The midfield rebuild will look more promising if Celtic gets it two deals done.

Well, well, well, Celtic.

Just when I thought this transfer window had exhausted every possible twist, turn, frustration and bloody headache, suddenly there is something rather interesting happening around our midfield. I have to say, I am watching this one very closely.

Celtic are reportedly closing in on a deal for PSV Eindhoven midfielder Joël van den Berg, with the 19-year-old expected in Glasgow for a medical and a fee of around £3.5 million being quoted. He is the Netherlands Under-19 captain, has already made senior appearances for PSV and has featured heavily for Jong PSV.

But that is not all. Celtic are also reportedly close to signing Oliver Sørensen from Parma on a season-long loan with an option to buy, and that changes the shape of this whole discussion rather significantly.

Because if Reo Hatate really is on his way out, then I do not want Celtic simply replacing one midfielder with another. I want Celtic to improve the options, and for the first time in a while I am looking at the names around this position and thinking that perhaps the club is actually trying to do exactly that.

Van den Berg is a young player with something to prove, so let’s start there.

I am not going to pretend that I have watched every minute of his football at PSV because I haven’t, and I am not going to sit here and tell you that I know exactly how he is going to perform at Celtic after playing mostly reserve football in the Netherlands. I don’t.

But I have looked at the profile, and I like what I see.

He is 19, physically imposing, plays centrally and has already been trusted with the captaincy of the Netherlands Under-19 side. He has senior experience at PSV and, crucially, he looks like the kind of player Celtic should be trying to get before the wider market decides what he is worth. Celtic need players who can grow. We cannot build an entire squad out of finished products, and nor should we try. We need players with potential, players who can be coached, players who can improve here and players who can eventually become worth considerably more than we paid for them.

But this is where I put my ginger witch hat firmly on my head: Van den Berg cannot be the end of the midfield recruitment.

Not if Hatate leaves. Not after Arne Engels has already gone. Not after Paulo Bernardo has gone out on loan. We have lost midfielders, and we cannot keep pretending that one arrival cancelling out one departure means the problem has been solved. So, if Van den Berg comes in, brilliant. Now give Martin O’Neill another one.

And that is where Oliver Sørensen becomes very interesting indeed.

Oliver Sørensen looks much closer to the finished article

Sørensen is a very different proposition.

He is 24, 1.84 metres tall, left-footed and primarily a central midfielder, although he can also operate from either side of midfield.

Parma describe him as a player with significant physical strength and real versatility, and he has already played more than 130 senior games for Midtjylland, scoring 16 goals and appearing 13 times in the Europa League before his move to Italy.

That immediately interests me. This is not another teenager who might be ready in two years. This is a player who has already played a serious amount of senior football, has won a Danish league title, has European experience and has been through the process of moving into Serie A. Parma paid around £8.5 million for him last summer and tied him down until 2030, which tells you roughly how highly they rated him at the time.

He also played 42 matches last season, scoring once and adding an assist, and has 15 Denmark Under-21 caps with six goals.

The most interesting thing for Celtic, though, is the profile. Sørensen is an energetic No.8, a worker, a player who covers ground and gives you physical presence through the middle. He is not coming in as some decorative attacking midfielder who needs everyone else around him to do the dirty work.

That matters. Celtic needs energy. Celtic needs legs. Celtic needs players capable of getting up and down the pitch and actually imposing themselves physically in midfield. And if the deal really is a loan with an option to buy, then I like the structure of it as well.

Celtic gets the chance to see whether Sørensen fits the league, the manager and the team before committing permanently, while still retaining the ability to buy him if he proves himself. That is sensible business.

Here’s the next thing; these two signings would actually complement each other This is where I start to see the logic.

Van den Berg is the development play. Sørensen is the more established one. One is 19 and still making the jump from youth and reserve football into the senior game. The other is 24, has already played well over 100 senior matches, has European experience and has spent a season in Italy.

That is a much healthier combination than simply signing two versions of the same player. Van den Berg gives you youth, physicality and resale upside. Sørensen gives you experience, athleticism, versatility and a much better idea of what you are getting right now. Put them together and suddenly the midfield department begins to look less like a patching exercise and more like something which is actually being rebuilt.

And that is exactly what Celtic needs.

If Hatate goes, this cannot be one-for-one replacement. Engels has already gone. Bernardo has gone out on loan. That means Celtic has to look at the whole midfield department, not just one empty chair. Van den Berg should be one addition. Sørensen should be another.

Then if Celtic is still pursuing Gvidas Gineitis or another established midfielder on top of that, suddenly we are talking about a proper rebuild rather than another sticking-plaster exercise.

Frankly, about bloody time.

I have been screaming for squad depth for months. Celtic cannot go into another European campaign with a squad which looks fine until two players are unavailable and then suddenly has the structural integrity of wet cardboard.

We have already had the lesson. I don’t want another one.

The more I look at Sørensen, the more I understand why Celtic would be interested. He has already played Europa League football. He has already operated in a team expected to win domestically. He has already gone through the process of moving from Denmark to one of Europe’s top five leagues, and Parma clearly saw enough in him to commit serious money and a long contract.

He is also at a good age for Celtic. Twenty-four is not old. It is not even close. But it is old enough that he should be ready to contribute immediately rather than requiring months of developmental work before we discover whether he can handle senior football.

That is important because Celtic cannot fill every gap in this squad with somebody who might become good. Some of them need to be good now.

Sørensen looks much closer to that category, and because the move is reportedly a loan with an option, Celtic also retains an element of protection. If he comes in, performs brilliantly and fits the team, we already have a route to keeping him.

If it does not work, we are not locked into a long-term mistake. Again, that is intelligent recruitment. At least on paper.

The thing which excites me most about several midfield additions is that it changes the internal dynamic of the team.

McGregor should have competition and cover. The two No.8 positions should have competition. Players should be fighting to start rather than walking into the side because the bench contains nobody of comparable quality.

If somebody is tired, O’Neill should be able to rest him. If somebody is out of form, he should be able to drop him. If somebody gets injured, the whole system should not have to change because there is nobody else capable of doing the job.

That is what a proper football squad looks like. This is why simply counting bodies is such a useless way of assessing recruitment. Ten midfielders do not automatically give you depth if seven of them are not trusted. Six genuinely useful midfielders might.

The manager needs choices he actually wants to make. That is the difference.

Van den Berg and Sørensen would start giving him those choices.

There is something else I like here. Celtic does not appear to be looking at two identical players at the same stage of development. Van den Berg would be the younger project with serious upside. Sørensen is entering what should be the best years of his career and already has a substantial body of senior football behind him. He has also been through Denmark’s youth international structure all the way to the Under-21 side, where he scored six goals in 15 caps. That mix is healthier than simply buying two projects and hoping one comes off.

Development. Immediate competition. Resale potential. Different roles. Different stages of the career curve. That is what recruitment should look like.

If Hatate leaves, Celtic may have the money and the available squad space to reshape this department properly.

If that is what is happening here, then good.

Do it. Because I like this. I really do.

Van den Berg looks like a calculated gamble on a young player with serious upside. Sørensen looks like the more immediate solution, a physically strong, energetic midfielder with more than 130 senior appearances behind him, Europa League experience, a Danish title and a season in Serie A.

Put them together and suddenly the midfield does not merely replace what it lost. It changes shape and form. That is what I want.

But Celtic, please, for the love of God, do not stop halfway through the job. There are other key positions to be filled. Please, for the love of God, fill them quickly. I’ll be writing about another of those positions later on today.

If Celtic really is about to bring in Van den Berg and Sørensen, then perhaps, just perhaps, somebody at Celtic has finally understood what we have been saying all summer. You don’t build a squad by replacing players one-for-one. You build it by creating options.

You build competition. You build redundancy into the system so that one injury does not become a catastrophe. You build a squad capable of surviving three games in a week. You build it so that when one player leaves, somebody else steps in and the entire level of the team does not collapse.

If Reo Hatate is indeed leaving Celtic, I don’t want to sit here mourning what we have lost. I want to look at Van den Berg, Sørensen and whoever else Celtic is bringing through that door. I want Martin O’Neill finally to have the midfield army he deserves.

After everything Celtic has been through this summer, after the Champions League humiliation, after losing important players, after all the bloody excuses and all the talk about how difficult recruitment supposedly is, now is the time to show us what the plan actually is.

For once, I am looking at these names and thinking that perhaps there actually is one.

Now, Celtic. Don’t ruin it. Get it done.

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