Celtic has one last day to change how the dice land. We cannot waste it.

Tomorrow is an important day for this club. Whatever else is happening elsewhere, Celtic have to make progress on at least one transfer deal.

There was no last-minute hitch with Arne Engels. There was no unexpected collapse. He has departed the club and left around £22 million behind him, and some of that money now has to be reinvested in the squad before the Champions League tie.

Ideally, Celtic need to get at least one more player registered and available.

I know that player will not have time to become fully integrated with his new teammates. Nobody arriving tomorrow is going to suddenly understand every movement, every tactical instruction and every combination within a matter of hours.

But that is not the point. The point is momentum. The point is giving Martin O’Neill another option. And Martin deserves that support.

He wants more deals done. He wants more business completed before these ties. He wants additional options, and Celtic should be doing everything possible to give them to him.

I wrote earlier about the tactical variations which are now available to this team. That flexibility is important, but to fully exploit it you need the personnel capable of delivering it.

I am happy with how this squad is beginning to look. I am happy with how it is taking shape. But it is not finished.

One of our more idiotic journalists suggested recently that Michael Nicholson and the board have delivered for the manager and therefore can no longer be held accountable if Celtic fail to qualify. I disagree completely. Two of the most important signings were made far too late.

Those deals should have been completed weeks ago, perhaps even months ago. Celtic should have been approaching this Champions League tie with a fully integrated team, with the new players already familiar with their teammates and the manager already knowing precisely how they fitted into the system. We are not.

So yes, if Celtic fail, Michael Nicholson and the board will still carry responsibility for that. That is not difficult to understand if you understand football.

But even now, there is still more they can do to improve the range of possible outcomes.

They can give the manager the extra midfielder he wants. They can address the remaining weakness on the left. They can make whatever final adjustment Martin believes is the priority. There is still time to bring in the footballer who might make the difference.

And if Celtic choose not to do that, or fail to get it done, then of course the people responsible will be judged accordingly.

The job is not finished. You do not get to pat yourself on the back before the work is complete. And while there is still time on the clock, Celtic need to use it properly and aggressively. Make things happen.

Don’t get me wrong. I am encouraged by some of the names being discussed and encouraged by the possibilities. But possibilities are all they are until somebody signs the contract. At some point you have to move from this might happen to this is done.

There is still work Celtic can do.

I am not one of those people who obsesses over net spend as though it is the only measure of ambition, but it is worth pointing out that Celtic remain comfortably in the black in this transfer window.

Even after significant spending, more money has come in than has gone out.

That matters. It means there is room for another player. Possibly more than one. It means Celtic do not have to rummage through the bargain bin. They do not have to pretend that the money is not there.

Martin O’Neill has earned the right to get the players he believes this team still needs.

And I am not here simply to attack the board regardless of what it does. These people deserve credit for the work they completed last week in bringing in two players in a day and getting those deals done before the initial registration deadline.

That was good work. But it should not have taken until the deadline. Those players could have been here earlier. They could have played against Kilmarnock. They could already have more than cameo minutes behind them.

They could already be further integrated into this team. I still do not understand why Celtic allowed so much of the summer to disappear before acting.

But the signings themselves are impressive.

The early signs are impressive. The way the team is beginning to play is impressive. I am not moving away from any of that. Martin O’Neill has got a lot right.

The ideas he is trying to introduce are clearly improving this team, and with the proper backing I believe we are going to see the benefits of those ideas throughout the season, whichever European competition Celtic ultimately find themselves in.

The fear is that the board now believes it has done enough. It hasn’t. The fear is that the people running Celtic believe they have completed the job.

And the greatest fear is that we may already have left some of this too late.

But not everything. There is still time.

There is a moment from The West Wing which I think about quite often. Will Bailey is working on an election campaign. It’s the day of the voting, the process is underway and, to everyone around him, there is nothing more he can realistically do.

But Will still wants to do something. He works the phones. He works the computer. In the end he’s charging into the street in the rain to put out posters. It’s manic. Or so it seems. And then he explains himself. He says that in that tiny moment after you throw the dice, while they are still in the air, if you breathe in exactly the right way you might somehow change how they land.

Scientifically? Probably nonsense. But I have always understood exactly what he means. There is always something else you can do.

Even if all it does is lift morale in the dressing room. Even if it raises the temperature in the stands. Even if it tells one player who thinks his place is secure that he now has competition arriving through the door and he needs to push harder.

Maybe that gives you one per cent. Maybe less. But when the stakes are this high, why would you voluntarily leave even one per cent sitting on the table? Why would you not take that chance to tip the odds just a little more towards you?

That is where Celtic are tonight. The dice are already in the air. The Champions League tie is coming whether we are ready or not. A lot of the work should have been done earlier. Some of it wasn’t. We cannot change that now.

But we can still influence things a little … maybe just enough to matter.

One extra option. One little tactical advantage Martin did not have yesterday. One more player capable of changing the game from the start or from the bench. Maybe that is the difference. Maybe it is not.

But if the opportunity exists to tilt the odds even slightly further in Celtic’s favour, there is absolutely no justification for refusing to take it.

So come on, Celtic. The next 24 hours matter. Do not waste them.

The dice are still in the air. One breath … and we can change how they land.

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