Yesterday, after listening to Rodgers talk about the decision to allow Bernabei to leave the club, I got to looking at the rest of the players who will be leaving over the summer, or who we would be seeking to move on.
Shockingly, I can see a scenario where a lot of them are guys who’ve only been signed this year. If you assume a top player, like O’Riley, will go as well and you look at what we’ve got left, the picture it paints is fairly horrific.
Starting from the back and working your way through the team, it’s horrendous how poor we look in several positions, even when there are allegedly a lot of options.
We will need a goalkeeper, and he’ll need to be a top one. There are no “project keepers”, that would be lunacy even by the standards of this board. We are probably way out of our league in going for the lad at Liverpool now that he’s got profile; we delayed too long on that one and any meaningful chance of getting him is almost certainly gone.
We need a left back. We need at least one central defender of real quality. And that will be a tough sell when we have so many of them at the club right now. We have the numbers to give the appearance of good cover, but the quality is severely lacking. We are going to need at least one, possibly two midfielders since we’ll be losing Bernardo and the need for a ball-winning hardman is as acute as ever was, and this before we sell a first team player.
Out wide, I’m deeply disturbed. Maeda, yeah, he’s a keeper. But who else is? Losing Abada is huge, and damaging and really pretty bad. Yang might offer something, but needs work. Palma, in the right team, one where we move the ball quick and keep him high might produce … but Rodgers isn’t convinced at all. Kuhn just scares me. His lack of game time is terrifying and highly suggestive of another huge, huge mistake. He will get his chance to prove us wrong.
We need at least one striker, and maybe more. If you surmise that Kyogo has a role to play – most of us do – then you need to ask whether Oh does, and I have my doubts. Idah will be going back to England, so that leaves us needing probably two front men and hoping that Kyogo finds his form in a better team or you’re looking at a full rebuild of the front line as well.
That some folks seem deadly serious about the idea of Mikey Johnston getting another opportunity is a clear sign of how far we’ve fallen in a very quick period of time. It’s only a year ago that this Celtic squad needed only two or three signings of genuine quality and you could imagine the fabled “next level” was in our reach. Jesus.
Kind of a lot has happened since then.
We are in a pretty shocking state, and facing another Ange style total reconstruction, and we’re heading into that not knowing who might be in the dugout, without a head of scouting and with no clear idea as yet which additional first team players we might lose.
Even if we win this title, it’s hard not to worry about what’s in front of us in the summer even if it doesn’t involve a new manager, because the rebuild is in front of us one way or the other, and having squandered so much time and money on the current desperately lacking squad we’re also going to have to move as many of them off the wage bill as possible first .. and again, that’s a self inflicted wound and a real problem for us.
Winning the title, and even the double, would make it easier to swallow but no less difficult to solve. In fact, that might lead some of our stupider and more arrogant board members to conclude that the strategy paid off and that it’s broadly been successful when nothing could be further from the truth.
So yeah, I’m a little bit worried.
Well ,big Ange proved that it can be done . The difference this time is that he is a professional at his job of the highest standards and understands the need for doing the job properly and in a short space of time . None of this oh ,we’ve got all of the Summer for recruitment horse manure ! Whoever is in charge next season better bring their A+ game to the table every single time ….nothing more …nothing less … nothing in-between .
Aren’t we all James. A scary time ahead. Is there another Ange out there and if there was would P L give the go ahead? It’s not only players that need to leave. Board members should also be on the list. HH
we needed all the above james and by last summer not to mention this summer , peter lawell put the club back 2 years it is too late for him to make amends , the board will also need new faces , as for the league it is gone , sevcos agent Beaton has struck us a blow and all thats left is for his fellow cheats will do their part , and they will with out sanction
James I think it’s worse than you say;
We need a proper first choice goalkeeper and a back up.
Alistair Johnston has had an indifferent campaign hampered by injury, but not half as good as his first six months with us. Ralston is SPL cover only.
CCV and Scales seem to be first pick for various reasons. I like Nawrocki and can’t figure out the Lagerbielke situation at all. Welsh is SPL cover and Kobayashi is just not going to make it.
Taylor has been flogged to death, on the pitch and in the stands and forums, so we need another proper left back. We should be shopping closer to home for that player I feel.
Midfield needs a ball winner, Iwata might just be that guy. Calmac is getting older and needs someone to allow him the occasional rest. O’Riley will probably go and I think Bernardo will return to Portugal. Hatate will need to settle back in and regain some form. We look at him with rose tinted spectacles sometimes, his more recent performances fell well short of the standards we know he is capable of.
We need to find a creator for our midfield.
Moving to our forward options is where I think we have real issues. I’d let Kyogo have his op the minute the season is over then see if he and Rodgers can figure out how to get the best out of him.
Idah will go south and be sold by his parent club to someone else. Oh is a big haddy, he will never never make it as a 20 goal striker.
Yang, Palma, Johnston, Kuhn – an endless procession of lightweight sand dancers who will occasionally shine, but simply not good enough to consistently do the damage.
Maeda – keep, but my god he frustrates the bejesus out of me. The crossing? The sitters? He does the most difficult things with artistic genius and then makes a prize arse of the really simple things! An enigma!
We should have bought Shankland last summer, but for snobbery and this “next level” fantasy. Our job is to win domestically and then worry about raising it for Europe. The recruitment has failed us miserably on both counts to the degree of criminal neglect.
As for the collection of project misfits that take our first team squad to over 30 individuals? They just need flushed out. The money squandered on wages and fees for some of these guys is beyond belief. To think what we could have had instead of these pathetic project punts that goes all the way back to the Strachan era.
We have done well selling some big ticket players, but by golly have we hosed a fortune down the drain on so so many others.
I’m almost as disgusted this year as I watched us throw away the final blow of 10.
The next 9 league games and potentially 3 cup games will determine if we resuscitate the remorseless ghost of Govan or put them down like we should have done.
Terrifying mate.
Brilliant assessment there MCG !
If we lose the league there’s no way in hell lawwell can survive, other board members would also have to question their part in this also, the blue chip players could be retained if we win this league and the serious champions league money could be spent on bolstering the team with experienced players Rodgers had requested since he arrived.
Win or lose lawwell has to go , he’s overseen an absolute disaster since he came back .
“There are no project keepers” even that would be lunacy by the standards of this board…
But there WILL BE A CHANCE of it while Daddy Lawwell is still in the building –
That much is sure…
Jeez James – I wish that I shared your confidence on that one in yet another great article !