Why in God’s name are Celtic letting two good squad players leave without replacing them?

So here we are on transfer deadline day. And I’ll tell you this, I am concerned. I’ve been concerned from the start, but I’m worried about something new at the moment. Reports this morning suggest that we’re willing to let both Nawrocki and Iwata leave today, either on loan or in permanent deals, or whatever that might be.

And I’m incredulous if that turns out to be true. Incredulous. We’re already weaker up front. We’ve lost our backup striker, and we have no intention of signing another one. Why on God’s earth are good squad players being allowed to leave without replacements?

Is no one listening to the manager? Is no one at that club actually paying attention to the words that come out of his mouth? We have more games to play this season than any previous year because there are two additional Champions League matches. We have to at least attempt to maintain the size of the squad, and yet we don’t seem like we’re going to do that.

Let’s be straight here. Cameron Carter-Vickers has a history of injuries and Scales isn’t good enough for Champions League football, so it was important that we brought in at least one quality centre-back. But one’s all we get, and we’re letting a backup leave?

We’ll have lost three centre-backs from the squad by the time this window closes. One we won’t miss, as Kobayashi had virtually no game time. Nawrocki, however, was a squad player who was clearly a better backup than Stephen Welsh. Rodgers explicitly kept the third of those centre-backs at the club last season, even though he had no future here, for backup purposes, because he knew you get injury issues during the campaign.

Lagerbielke, we knew he was going to go, so fair enough. But we knew we would have to sign at least one centre-back, perhaps even two; we got one. But selling Nawrocki without replacing him in the squad seems stupid to me, leaving Welsh and Scales as your backup defenders. That’s laughable; that’s ridiculous.

There’s no way we should be selling squad players for no other reason than just to balance the books, or whatever the hell it is that people at Celtic Park are up to right now.

The manager prioritised two midfield signings in this window; it looks as if he’s going to get one, and instead of getting him the other, we’re now selling another valuable squad member.

For months now, it’s been apparent that we’re not going to make a significant strengthening of the starting eleven. One player will be brought in this window who goes straight into the team as a genuine upgrade, and that’s if we can sign our centre-back target. I’ve been resigned to that fact for weeks, if not longer. But we’re replacing O’Riley, not upgrading him, and we’ve signed someone to provide “competition” – the boss’s words, not mine – for Taylor.

And while I did not want to see this be a transfer window full of squad filler, I knew there would be some, and in the main, I didn’t have much of a problem with it because you need some of that, because every team needs good backup players.

I certainly expected this squad, overall, to be stronger when this window shut, not materially, obviously, weaker across the board. And yet it’s departures that look more likely than signings, in addition to the two that seem to have been agreed.

But over the course of the next few months, we are going to play a lot of football. There will be injuries, there will be suspensions, there will be fatigue, and the only comfort that I drew from pondering whatever we had when this window was shut is that we had enough backup depth in most positions to cover that.

Now, looking at the number of players we’ve allowed to leave, and the talk today that at least two of Brendan’s squad players from the last campaign are on the way out the door without replacements… I’m struck again by how much like self-sabotage this looks. This is crazy. This is senseless. The weakening of the squad, overall, was not something I expected when this window closed… and with twelve hours to go, that’s what we’re heading for.