What Makes This Celtic Transfer Window More Tense Than Previous Ones? A Lot, Actually.

As we head into the closing days of the window there is a distinct lack of news, and a distinct lack of hope and confidence in the board to deliver. This feels more tense than a transfer window has felt in a long, long while and this is not about one thing. This is what people in the medical business call an aggregation of symptoms. It all adds up to trouble.

Why does this one feel significant? Why does it feel like this one is different than all the others that have come before? We’ve had foot dragging windows before. We’ve had times when we honestly didn’t believe the club would deliver for the manager, and on some of those occasions the club has entirely failed to do so. They were never like this.

To understand it we have to recognise, as I said, that this isn’t about one thing. There are a lot of different reasons for the anger and disquiet amongst the fans. So, let’s go over what those reasons are, one at a time, so that we might understand it better. For a lot of people, the picture is confused, and the media think we’re entitled, so let’s strip it all back.

First, we’ve been here before. This board has got previous for this. The guy at the top of the house has previous for this. He has restricted funds to every manager who has worked under him, even Ange to a certain extent. Don’t forget that we had a transfer trading surplus under him, just as we do right now. The only time we have done significant January business without any issues lately was when Ange was boss and had full control of the system. But in most other years, we drag our feet. Previous January windows have been a mess.

To see this one end in a big fat nothing would not, therefore, be terribly surprising.

Secondly, this is a close title race. Now, we’ve been in close title races in January before but on those years, we do tend to get the business done. Two years ago, in Ange’s first campaign, we went into the January window a couple of points behind in the league, and we knew we needed several signings to fill out the squad. We made three major ones; Maeda, Hatate and O’Riley. Not only were they done early, they all played crucial roles in delivering the prize.

This would be the first year where we’ve needed a major signing to give us an edge in a close title race where we’ve failed to do that since the distant Wilo Flood window. And that is significant because it brings me to the next point.

Third, the presence of Peter Lawwell has fans deeply concerned. That and his son being in the building and running recruitment. This is a massive part of why fans are worried. They see how well things were working when the manager was allowed total control and it is obvious that Brendan Rodgers does not have that degree of autonomy. As I wrote at length the other day, Lawwell’s reputation was built on years when there was no serious challenge to us. When he’s been faced by a determined team at Ibrox which knew it had to spend to get ahead of us and did so we have lost as many titles as we have won.

So, let’s talk for a moment about the critical one, the Wilo Flood window. The league race was tight that year and all the talk was of Celtic needing a striker. Lawwell dickered with Hibs over a couple of hundred grand for Steven Fletcher and instead of buying him we spent a small sum on a midfield player, when we didn’t need one of those, and who didn’t enhance the starting eleven. He was never going to be any more than a squad player. He lasted less than a year. We lost the title.

We then went on to lose the next two. Only the collapse of Rangers stalled that, and what makes it worse is that we now know that winning the league that year – had we not penny-pinched – would have netted us a Champions League jackpot and put Rangers into administration two years early; that cost us trophies and cash, just to save a few quid.

Fourth is the increasingly grim demeanour of the manager, and that scares a lot of us badly. He doesn’t sound confident at all. He has been sounding increasingly pissed off about the state of things for a while. He made it clear what his needs were in the summer. The board appeared to ignore them completely. He made it clear going into this window. They have not delivered. The last time we saw him this way was in the January before he quit for Leicester, when the board handed him a player he hadn’t asked for and plainly didn’t want.

Fifth is the prize on offer. That has us spooked because it is too big to be taking this sort of reckless gamble with. There is a realisation amongst our supporters that no matter how much money we have in the bank, we won’t sufficiently back any manager to take us to the next level … so it’s not so much that we need the money and want the money for ourselves which bothers folk. We want the money because if they get it at Ibrox they will do what we won’t; they’ll push out the boat and spend as much as they think they can get away with.

Lawwell doesn’t do well in those scenarios. He regularly misjudges what we need to stay even one step ahead of them over there. He has thrived as a flat-track bully. In a proper race we simply cannot trust him to keep us in front. If we screw this up it is not inconceivable that we’re handing them momentum for the next two or three seasons.

Sixth is that this shambles must be affecting the players. We know they are aware of what’s going on, they don’t live in a bubble, and if they believe that the manager is being undermined that’s not great. We now have a playing squad exploded to ridiculous proportions whilst still managing to have a starting eleven weaker than it was last season, and something has to give. McGregor spoke for the players when he agreed with the manager on the need for quality; it lifts the whole place and this has been one disappointment after another.

The players deserve that lift just as the fans do, and you see by performances that things are pretty low right now amongst them. With a couple of good additions to the team you will see morale rise and the performances with it. This is vital.

Seventh and finally is the complete absence of any news here. This is the first time we’ve been going into the last two days of a crucial window with not even the rumour of signings. There are contradictory stories in the media saying we’re still looking and others saying that we’ve basically abandoned even trying to find signings … the lack of hard information is not always a bad thing, but if we were really going to do business you would expect some whispers.

Instead the silence is deafening, and rightly or wrongly that feeds into the perception that our club just doesn’t have a clue, that nothing is really happening behind the scenes at all, that we’re foot dragging and letting the clock tick down whilst we fumble about.

There are people who accuse those of us who are concerned of being overly dramatic. One Celtic fan media editor thinks we are “bedwetters”, which is a shameful slur on concerned Celtic supporters many of whom have bought season tickets. I hope we never get to find out what some of these people have to say if we do nothing and lose this league.

See, the difference between us and them isn’t that they think we’re wrong and we think we’re right. It’s that we very, very badly want to be wrong. But our reasons for worrying are valid. Our concerns are not misplaced. The risks are real if we don’t get signings made, and the questions we are asking about the process are entirely legitimate.

We’re on the brink of a massive own goal here. A massive act of self harm. It would be crazy not to worry about it, and even crazier to deny that the threat is real.