Evening Times Humiliated By “Late Bid” For Carter Vickers Story As Celtic Announce New Deal.

As appeasement strategies go, the new deal for Cameron Carter Vickers will work for some people. I love the big guy, although I have concerns about his fitness which I’d like to see him shake. Still, he is a critical part of the machine and it’s good to have this final key player on a long-term deal.

Yet ultimately, that only means we’ll get a better deal for him if there’s an offer we think is too good to turn down. It’s not to be sneezed at, but it’s not a guarantee that he’ll be at the club for the full term. There is no doubt he and others are happy at the club, but when big bids come in our club very often feels an itch it needs to scratch.

This should be a moment of celebration. In some ways it is. But it also feels like a sop to the fans because we’re not prepared for the second half of the campaign yet. I stress yet, but I think my lack of optimism is obvious from recent blogs. The signing up of another player on an extended contract is obviously excellent. I wrote about how retaining your best players is a key component of squad building, and in spite of my doubts he’ll be here for the full duration I nevertheless reiterate my hope that the manager gets one more year out of the current squad.

I doubt it, but we now have the opportunity to do it with every major player recently tied down. It could be a foundation to build a serious structure on. Where my concerns lie, where all our concerns lie, is in the failure to sign more than one player to bolster the team. Neither this nor all the excuses presently being made will cover for that if this window shuts without more business being done.

Now I’ve got that off my chest, let’s get to the fun stuff.

I want to have a laugh at one of our media outlets. Cameron Carter Vickers was going nowhere in this window, and the manager made that clear yesterday and in doing so was only repeating what he has said over and over again; that did not stop the troublemakers. It never does. But The Times intervention was particularly grim and notably stupid.

They published a story saying that the club had been the recipients of a late Carter Vickers bid from Asia – the Qatari league – and suggested that it would give the club something to think although they said it was “unlikely” we’d accept the bid. Just as they published it, the club announced that it had secured Carter Vickers signature on an improved deal.

I always enjoy seeing the mainstream media flounder. I always get a kick out of it, even on a day when a new contract is being celebrated as if it was a new signing, as if our position had just materially improved instead of being exactly what it was before we all got up this morning. The impression that the club is content to sit and do nothing more in this window grows by the minute. I hope for further business but no longer expect it.

Still, it would be churlish not to say that Rodgers’ leadership has at least convinced another key player to stay at Celtic Park. If only he were as good at convincing those above him on the board to actually strengthen this squad.

And it would take a heart of stone not to find humour in The Evening Times, which is to be congratulated for digging up an obscure rumour from abroad when it can’t even cover the stories on its own doorstep, and now has to wipe the egg off its collective face for getting it so wrong.