The Celtic Boss Had Harsh Words For Last Summer’s £2 Million Midfield Signing.

Yesterday, the boss spoke out on the pre-season, and he was not sparing when it came to those players who he thinks have to give a little bit more. One of them was Bosun Lawal, which is probably not a great surprise.

He’s been away on loan and although we’re all very hopeful that he can make the breakthrough we need to patient.

One of the others was Odin Thiago Holm. Rodgers says that both players have got something, which will be encouraging to them and to the rest of us … but they aren’t ready yet and he wanted to stress that first, and foremost, to the players themselves.

“They need to be a much higher level,” he said. “If you’re going to play for Celtic, you have to be. Odin needs to do more. There’s something there, though, absolutely. And that’s why we persevere, and that’s why we stay with it, because he has talent, like Bosun Lawal, and that’s why we want to give them the opportunity, so I can see them in pre-season. But it’s just running more. You have to run. Without the ball, you’ve got to run, you’ve got to be bright, you’ve got to be in good positions to press the game, then to get the ball and take the ball.”

Lawal was brought to the club from the Watford academy team. I have no issue with the boss telling him he has a lot of work to do.

He’ll get there. He’s gone out on loan and is putting in the hard yards.

But Holm cost us good money. He was more expensive than O’Riley, Maeda, Hatate and he’s nowhere near any of them. You buy a guy like that and you assume you’re buying a guy who isn’t far off it, and he was bought when there was no manager at the club.

So, whose bright idea was this, and why after a year is he no nearer the level we need than he was on the day we signed him? He won’t run? Is that the inference here? Is he not following the manager’s instructions, or not understanding them? Is he lazy?

Rodgers has praised the boy’s talents, for sure, and that’s good but he’s said, as he did in the case of Kelly and Vata, that talent on its own is not enough. There are things beyond that which a player has to have, and this guy, who cost us £2 million, is a way short when it comes to those other things, and he has to start wrapping his brain around where he is.

Again, this is something that the manager has said before, when in the last campaign during the mid-season slump, he actually said that there were people in the dressing room who needed to develop a clearer understanding of where it was that they are playing and what the requirements at Celtic are.

To understand who he was talking about you need to think about the players who he trusted with the big games and who he didn’t even bother looking to.

Thiago Holm was one of the latter. He was miles outside of the zone of trust, and with these comments I think he’s still miles outside it. I think it would be better for the whole club if this young man went off somewhere else for a year and learned how to work harder, and then, if he’s developed, come home a new man.

Otherwise, he’s done, and £2 million was splurged against the wall.

And yeah, we’re financially robust enough that we can take a hit like that – unlike another club who would be crying bitter tears over such a blow – but that doesn’t mean we should. That doesn’t mean that it’s okay. The madness of signing players the manager might not be able to use is obvious enough, but the signing of players when we don’t even have one is ridiculous and this is the cost.

This window, however we all might think it has gone, is a changed one from last year.

That’s both good and bad.

The boss is clearly making the decisions, and he won’t tolerate more signings like this.