Four current squad players are fighting for their Celtic futures. Who will survive?

There are players in this Celtic squad who already know exactly where they stand. They have earned their place. They have built up credit in the bank with the manager, with the supporters and with their performances on the park.

Then there are those standing on the edge of the cliff.

For them, this pre-season is not just about getting fit or finding rhythm.

It is about survival. And for Balikwisha, Tounekti, Kenny and Bernardo this is an important time if they are going to remain here at all. I look at this squad and my instincts are already whispering that by the time the transfer window finally slams shut, at least one of the four players will not be here anymore.

Truth be told, I would not even be shocked if Celtic are left with just one of them by the end of the summer. Football is ruthless. Celtic are supposed to be even more ruthless.

The problem is that our board too often move like a sluggish snail while every other club seems capable of striking like lightning. By the time we finally decide to act, opportunities have vanished over the horizon and somebody else has already completed the deal.

That cannot happen again.

Nevertheless, if Celtic are serious about taking this squad to another level, sentiment has to disappear. Every player has to earn the right to wear that famous green and white shirt, and these four have the biggest mountain to climb.

Let’s start with Michel-Ange Balikwisha, the obvious one.

Balikwisha probably has more to prove than anyone currently wearing a Celtic shirt. Potential only buys you so much time. At some point, promise has to become production. Every young footballer deserves patience, but Celtic is not an academy project. This club demands excellence, and it demands it quickly.

You are either moving towards becoming a first-team regular or you are drifting towards the exit door. I have not seen enough to convince me that he is about to make that enormous leap. That does not mean he cannot do it, but it does mean this season is probably his final opportunity to prove he belongs here.

Martin O’Neill will be looking for players he can trust when the pressure is suffocating, when titles are hanging in the balance and when European nights demand courage rather than reputation.

Trust is earned. Balikwisha still has to earn it.

Then there is Paulo Bernardo, and this is probably the most fascinating case of all.

I have always liked Bernardo. There is a footballer in there. He sees passes others do not. He has technical quality. He can control the tempo when everything around him is becoming frantic. But liking a player and believing he has talent is not the same as believing he has done enough.

Because he has not. Not consistently.

There have been flashes that made me sit forward in my chair thinking, “There you are. That is the Bernardo we have been waiting for.” Then there has been silence, and the problem at Celtic is that silence does not last long before somebody else starts making noise.

Competition in midfield is relentless. If Bernardo cannot establish himself now, when exactly will he? This feels like his defining season. Either he becomes an important part of Martin O’Neill’s plans or he slowly becomes one of those players supporters remember by saying, “He had ability; it just never quite happened.”

I genuinely hope it is the first story.

But hope alone does not win places in this team.

Tounekti is another one who intrigues me.

Every transfer brings excitement because football supporters live on possibility. We imagine what a player could become before we have even seen him properly. Reality eventually arrives, and Tounekti now has to show that he can translate whatever promise persuaded Celtic to bring him here into genuine first-team quality.

That is easier said than done.

Scottish football asks difficult questions, sometimes questions as hard to crack as a nut. So the Ginger Witch is asking them now, as if she is casting a spell or predicting the future. Can you handle physical defenders? Can you produce when teams park ten men behind the ball? Can you cope with supporters who expect brilliance every single weekend? Can you respond when one poor performance suddenly becomes two?

He has produced. In moments. But we need more than that going forward.

These are the things that determine careers at Celtic. Not YouTube compilations. Not highlight reels. Not optimistic scouting reports. No wee shorts on TikTok.

The football itself. If Tounekti answers those questions positively, he could become a valuable addition. If he does not, football moves on very quickly.

And then there is Johnny Kenny.

I actually feel for him, because strikers are judged more brutally than anybody else. Midfielders can have quiet afternoons. Defenders can recover from mistakes. Goalkeepers occasionally produce miracle saves that erase earlier errors.

Strikers are measured by one thing. Goals.

Nothing changes opinions faster than putting the ball into the back of the net, and nothing destroys confidence quicker than failing to do it. Kenny has shown determination. He has worked hard. Nobody questions his commitment. But effort is not enough at Celtic.

The goals have to arrive, and in great numbers.

If Martin O’Neill brings in another striker, as I sincerely hope he does, then Kenny’s route into the first team becomes even narrower. That does not automatically mean the end, but it does mean every appearance suddenly becomes an audition. Every chance matters. Every finish matters. Every minute matters.

Opportunities disappear quickly at clubs with serious ambitions.

And Celtic should always have serious ambitions.

Which brings me to the wider point. These four players are not operating in isolation. Their futures depend just as much on what Celtic do in the transfer market as on what they produce themselves, and that is exactly why the club cannot afford another painfully slow transfer window.

I have watched this story unfold too many times. We identify targets. We monitor situations. We admire players. We consider possibilities. We weigh things up. Meanwhile, somebody else signs them.

It is exhausting.

Champions do not wait for perfect conditions. Champions create momentum. Every day that passes without strengthening this squad is another day our rivals can close the gap and another day Martin O’Neill is left working with uncertainty instead of clarity.

The manager deserves better than that. The supporters certainly deserve better than that. So do the players who are desperately trying to establish themselves.

My instincts keep telling me that significant changes are still coming. I do not believe this squad will look the same when the window closes. There will be several more players coming in, and because that’s clear I think one of these four almost certainly leaves. Perhaps two. Maybe even three.

And if I had to make the bold prediction those instincts keep placing in my mind, I think Celtic may finish the summer with only one of these names still genuinely involved in Martin O’Neill’s plans.

Football can be wonderfully cruel like that.

Places are not given, but they are taken.

Choose The CelticBlog as a ‘Preferred Source’ on Google News for quick access to the news you value.