that ‘they’ve spent plenty on the team, what more do you want?’
As though throwing money up in ten air and hoping it lands in a high interest bank account is any kind of ‘strategy’ at all.
Och well, one born every minute right enough.
Just bad luck for me that I happen to know six of them!
There’s definitely a disconnection between the manager’s assessments and the recruitment policy which, incidentally, was not the case with the previous manager. Who can doubt that the Japanese influx was due to AP ?
As for so-called ‘development’, how many wingers will get regular first-team football ?
I blame Rodgers as well,he must have known what he was getting into ,he’s already been there for god’s sake and decided enough was enough,why on god’s earth would he put himself in that position again the mind boggles,yes the board are no use and to blame but so is Rodgers.,god knows we’ll take some beltings in this CL,there again Scottish football as a whole is rank rotten and amateurish look how the cream of the SPFL did in Europe last week,hearts ,Huns Hibs Aberdeen all battered you can add our name to that illustrious list of useless football teams.
Spot on mate. ?
No-one has let Brendan down, why can’t people see that this is what Brendan signed up for.
We know Brendan is here for Brendan, first and foremost, so this must be what he signed up for. What though has he signed up for, not the wages, they’ll be bog standard, I’d say the bonuses, which would explain the lack of quality and number of punts, all good young players, all on the edge of the next step up, all they need is one or two to succeed and jobs a good un ?
I’ve never seen the guy look so downtrodden and dispirited.
Even when he left last time it was more his anger that was evident and that only around a week or two before his midnight flit.
When he re-signed in the summer we were getting a big flash of his glistening pearlies every second sentence, in his latest presser I don’t think he smiled once in the entire 17 or so minutes.
Something is seriously wrong at Celtic and if keep up he’ll be gone by Christmas, as I’ve been saying for nearly three weeks already, as he no longer even looks motivated.
Nobody knew AP or the players he brought in did his team at the beginning not lose six games why is everyone so down on BR and the players he picks back the manager and team and SHUT UP moaning cmon the hoops
You make some good points James, but alas supporting Celtic has always been thus. I don’t think we’ve reached a crisis point yet, lets face it we’re just 3 League games into the season and even if by some chance we get beat at Ibrox tomorrow I wouldn’t panic. I’m sure that there is lots of improvement in this team coming after the International break, the big test is going to come at that time for BR and the coaching staff to get the team firing on all cylinders. After that there will be no place to hide.
I do get it that supporters are worried about our performances in Europe as I just can’t see any improvement coming in our performances at that level this season.
Unfortunately the Celtic support have nearly always been let down over the clubs history by various Boards.
As a veteran supporter the worst of these let downs came in the 1970’s when in 5 years we went from being in the top 5 in Europe to not being in the top 50. This in an era before TV contracts, the EPL and Bosman.
The balance between accountancy and team building has always been out of kilter in the Celtic boardroom throughout our history.
For the first time ever I’m thinking of giving a miss to the CL package this season, I’ve got to get a ferry, book a hotel overnight plus pay a reasonable amount of cash to go to these games, and every season this board leave us open to getting humped in most European ties. They just don’t get the sacrifices their fans have to make to follow their beloved Celtic That great atmosphere at Celtic Park on European nights doesn’t happen by accident, maybe an empty Celtic Park at one of the games would send a message to the Celtic Board that we’re sick of getting taken for granted.
Here here,great post