Kasper Høgh can no longer count on being Celtic’s first pick striker.

Way back when it still seemed that there would be real ambition shown in this window, Celtic completed the signing of Kasper Høgh.

At that point, I do not think anybody believed there would be a time when the club’s supporters would expect to see him out of the first team, barring exactly the situation we have now, where he is injured.

When Høgh got injured, I think the general presumption was that he would not be out for long and that the second he was fit he would go straight back into the team. We still do not know exactly how long the big man is going to be out. He has missed the last few games and he will miss tomorrow night as well.

But unless we are about to make a fairly radical tactical shift and play two up front, he may not find it quite as automatic to walk straight back into the starting eleven as everyone once assumed. That is not a knock on him in the slightest.

It’s the best compliment you can play Camilo Duran.

It is great to have two very good strikers vying for one position if that is what it turns out to be. Rather than mourn the fact that we might not be able to play both of them at the same time, I love the idea that in a few short weeks Celtic could be in a position where one comes off and the other comes on.

Obviously I want to see, as I suspect the manager does too, both of them in the same team at times. But even if that does not become the default system, it is still fantastic to have both players available.

My suspicion is that we will find ways to play them together.

The games where that might be most obvious are the matches against the Ibrox club, because Yang will be away at the Asian Cup. In those games, I can easily imagine the tip of the spear being Duran on the left, Høgh through the middle and Hassan wide on the right, with Benjamin Nygren playing behind the three.

Nygren does not convince everyone in that position, but I still think we look very strong with him in the team and he has made a superb scoring start to the season.

For all my gripes about the transfer window, and they are deep and there are many of them, we are unquestionably stronger up front than we have been for quite some time.

That will tell over the course of the season.

Because we are still Celtic. We still make a lot of chances. We are still going to be favoured to outscore our opponents in almost every domestic game.

That was the problem last season. People who said all our problems were at the back were, in my view, wrong. Most of the serious problems were in the top half of the pitch.

Once Martin found an attacking system which worked for him and worked for Celtic, we started winning routinely again. That is why it is not critically important to have both strikers in the starting eleven every single week.

We are going to rotate. We are going to have to rotate a lot.

There will be games where Høgh starts and Duran does not. There will be games where Duran starts and Høgh does not. There will undoubtedly be games where both of them are on the pitch at the same time because Celtic wants that extra firepower.

And I genuinely do not believe many defences in Scotland will be comfortable dealing with both of them together.

Even when only one starts, having the other sitting on the bench creates genuine strength in depth. It means the manager can change the nature of the attack later in the game and give the opposition something completely different to worry about.

So much of football is psychological.

A team which has spent an hour holding Celtic out and then sees Kasper Høgh or Camilo Duran getting ready to come off the bench is entitled to think: Jesus Christ, look what they can throw on now.

That keeps the players fresher and it gives Celtic another psychological edge.

But rotation and competition do not mean form stops mattering.

That is the distinction.

Right now, if Celtic is playing with one striker and the team is being picked purely on current form, it is difficult to make an argument against Camilo Duran starting. That does not mean Høgh has suddenly become second choice in any permanent sense. It does not mean he will not come back into the side.

It certainly does not mean Celtic should somehow choose between them for the rest of the season. It means only that Duran has taken his opportunity brilliantly while Høgh has been unavailable, and that changes the situation Høgh returns to.

Before the injury, his place looked automatic. Now there is genuine competition. That is exactly what we should want.

The fact that we are all desperate to see big Kasper back, the fact that he represents one of the biggest signings the club has made and the fact that he was initially the striker who excited us most should not guarantee him a place.

Teams are picked on form, not transfer fees.

Yes, sometimes the system will demand Høgh. Sometimes it will demand Duran. Sometimes it may demand both. And over the course of a long season, Celtic is going to need both of them. That is the real change here.

But the assumed starting slot now belongs to the Colombian. Kasper Høgh has not suddenly become unimportant. Camilo Duran has simply made sure that when Høgh returns, there is no longer a completely uncontested shirt waiting for him.

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