We know that part of the summer rebuild was going to be moving players out, and whilst we’ve done a heck of a lot more of that than the other part, we cannot lose sight of the fact that this job is not finished yet. We have a hell of a lot of deadwood to clear.
Starting at the back, you can see a handful of them who aren’t going to play and should form no part of the squad going forward.
Lagerbielke, Kobayashi and I think Nawrocki will be included in those who are set to depart. Kwon will probably go from the midfield. I suspect Holm will as well. Out wide, I think there will be questions about Yang although I think he is going to stay. Tillio has already confirmed another loan; he won’t be back at Celtic.
We have nobody left to move out up front. If we don’t make signings in that area in the next seven days a lot of people at Celtic Park have serious, serious questions to answer. I have never seen a window where we’ve dragged our feet this much.
There are two players on the list of possible departures who I have not named; in fact, there are three and none of them are going to be first team regulars and, in fact, I don’t believe we’ll see two of them at all. The third is a backup player and under normal circumstances I’d say it was a near certainty that all three of them would go.
I do not believe that will be the case though. At least two, perhaps all three, will stay and that is a problem for me because none of them are good enough to be in the team.
Scott Bain is the first. Stephen Welsh is the second. Mikey Johnston is the third.
They are all Scottish. Two of them were produced by our own academy. If we ship out all three, we’re probably going to come up way short on our domestic players list. We have Forrest, McGregor and Ralston from our academy team. We have Greg Taylor as a domiciled Scot.
Even with those four in the squad we’re coming up short.
Nothing has been done to fix this.
The problem here is what can you do?
You need eight Scots for the Champions League squad and you tell me who there is out there who ticks the Home Grown box and would be worth going for? Scott McKenna, who I’m told won’t sign because he wants too much money. McKenna would bring us to eight, but the idea that Bain, Johnson and Welsh deserve to be considered first team players seems like a backward step to me, and we might be stuck with them anyway.
I’ve talked about Mikey Johnston more than I want to. I don’t want to see Mikey Johnston stay at Celtic just to make up some quota number. He’s never going to be the player we need him to be. I don’t think Stephen Welsh should be retained to tick a box either.
There is interest in him from other clubs, and I don’t believe we would keep him if not for this. Scott Bain is now so far from the first team that he would be better off leaving and we would be better letting him, but when you look at this situation, we might have to keep him.
This is something everyone at the club needs to be thinking about.
I’m sure everyone is aware of it. This is an issue which isn’t going away, and there’s no wiggle room on it at all. We’re nowhere near finding a solution to this one, except to keep players on the wage bill we’d otherwise not.
Aye The black clouds of ‘sunny’ (I’m being sarcastic as it’s Sonny) still stalk the corridors of Paradise then…
As for the European quota – Get Shankland…
Scores for fun, meets the quota…
If for us he scores for fun – He’s not doin it for Der Hun !
Mccarthy WTF
The real wage thief who never seems to be mentioned is McCarthy. Another ex EPL player looking for a pension and some fool at Celtic gave it to him. He can join the list that includes the likes of Keene and Wright etc. who contributed nothing.
Not sure about Welshey James. I think he is a prospect. Liam Scales was almost written off too and he came good last season. More game time could do the world of good for Stephen which is hard to come by at Celtic for him.But I think he could be a useful player maybe BR can bring it out in him.
I’m on the same page with that as regards to welsh , good attitude and a good back up , McCarthy should already have been gone.
M.johnston should be sold ASAP, celtic jersey too heavy for him .
Johnstone is an example of a player for whom the jersey does not fit.
I agree with you re walsh and Johnson
Hi. Letting holm go total nonsense and two weeks ago you would have had Kuhn on that list as well all the best.
Shows how little YOU know you clown.
Be respectful the guy’s entitled to his
Opinion.
I have read your site for years now and enjoy it James. But this now hitting back at guys who’s posts you don’t agree with, calling them clowns etc is total bollocks. Expect that from the dark side but not on any Celtic site. For the record, I agree with James Mcglone, Holm will come good and will do well at our club.
He didn’t state an opinion. This wasn’t about agreeing or disagreeing.
He tried to put words in my mouth, words that contradict my views, views he assumed – stupidly – that he knew.
That makes him a clown.
I think it’s clear that the likes of Welsh are being kept because they’re part of the domestic quota as well as being, currently, decent enough squad members for their positions. I’m surprised we haven’t went for semi decent Scottish projects to fulfill that. You’d hope they’d never be needed but might actually surprise you how good they were
Well Cameron and Lyall from Dundee, Lennon Miller from Motherwell and possibly Shankland are all Scottish and would add the needed Scottish element of our game. Unless we are going to seriously start promoting youth development.
The Board seem utterly negligent and incompetent except when it comes to storing up piles of money.
You move out the deadwood and pro.ote the best youth… it also gives them a better experiiennce even though they arent expected to play… Donovan and the other young full back.. We must have a young keeper or striker somewhere else to bring through… We often complain avout lack of youth ciming through. Move these 3 and McCarthy on and bring in the young lads
Mc carthy was offered a deal to piss off almost 2 years ago and the gready bastard knocked it back.
Why would you? The deal to exit early would have been a reduction in money. The blame sits fully with the club for making that signing in the first place.
They are there to tick that box and they’re going nowhere because there’s nobody obvious to replace them with unless we push through a couple of new academy players
You’ve decided to get shot of 4 centre backs – leaving us with only CV and Scales. Can’t see the board being able to sign another 2 or 3.
Would just point out that ‘homegrown’ players don’t have to be Scots, James, they just have to have trained at a club within the same association for 3 years between the ages of 15 and 21 irrespective of nationality. Big Ajer qualified as one of our homegrown players in his last couple of seasons with us I’m sure, and would have met the club-reared criteria but for the 6 months he spent on loan at Killie.