Early Reports Suggest Celtic Fans Are In For A White Knuckle Ride Race To The Window.

This morning, Michael Gannon of the Daily Record published an article suggesting that Celtic has a contingency plan in place for the potential sale of Matt O’Riley.

Now, under normal circumstances people might be wondering why I’d take that seriously.

It’s the writer’s name. Coming from Gannon, this should not easily be dismissed, as he is known to be close to the club and generally has some insight into what’s going on behind the scenes.

It’s reassuring to think that Celtic has a plan, and that plan appears to involve the Belgian midfielder at Augsburg, Arne Engels.

This is an exciting development, if true.

Most of us assumed that the sale of O’Riley, while it would generate substantial funds, wouldn’t see Celtic replacing him like-for-like, as we’ve rarely done so in the past. But Engels is the real deal. He’s a player who fits the bill in terms of his age profile, style of play, and overall reputation in the game.

This would align with Brendan Rodgers’ policy of aiming for a higher calibre of player, even if that player is still relatively young.

The days of taking £2-3 million punts might be coming to an end.

Gannon’s article also states that Celtic has no interest in, or intention of, selling Reo Hatate.

This shouldn’t surprise anyone, as a club rebuilding its midfield would have planned well in advance.

The groundwork for that would be well underway, and no one would leave it until the last two weeks of the transfer window. While I may have my disagreements with how the club conducts business at times, I don’t believe for a second that we would ever do something as self-defeating as that.

So, overall, the article is encouraging.

It suggests that the manager has full control and autonomy, laying down the law on a series of issues, and ensuring that his approach to transfer business will prevail in the final 11 days of the window. I can’t express enough enthusiasm if that proves to be the case.

There’s always been a sense that the club was waiting to spend real money and ramp up its transfer dealings only after Matt O’Riley was ushered out the door.

When you think about it, it’s not completely crazy, especially when you consider that we knew we were going to have to spend around £12 million on two signings just to bring us back to the strength we had at the end of the last campaign.

I said this many months ago, to the scorn of many who refused to believe it.

I told those people that it’s a lot of money to spend just to stand still, and our club would need to be very careful if it did so. I said it would severely eat into the manager’s available budget, and of course it has.

Rodgers still has money to spend, of course. There’s still plenty of cash in the kitty. But as I said yesterday, high-profile players are more likely to come on a loan with an option to buy or an obligation to buy basis, rather than arriving for major transfer fees unless O’Riley leaves.

I still have an inkling that he’ll stay, but Brighton have the cash and the ambition to make this happen and I would not consider it unbelievable if he was interested, because they have a seriously good player development record and their policies are spot on.

So this could happen. I hope we keep Matt, but I see that there’s a downside to that if we really want to go for top tier players in the time that is left. The manager will certainly have more latitude to spend big, and I have to think that this isn’t the only area of the pitch where plans are already made and ready to execute.

The bigger plans have likely always depended on the sale of O’Riley, and those at the club probably expected that to happen much sooner in the window.

The only way we’ll find out is if Matt goes, and we then spend the kind of money we’re talking about here.

Gannon seems to think that we will. Gannon seems to believe that’s the plan. And as I said, he tends to have good relationships with people inside Celtic, so while it’s not something we can take to the bank, it makes a certain kind of sense.

One way or another, these next 11 days are going to be extremely interesting.

It’s not ideal that it’s going to be a sprint, but for a moment, let’s set aside the doom and gloom of the last two months, the anger and negativity that we’ve all felt—justified as it was—and consider the impact on the whole club if we end up going out and doing serious business in these final days, showing some real intent.

And while you’re tantalising yourself with that thought, think on this: think about the impact that would have across the city; on their club, players, fans, and coaching staff. That could be the spark that makes the whole bomb go off.

The Chinese say, “May you live in interesting times”; it’s not a blessing, it’s a curse.

At Ibrox, they live permanently in interesting times, but these might be the most interesting yet.

We’ve already created a problem for them that’s almost insoluble.

If we, in the next 11 days, decide to really flex our muscles, that’s more than just a problem—that’s Armageddon.