A Lot Of People Expect Celtic To Look Backwards In This Window. Expect Us To Look Forward.

The transfer window is open, and whatever we might be doing in the background, very little of it is visible to us at the moment. Celtic has a big job on its hand this summer and we’re looking for early signs of life. The suspicion is that the first signing will be Bernardo, and I take some satisfaction in the news that we’re negotiating a lower fee on that one.

It seems that people at Celtic were reluctant to spend £6 million just to be no further forward in terms of the midfield. Who knew, eah?

Bernardo will be a good bit of business if we get him at the right price.

We know the sort of player he is and that’s a major positive. We’re going for Idah for the same reason, but the situation at Norwich is less than ideal. Our failure to get a right-to-buy looks like a mistake, but we needed someone in January and the utter waste of the summer put us in a tough spot.

Idah fit the manager’s profile, and in the end, he’s scored critical goals. It was a great piece of business, and although it would be fantastic to see us make it permanent, nobody can say that it did not achieve what that signing was designed to do. Idah won us a double. So, it was Mission: Accomplished whether we get him back or not.

Obviously, a lot of people would say he has to be a priority. I would love to see it, but two things have me wondering whether we will. The first is obvious; if Norwich don’t want to play nice we might not get him anyway.

Secondly, even if Norwich are prepared to sell him, what if they want a look at him first? A long look? Should we let other targets slip away?

Remember where we were in January. The shambles of the summer window had continued into that one. We missed out on a left back. We failed to strengthen the central midfield. We did sign a player for the right side, when it became apparent that we weren’t going to hang onto Abada … Idah looked a lot like a panic buy, a last-minute option.

At the same time, there is a debate going on over whether we might sign Tierney, Jota or even Odsonne Edouard. There is a large section of our fan base which seems to obsess over such options, as if the aim of this club should be harness the possibilities afforded us by going backwards. Not for me. I’d pass on all of them, and focus on moving forward.

The thing with Idah is that he was signed so late in the day we’ll never know whether there were other options we would have gone for had the time permitted it or had their clubs been willing to sell. We struck gold with the big man and my first preference, for sure, would be to sign him on a permanent deal … because we know what we’re getting.

But is he the best striker out there who we could sign in the £6 million price bracket? I would suggest not, and so if we decide not to wait on Norwich making their minds up I will not exactly consider that a disaster. I’ll be disappointed … but only until the next guy comes along. Remember, Kyogo only cost is £4.5 million, and that sounds insane now when you think about it.

But back when Griffiths was our main striker, I would not have countenanced him being supplanted by some unknown, and then along came Dembele. I thought he was going to be irreplaceable and then we signed Edouard and he proved his talents. I thought those three would be the most technically accomplished goal-scorers we’d see at Parkhead for years to come … and then along came Kyogo Furuhashi. Celtic is a constantly evolving thing.

And I expect a summer of similar evolution. I will not be shocked if we move on from Idah if it’s going to take too long or cost too much. As I’ve said before, expect the unexpected in this window. Don’t let a single thing about it surprise you. As long as Rodgers is in charge of the process – and we’ll know that from the first couple of signings – it’ll be all good.