Celtic fans should forget about Robertson. We’re not allowed too many nice things.

Earlier I talked about how Celtic’s rebuild will have to be ruthless. It will mean cutting players who fans currently consider first-team regulars, even though they probably shouldn’t be. That reality is part of what drags us down, but I want to come back to that for a moment.

Last night, I read some comments from Pat Nevin which I found interesting, albeit not in the way he intended. Nevin was talking about Andy Robertson and his potential departure from Anfield. He argued that Celtic have other areas of the team to fix and therefore would not move for Robertson, primarily because there is no resale value there.

He is correct in one sense, but entirely wrong in another. And that “other sense” is exactly the problem I talked about earlier in relation to Liam Scales and others.

The reason we won’t sign Andy Robertson has very little to do with resale value. The real reason is that the Celtic board will not sanction a move for a top-class left-back while another top-class left-back already plays at the club. They subscribe to the view that once they fill a position, they fill it. The idea that you might strengthen that position further, that you might create genuine strength in depth, simply does not register.

In their thinking, the second-choice player should be a development option rather than someone of similar calibre. They do not see redundancy as strength. They see it as waste.

I have joked before that we are not allowed to have too many good things.

It’s not that we are not allowed to. It’s that this board does not see the value in it. The way they look at it is simple. If you have Tierney, you do not need Robertson. One of them would have to sit on the bench, and in their minds that makes it inefficient.

It would never dawn on them that top clubs have top benches. That this gives you options. That it gives you flexibility and genuine strength in depth.

They would regard it as wasteful, whereas others would regard it as ambitious. Others would regard it as smart. Others would regard it as building the best possible squad you can, which I always thought was the whole point of football.

That is why the Andy Robertson discussion has never been anything to me but fantasy. I’m sure he would come and he might even accept a reduced salary. I’m sure, like Tierney, there is a part of him that would love to come home and finish his career here.

But it is not going to happen.

And it is not going to happen because Celtic do not think that way.

Pat Nevin is right in one sense. The squad needs a full-scale rebuild. The club will prioritise other areas, and I don’t entirely disagree with that. But even if the squad were in far better condition, even if we operated from a position of strength, the idea of signing Robertson while Tierney is at the club would not make it beyond the suggestion stage.

No manager could push it through.

So, people should get over this one. It is not a realistic possibility. It never was. The only reason the club brought in someone like Sarrachi on loan is Tierney’s injury issues and dips in form, and even then, you can be sure it took a fight to get that deal done.

When this window opens, we will move a lot of players on. We will talk about rebuild, renewal and fixing what is broken. But if the underlying thinking does not change, if the philosophy remains the same, then we will still operate with a squad that lacks real depth.

We will still have too many players who are “good enough” rather than genuinely good. We will still be one injury away in too many positions from a drop in quality, and that is how you end up repeating the same mistakes.

That is how you end up rebuilding halfway and right back where we are now.

Which is why, when I look ahead to this summer, I am not just concerned about who we bring in. I am concerned about what we are allowed to become.

Because unless that mindset changes, we are going to finish this window with far too many C-class footballers still at this club, and that is not a foundation for success.

It is a guarantee of more of the same.