Another Hack Shows His Limited Understanding Of What Celtic Fans Expect From This Window.

A couple of days ago, I mentioned Michael Gannon.

Well, I didn’t exactly praise him, but I did point out that he has connections at Celtic Park and maintains a decent relationship with the club. Because of this, he can sometimes be taken semi-seriously when it comes to transfer stories.

However, today we’re reminded again that he isn’t much of a journalist because he doesn’t seem to know anything about football. His article today is so ridiculous that it makes you want to give him a good shake.

There are several things in that piece which reveal that he’s out of his depth. To begin with, the central premise is that Celtic should at least attempt to bring Jota back to the club. This idea is pure fantasy and utter nonsense, and I wish people would stop going on about it.

It’s not going to happen. Jota might be fed up with life in Saudi Arabia, but he chose that path. He made that decision, and if reality is only now setting in, perhaps he should have thought it through more carefully before signing the contract. He’s now a Saudi player, and that’s a far cry from being a European one. He’s there for the long haul, earning a hefty weekly sum. He belongs to them, and they will determine his future. He has no say in it whatsoever.

This is the price he pays for selling himself to a petrostate for vast sums of money. You don’t get to renege on that deal. He might be desperate to return to Europe, but again, that’s not up to him. The Saudis would rather keep him within their own league than let one of their assets, for whom they paid a significant sum, walk away for nothing.

It’s a fan-boy fantasy with no real chance of happening.

There was always going to be a hard bargain here. What did he expect?

It’s like in “The Merchant of Venice”—Shylock, the moneylender, demands a pound of flesh as repayment for a debt. He’s defeated when told that he may have the pound of flesh, but in taking it, he must not spill a drop of blood. What did Jota think would happen? He knew he was going to play in a backwater league. He knew the money would set him up for life. Did he think that came with no small print? No adverse consequences? Did no-one ask him “What if you hate it?”

Yeah the money is good. The money also makes it nearly impossible for another club to afford him if he wanted to leave. Jota could have had his pick of clubs around Europe. Not on his current salary; let’s just cut to the chase. He’s not worth that sort of salary any more than James Tavernier is worth being the highest paid player in Scotland. If that’s only sinking in now, I find that astonishing. His agent must have known how difficult it would be to escape from that deal.

Celtic certainly knows, and Celtic isn’t about to pay half his salary, let alone the enormous sum it would take to move the needle here.

Some people seem to think that because the Saudis are cash-rich, they must also be stupid. They’re not. Jota is an asset. He signed a deal, and he was brought to their league not for his benefit but to boost their profile and standing in the game. Until he’s done that, until he’s fulfilled his part of the bargain, he’s not going anywhere.

And on top of that, this deal is being touted as a possible way to appease supporters if Celtic sells Kyogo in the final days of this window.

Let me tell you something: if Celtic sells Kyogo at the last minute, they had better have a solid plan to replace him. And that plan had better be realistic, not some fantasy like this.

First, Kyogo is a striker, while Jota is a winger. It’s not even a like-for-like replacement. This is what I mean when I say Gannon doesn’t know what he’s talking about and that he’s not a good journalist. If he genuinely believes Jota could replace Kyogo, and that Celtic fans would accept that as a replacement for our star striker, he needs to realise this isn’t EA Sports FC, this is the real world, the real game, played out on real pitches with real players.

There’s another equally bizarre claim in the article: that Celtic fans would be broadly happy if we sign some compromise player at central defence and left-back.

As he puts it, a “wait-and-see” player—in other words, projects. In other words, players who don’t immediately step up but have to grow into the role.

Neither outcome is remotely acceptable, not after an entire window where we were promised proper footballers by the end of it.

Every Celtic fan I know will be highly unimpressed if we sign some squad player at left-back after that position has been crying out for an upgrade on Greg Taylor for years. I like Greg Taylor, but the idea that there isn’t a better left-back in world football who Celtic can afford is preposterous. I would seriously question the judgement of everyone at the club if we signed a squad player instead of doing this job right, especially when this has dragged on for an entire summer, after being dragged out all winter, after being dragged out for a whole summer.

If we sign some Owen Beck type player, for God knows what transfer fee, you know what will happen? We’ll be right back here, in January, or next summer, still chasing a left back. We’ll be forced to do this over and over again until we get it right. For a board that seems reluctant to spend, they certainly do seem to enjoy pissing money against the wall.

And the idea that we’ll settle for some modest central defensive signing—someone to provide competition for Liam Scales rather than relegate him to the bench—is equally unacceptable and I have no idea where Gannon gets the idea that it’s anything else.

Here’s where this board is right now. Fans have waited expectantly for the quality. Even those of us who know in our heart of hearts that this window is going to be a tremendous let-down have been waiting on these last weeks because they are when we were promised that this club would finally make the big moves. When you let expectations grow like that you have to deliver on them; period. You need to deliver or heads need to roll.

The only acceptable reason for this taking so long is that the signings will be serious upgrades on what we have now. If we were going to sign squad filler we could have done that months ago and our entire upper echelon, including the manager if he sanctions wasteful spending and mediocre signings, will have serious questions to answer.

To make a mess of this now would be a betrayal of every single person in our support and at our club who has defended this window on the basis that we would see results at the end of it.

These aren’t minor roles where we need backup. If we don’t sign a winger in this window, most people will be fine with that. People will be reasonably happy if we sign a decent replacement for Matt O’Riley and don’t spend good money on another central midfielder., although the manager wants one. Because you can see that we already have good players in that position, most people will be fine with that too. But a centre-back and a left-back are mission-critical signings. They were amongst the number one positions fans knew needed strengthening. Champions League necessary. Anything less than quality is simply not good enough.

I genuinely do not know where Gannon pulled today’s article from; his backside based on the content of it. But it’s a dreadful piece and completely out of touch with reality.

The club cannot drag this out for months and then hand the manager a bunch of “wait-and-see” players. We’re not interested in any more squad fillers. We need first-team-ready footballers—guys who can take the place of players already established in the side. That is not too much to ask. We play in Scotland, after all. If there aren’t better players than some of the guys in our team out there and within our reach, something is seriously wrong.

This club has been treading water all summer. All summer, on the proviso that this was the time for doing major business and we only intended to do major business. Some of us have pointed out how ridiculous this assertion is all the way … but this has been the party line and a lot of folk have been more than willing to trumpet it.

Squad filler at this point is an insult to all of us. It’s the last thing we need, the last thing the fans want, and the last thing the manager should be willing to accept. Just listen to what he’s been saying for all these months; a certain level of quality. So, no, fans won’t settle for that, and why should we? And no, the manager won’t settle for that, and why should he?

This club proposes to charge supporters over £200 for a four-match package in a tournament they don’t seem to care about or take remotely seriously. I don’t know why fans should be expected to. It treats all of us like mugs.

Nobody at the club should be under any illusions about what a successful transfer window looks like. It’s about strengthening the starting XI, not just adding to the squad. We need people to fill some of those key positions, not provide backup for them, or we’re sending the manager to those Champions League games with a first team no better than the one which came up short last time.

We need to be significantly stronger than we are now when that window slides shut. Significantly stronger. And if we’re not then someone has to fall on the sword for it.