Celtic has signed ten players and yet we face another summer rebuild.

Another transfer window closes, and somehow Celtic have managed to leave next summer’s problems sitting there waiting for us already.

That is what is driving me mad, because I’m looking at this latest transfer activity and, honestly, I’m not sure whether I should laugh, cry or start banging my head against the nearest wall.

Celtic have brought in two academy players on loan. We have brought in a goalkeeper on loan. We have added a right-back on a ten-month deal. We have brought in another midfielder, also on loan.

Yes, I know what somebody will say. “But Paulina, Celtic are strengthening the squad!”

Yes. But for how long?

That, my friends, is the question nobody at Celtic Park seems remotely interested in answering. Because when I look beyond September, at the jobs still undone, beyond the immediate problem-solving and beyond the short-term bandages being slapped over the squad, I see something deeply worrying.

I see another major rebuild coming next summer, and I am absolutely sick to the back teeth of Celtic constantly finding themselves in this position. We should not be rebuilding this squad every bloody summer. We should be developing it.

There is a massive difference.

If you are constantly replacing players who have only just arrived, constantly relying on loans, constantly bringing in temporary solutions and constantly discovering another five or six positions which need attention, then something is fundamentally wrong with the way the club is being run.

And this is where my anger really begins, because let us look at the situation logically.

If Oxlade-Chamberlain leaves next summer, that is another body gone. Callum McGregor will be another year older. James Forrest will be gone. And let’s be realistic, there will almost certainly be interest in several Celtic players between now and then. That is football. If a Celtic player performs well, other clubs come knocking.

So, what happens? We potentially lose several players, need to replace them, and suddenly we are standing at the beginning of another bloody transfer revolution. Again.

How many times are we going to do this? How many summers are we going to spend saying Celtic need five players here, six players there, a replacement for him and another option somewhere else? How many times are we going to pretend that this is normal?

Because it isn’t. Not for a club of Celtic’s size, not for a club with Celtic’s resources, not for a club which wants to compete seriously in Europe and certainly not for a club which supposedly wants to establish itself as a genuine European force.

I don’t expect Celtic to keep every player forever. Of course I don’t. Players move on, players age, players become surplus to requirements and players attract offers which are too good to refuse. That’s football.

What I expect is planning. I expect Celtic to know that Callum McGregor is not going to be 31 forever. I expect Celtic to know that James Forrest’s career is moving towards its final chapters. I expect Celtic to understand that loans are temporary.

I expect Celtic to know that if we have a squad full of players attracting attention, there is a possibility that some of them will leave. And I expect Celtic to plan for that before the crisis arrives. That is what a properly run football operation does.

You don’t wait until the roof starts leaking before you buy an umbrella.

This is where I start looking towards the Celtic board and thinking: for God’s sake, will you actually do your bloody job? Because I am becoming increasingly convinced that the biggest problem at Celtic isn’t that we don’t have money. It isn’t that we can’t attract players. It isn’t even that we don’t have opportunities. It is that we continually seem incapable of putting together an intelligent, long-term squad-building strategy.

We patch, replace, loan, wait, negotiate and wait some more. Then eventually we panic and discover that another position needs strengthening. Somehow the supporters are expected to celebrate this as sophisticated squad management.

No. I’m sorry. I’m not buying it.

That is not squad planning. That is gambling.

And Celtic should not be gambling, especially not when we are talking about European football and especially not when we have already seen how quickly injuries, departures and loss of form can expose a squad.

The irony is that Celtic are actually capable of doing this properly.

That’s what makes me so bloody angry.

We have the support, the stadium, the revenue, the history and the European ambitions. We have a manager who understands what this club should represent. What we need is a football operation capable of matching those ambitions.

That means thinking two or three windows ahead, not merely trying to survive the current one. If McGregor is another year older next summer, the replacement process should already be underway. If Forrest is leaving, we should already know how his role will be replaced. If there is a realistic chance that several first-team players could attract bids, we should already have succession plans.

If a loan player is going to leave after ten months, we should know what happens next. And if Celtic still haven’t solved the left-wing problem, then frankly I want somebody at Celtic Park to explain to me why the hell not.

Because this isn’t just about one transfer window. This is about the direction of the football club. I don’t want another summer where we Celtic supporters are sitting in front of our phones, refreshing transfer news every five bloody minutes, desperately hoping that Michael Nicholson and whoever else is responsible for recruitment suddenly realise that we need an entirely new spine to the squad.

I don’t want another summer of Celtic need a right-back, Celtic need a midfielder, Celtic need two attackers, Celtic need a goalkeeper, Celtic need another defender and Celtic might lose three players.

We’ve been here before, too many summers, and after this one I am bloody exhausted by it. Celtic should not be permanently rebuilding. Celtic should be evolving.

There should be a core. There should be succession. There should be players developing behind established players. There should be recruitment designed not merely to solve today’s problem but tomorrow’s as well.

Instead, I look at this squad and I can already see another enormous summer looming over us like a bloody thundercloud. And if that happens, I will be asking the same question I am asking now: why wasn’t this dealt with earlier?

Because the supporters shouldn’t have to pay the price for poor planning. We shouldn’t have to watch Celtic repeatedly enter transfer windows with glaring holes. We shouldn’t have to accept loans as permanent solutions. We shouldn’t have to pray that one particular player stays fit because the club didn’t recruit sufficient depth.

And we certainly shouldn’t have to watch another generation of Celtic players leave while wondering who, exactly, is supposed to replace them.

I am not asking for perfection. I am asking for competence. I am asking for ambition. I am asking for a football strategy which extends beyond the next transfer deadline.

And above all, I am asking the pricks running Celtic to understand something very simple: this club is too big for short-term thinking.

I love Celtic. I will always love Celtic. I will celebrate every goal, every victory, every brilliant signing and every moment when these magnificent Hoops make me believe that anything is possible. But loving Celtic doesn’t mean I have to sit quietly and accept everything Celtic Park serves up.

Sometimes love means shouting. Sometimes love means demanding better. And right now, I am shouting because I can already see another rebuild coming and I am bloody furious that we are even in this position.

Celtic should not be rebuilding the same bloody squad every summer.

And if the board doesn’t understand that yet, then perhaps it is time we made them understand, or forced them to leave with immediate effect.

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