The signs are that Celtic is already busy working on transfers. That’s very positive.

Well, this has been a rare day of transfer stories. And since most people will be aware of what those stories are, I thought I’d come at it from a slightly different angle. I thought I’d approach it from the point of view of not wanting to discuss any specific transfer story.

I’ve already covered the Kvistgaarden case and our young Fulham striker — and that one’s looking like a done deal. We’ve also signed Tierney and Ross Doohan, and that feeds into what I want to say: we are obviously busy on multiple fronts.

How very un-Celtic this all is. How very un-Celtic — and how very welcome. You know, if you’re going to give this team stick, as I sometimes do when they get things wrong, you should be willing to give them praise when they get things right. And if we really have made a bid for an Ecuadorian winger and the boy from Norway, then it seems as if we are moving at speed and with certainty.

Moves for the two wide players — both of whom play on the left-hand side — strongly suggest that we aim to get at least one of them, and we aim to do that deal as quickly as we can. It was one of the areas we had identified as a priority, because the injury to Jota has ruled him out for many months. That was the position we were hoping to play him in while we put Maeda through the middle.

The injury to Jota changed the balance of what it was we wanted to do in this window. And we’ve had to go back to a position where we must have thought we already had a solution. But the good part about it is that if we sign one of these two guys, that pretty much puts the squad back to where it was before Jota got injured. If we then sign another player in the same position on loan, we’ll actually be stronger when Jota returns on the left-hand side of the pitch than we’ve been in a long time.

I don’t know if that’s part of the plan, but joined-up thinking has certainly been in evidence here so far. I like the way we’ve started. I like the fact we’ve used the Bosman market to secure two players. I like the fact we’re not messing around when it comes to one of our key priority areas — we have multiple targets, and we’re making offers for them. That is the opposite of a club dragging its feet.

Let’s be honest: all of us worried that’s exactly what we were going to do. All of us worried that with the Ibrox situation even more complicated — and perhaps even messier than before — and with no real guarantees that they’re going to have proper funds to rebuild a whole team, our own board might get complacent and take its eye off the ball. But that doesn’t seem to be happening. We don’t seem to be acting with complacency. We seem to be acting like a side that has its stuff together.

I don’t understand if some people are a bit freaked out by that. As I said, this is all very un-Celtic. We don’t usually act with this much purpose, this much resolution, and this much determination to get deals done early in the window. Naturally, people are going to conclude that this means some big name is on the way out of the club — and that may happen anyway. In fact, the manager has hinted that it’s on the cards. But that blow will be softened somewhat if we’ve already done proper business.

Signs of life, people. Signs of life. That is all we’ve ever wanted to see from our club — a sign that it was alert and trying to get things done. We know not every deal you go in for is going to come off. We know you’re going to get knockbacks along the way. But visible signs of life on the surface of the water is good. It’s positive. It means there’s a lot going on beneath the surface that we’re not seeing. It means that people are busy. It means the football department is wide awake and acting like it means business — for once.

And that ain’t nothing but a positive. There is no negative to this. If we really are going about our business in this fashion, then this will be a better summer than many of us ever anticipated. I thought it would be a rollercoaster. Well, it may be more fun than it is genuinely scary.

I’ll take that every time.

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