Andy Robertson for Celtic never looked likely under this board.

Earlier this afternoon, before the game kicked off, we got the news that Andy Robertson is not going to become our next big-name signing. I do not know why anyone was particularly surprised by that, far less disappointed. I said a few weeks ago that the idea of Celtic signing Robertson was an absolute non-starter, and nobody should have got their hopes up. To me, it never even seemed remotely possible.

The leadership at Celtic was never going to make a move of that magnitude at this point. For one thing, we do not have a manager, and that in itself should freeze any talk of who we are trying to sign.

I hear talk that O’Neill has been on scouting trips. I hear that Maloney has been doing things. There was talk that we were trying to sign a Hibs midfielder for reasons beyond understanding.

None of it makes any sense without a manager in the building. It is as if we are a club that learns nothing. I have to think we are smarter than this, but the evidence does not always support it.

It is not just that talks with a major player like that seem highly improbable at a time when we are looking for a boss. It is also for the other reason I have stated before, and which carries a little controversy with it.

We are not allowed to have too many nice things.

The idea that we might have two elite-level left-backs is one that would drive this board to drink. These people do not want to spend the kind of money that would entail. They do not want to look at a subs bench with Andy Robertson or Kieran Tierney sitting on it.

They just do not want that. This club’s management team will not be able to think that way while the people who currently run this club are running it.

There is no talking to them about ambition nor the benefits of squad depth.

There is no talking to them about how every serious club wants a 25-man squad with real depth and then a little extra, where if one player gets injured and goes out of the team you can replace him with someone of equal quality. We do not do equal quality here. We do one good player and one back-up player who is not as good. Then, if the good player gets injured, the team is weakened. That is the way we work.

Under that system, the chances of signing Robertson were nil. Not slight. Not unlikely. Nil. Zero. Nada. Not a chance in hell. That is the pure and simple truth of it, however unpalatable that truth may be. This club will not do business in that way. I could not understand how anyone could get excited about the prospect when the prospect itself was non-existent, and that was before Robertson even had to consider offers from England.

My criticism of these stories was never about whether Robertson would be a good signing. Of course, Andy Robertson would have been a good signing. Of course Andy Robertson would have improved this squad. I was not knocking those stories because I did not think the player could do the job. I was knocking them because I did not believe Celtic would make even the slightest effort to sign him.

He is just a little too good, and he would have put Tierney on the bench most weeks. Tierney is not a player who was signed to sit on the bench, even if that is exactly what strong squads sometimes require.

It is only a verbal agreement with Spurs. He has not signed yet, and a lot of people will clutch at that straw and say there is still a possibility that he will sign for Celtic. Let’s be honest, he will not. If there is an offer from a side of that calibre, he is going to go there, and he was probably always going to go there whether Celtic had expressed an interest or not.

A player like Robertson, if he was willing to lower his salary demands a little, might even have been in our affordability bracket. The fact that we would have been getting him for free makes it almost a no-brainer to at least try.

But we were never likely to try, under any circumstances.

Robertson himself could have done the Kieran Tierney thing and dug in his heels and said that he would not go anywhere but Celtic, that it was his first choice. But that was never going to happen either, because although Andy Robertson has talked about it being his dream move, he is also an ambitious footballer who still wants to play at the top for a few more years. He knows this is not it.

He knows this is a Celtic side that is not gearing up for gigantic, quantum-leap improvements that would turn us into a proper, credible side on the continent. If he thought that was where we were heading, he might have waited around.

But he is not mad enough to hitch his star to a club without a manager, a club without a chairman, a club where there is still resentment and anger bubbling away behind the curtain. That is why I cannot blame him for making this choice. That is why I cannot criticise him for not waiting around for Celtic.

First, I do not think the offer was ever coming from Celtic. Secondly, even if it had looked likely to come at some stage, we would have had to be in a much stronger place before this would have looked like a good move for him.

Not that Spurs itself looks all that convincing a move, if I am being honest. But at least the money will be right and he will still be playing in England. Probably (although not definitely) in the top flight.

Regardless, this is a story we can now stick a pin in.

It is not the answer many of us would have liked, but it is the answer some of us expected.

I do not know what a realistic transfer story looks like these days at Celtic.

But I always knew this was not going to be one of them.

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