GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - JANUARY 22: Alex Valle of Celtic (R) against Sandro Lauper of Young Boys (L) during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Phase MD7 match between Celtic FC and BSC Young Boys at Celtic Park on January 22, 2025 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Richard Callis/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)
During the summer transfer window, we dragged our feet abysmally throughout. The first signing we made did nothing to settle my nerves or convince me we were looking at a good window overall.
We recovered the situation somewhat on deadline day, but the way we handled things before that was atrocious. It could have cost the club dearly, as those in charge seemed more interested in turning the closing hours into a spectacle, pandering to Sky Sports Scotland ratings, as if that somehow mattered.
But that first signing set the tone for the window, and it was by far the least impressive. Without wanting to bang the drum too loudly, I said so at the time and took plenty of stick for it. A Barcelona reserve player, signed on loan with no higher-level experience than the Spanish second tier?
It was a shocking decision when we all anticipated that the left-back problem would finally be solved once and for all. Instead, we slapped a sticking plaster over it.
I never understood the signing of Álex Valle.
There was no value in it: a one-year loan, no option to buy—basically doing development for another club. I said at the time that I doubted a player with so little first-team experience would have a realistic chance of supplanting Greg Taylor as our first-choice left-back. And so it has proved. He wasn’t good enough to dislodge Taylor, which means he was never good enough to sign in the first place.
Valle has been an adequate backup—nothing more. But now the stupidity of that signing has been compounded by Barcelona’s decision to recall him early so they can sell him to another club. I’m not going to suggest we’ll profit in any way from this because, unlike the lunatics across the city, I understand he wasn’t our player.
Barcelona can do as they please. If they’ve breached the terms of the deal, sure, we’re entitled to modest compensation—for all the good it does us now.
Once again, this club is at the mercy of events. We are no longer in control of this transfer window. Arsenal now holds all the cards, and they can squeeze us for every last penny if we want Kieran Tierney to join early.
Without Tierney, we’ll need to scramble for a short-term backup, just as I suspect we’ll end up doing in terms of getting in a forward. Are we really going to rely on Liam Scales at left-back? That might have been an option, except Cameron Carter-Vickers is injured, and we need Scales in central defence.
Two members of the registered Champions League squad are gone prior to tomorrow. Maeda is banned. Carter Vickers is injured. This reeks. But it doesn’t matter much as the club, in selling Kyogo this week, had already deprioritised it. Sorry for all those fans who travelled down, but the balance sheet comes first.
This window is turning into a shambles.
Brendan Rodgers has assured us that Tierney will join in the summer, but who’s doing handstands over that? On his day, Tierney is a quality player, but Taylor will be leaving, and we’ll still need a reliable backup. Even if we get one, that’s then, this is now and I’m worried about what this squad will look like in a week.
Can we trust Arsenal’s hierarchy to cooperate here?
Mikel Arteta has treated Tierney appallingly for months, yet now Tierney is supposedly part of the plans despite being told his contract won’t be renewed. This is an ex-Ibrox player basically giving us two fingers. If there’s resistance on their part to letting him go early, you can bet that’s why.
There’s less than a week to go before the window closes, and we have so much to do and, because we leave things like this shocking late, time is running out to get it done. It’s a scenario entirely of our own making.
Selling Kyogo Furuhashi was utterly unnecessary, and it has left us scrambling to replace one of the most critical players in the squad.
Now the Tierney pursuit looks doomed for this window, and if it is then we’re left trying to find a stopgap for the left-back position.
The hopes we had just a week ago, that we might prepare properly for the summer and only need to make minor tweaks to the squad, are evaporating.
Instead, we’re looking at a major overhaul, completely avoidable had we done our business properly sooner than this.
We should have solved the left-back issue in the summer by signing a player who could not only genuinely challenge Greg Taylor but hoist him out of his starting berth. Ironically, this has probably added to his conviction that as a first choice player he deserves first choice wages … self inflicted again.
We knew Kyogo might leave—why didn’t we get a striker in at the start of the window? And why does the club insist on leaving business until the dying days, when one misstep leaves you with no time to recover?
The margins for coming out of this window stronger are now razor-thin. We can only register three players for Europe. If Tierney isn’t going to be one of them and Valle has already left, we need a left-back. There’s no argument about it.
If we head into Champions League games with Adam Montgomery in that position, it will be a disgrace, especially when we have £70 million in the bank.
Had we kept Kyogo until the summer, it would have saved us a lot of trouble. Had we been proactive in the market, knowing Valle might go and Tierney might not arrive, we wouldn’t be left with five days to go wondering how our team will look.
This January window was probably the simplest we’ve faced in years. Sign a left-sided attacker and maybe strengthen one other area. That’s it. Yet here we are, patching up key positions and hoping for the best. It’s the result of a complete lack of strategic planning and a baffling insistence on leaving business until the last possible moment.
Why do I have a bad feeling that we’ll end up with sticking-plaster solutions again? Why do I sense we not even end up with that?
Photo by Richard Callis/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images
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James I am glad you have raised the specter of Adam Montgomery as our second choice left back, to complement this we also have Jonny Kenny as our replacement striker and Dane Murray at CB. You could count their appearances for Celtic on one hand. These are players we could be calling on in a Champions league game where we still had an outside opportunity to secure a top 8 position! Our board clearly viewed finishing in the top 24 positions as the destination, when it should only have been a step in our Champions league journey. Remember as well we have also sold a left back in this transfer window. We should not be in this position, I refuse to believe the manager is satisfied with the options he has at his disposal this evening, the transfer window, much like the summer and the two that preceded it has been a fiasco, the blame for this lies with the executive board who conduct our transfer business in a way that prioritises the PLC balance sheet and not the managers squad building requirements. The quiet men(Lawwell & Nicholson) who are the architects of what I refer to as Operation silence must be removed from any influence in our recruitment process if we ever want to see a coherent approach to player trading. As an aside while I am delighted that Jota has rejoined the club I believe that it all but guarantees we will see Kuhn leave the club this summer. HH
Bewildered how the Leftback position has not been resolved. Taylor in defence is woeful, gets caught up the park and thus leaves left midfield exposed. Most successful attacks by opposition are down his side. As for Kyogo, our attack is weakened significantly, no more of Kyogo’s endless running and sharp movement which creates holes in defences. There is a reason he is the best since Larsson, it’s taken just under two decades to find someone of his ilk and it was more fortuitous than by design (no Big Ange,no Kyogo). Selling Kyogo at this junction is just stupid,stupid,stupid. As for Valle, if he was Scottish he wouldn’t have got near the squad, he (at this stage) is nowhere good enough, I thought he would have pace at least,he doesn’t and his ball retention wasn’t that great for a Barca player. Tonight I’d play McCowan on left wing, Yang gives the ball away too much and never makes a tackle.
Idah
McCowan Kühn
Bernardo Engles
Calmac
Taylor Scales Trusty AJ
Big Yoda
This window just confirms that the club has no European ambition. Reach the play offs & then tools down we’ve done it. We’ll get absolutely turned over tonight & end up in the bottom half of the draw so lose home advantage in the second leg.
If the club had actually shown some ambition to get a result tonight & kept the squad together (ok CCV & Maeda are out) the table is that jumbled up there is nothing saying we don’t get a favourable opponent again depending on results tonight.
We have boasted about having a strong squad this season but tbh I think the recent transfers have shown it to actually quite weak beyond the starting 11. I would say in all positions apart from the midfield 3 (would also say Valle when he was here was more than good enough to step in for Taylor) there is a significant drop off in player quality everywhere else, 3 players missing for a crucial game & we are a team that looks significantly weaker.
As you say we drag our feet until suddenly the end of the window kicks us up our arse.
I’ll tell you right now, the club continues to stifle the manager like this & there is zero chance he extends his stay. He’ll be back off down to England for his next flurry in the Prem & I wouldn’t blame or begrudge him doing that one bit.
That will put the Executives noses right out of joint with getting zero compensation for him & they’ll be footing the bill to bring the next one in.
We are run miles better than the club across the river but we are not a well run club on the footballing side. Clubs must rub their hands together when Celtic come calling because they know we’ll negotiate with zero urgency & then come running back in a blind panic.
I know Desmond pays very little attention to the ongoings at the club, but how this doesn’t flag as a concern to him is beyond me. We are overpaying for players we categorically could have gotten cheaper because of the way we are handling things. Surely for a penny pincher his moustache will be ruffled.
I agree with all that you say in this articke james .
So again , I’ll ask the question, where is the much heralded Paul Tisdale in all of this.
Was he brought in to head up the football operations side of the club ?
If he is still at celtic , it appears he is superfluous and another waste of funds .
I’ll use one of Phils phrases , it’s an excrement exhibition
This season still promises so much and we’re settling for what we have instead of going for better, it’s hard to sign a top striker in January unless you’re Rennes, so there might be better options in the summer and Tierney probably won’t join until the summer depending on Zinchenko, BUT WHAT ABOUT THIS SEASON? We’re in a great position and should be trying to get as far as possible in Europe. I’d settle for an out of favour loan striker from a top club but doubt we’ll even get that. Rodgers saying he won’t play Maeda through the middle is to make it clear he expects to get a striker this window, it looks unlikely or at least there’s been no proper succession plan for Kyogo despite knowing for ‘a number of months’ we’ve sacrificed this season because it’s already secured that it’s been financially successful.
Stop the whinging support the Bhoys and Brenden we can beat villa hail! hail!. COYBIG.
Another happy clapper.
Open your eyes and ears FFS.
Tonight is turning into a bit of a mess.Could Valle not have stayed until after the game?Montgomery will be back up to Taylor.
Maeda was a dick being sent off so Yang will play with Palma as back up.
Kenny will be Idah back up.
Unlucky with CV being injured so Dane Murray probably be back up.
We will be down 3 starters from the YB game.
I can see a 3-0 defeat.
Sorry Kenny not registered
Our transfers in and out so far this window are shambolic, Happy to see Jota back but I’m sure it will take him a wee while for him to be match fit. Unless there is a lot of activity in the next 5 days we’re going to come out of January weaker than we went in. Taylor has been treated badly by this board, he should be offered a decent contract and used as a back up to Tierney, or even to be used if Tierney had to fill in at left C/B a position he has played in for Scotland.
If they don’t get AT LEAST another proven striker in, it’s no just Europe we should be concerned about. No way imo should we risk goin in after this window, with just idah as CF. They’ll be puttin our domestic season in jeapordy as well. Hope ahm way wrong, tho this is beginnin tae look as ah was personally suspectin, that bringin in jota and KT are in most part, a ploy by this board tae keep the support ‘happy’, tae make up for their lack of spendin properly. If it turns out that they fall short of expectations again, it’ll be takin the Celtic support for absolute mugs. Far as tonight goes, CCV bein out is probably the worst team news we could get for this game. Just hope we don’t get embarrassed. Glad we got that result against YB.
Yep – I am still traumatised and seriously scarred and haunted from January 1987- May 1987 Kevcelt59…
Even 38 years later !
Amazing how many times this board shoots itself on the foot or should say feet , is it really all about money to that lot , it truly is bizarre decisions going on at board level have they learned nothing from previous windows.
Letting Kyogo leave was probably the worst Celtic (board) decision I have witnessed. I say board because no manager would capitulate and let a player of that Calibre and importance leave in January. Even if Kyogo wanted a move on at some point. This was a board room force.
Effectively we let our best striker since Larsson go to pay for the return of Jota. We thought Jota and KT would lessen the blow of that BUT Kyogo gets us 3 points when we may be staring a 1 point draw in the face. Was that also part of the reason we brought Kenny back??
Worst Celtic decision in many years. Not putting teams to the sword as Kyogo could, will mean before we know it we are a couple of points clear of the buns and in a real race for the title.
We will get no adequate replacement in this window other than maybe an expensive loanee who cannot score worth a fek for his parent club, not match fit or ready and we may see end of Feb.
The buns on the other hand will only get rid of the crud as the main players are on big contracts and will hang around.
You’re very polite in calling them ‘buns’ JimBhoyback…
I just call them exactly what they are –
SEVCO FUCKIN HUNS !!!!