Emotionally Celtic? Not this board of directors.
There was one part of last night’s Bhoycie Bus debate that, for me, cuts through absolutely everything happening at Celtic right now.
Five players could arrive before the transfer window closes. Maybe six.
Throw Gvidas Gineitis into the mix as well and Martin O’Neill could suddenly be looking at a squad considerably stronger than the one he had a fortnight ago.
Great. I sincerely hope it happens.
It still doesn’t change what has already happened.
Celtic are tooling up after the main event.
For weeks, supporters heard about targets, negotiations and players the club supposedly liked. All the while, one of the most important fixtures of the entire season was getting closer.
Eventually, the Champions League play-off arrived.
Celtic failed. Again.
Suddenly, the transfer market has burst into life.
Goalkeepers are being pursued. Full-backs are being discussed. Midfield options continue to emerge. Young Premier League players are being linked and loan deals seem to be everywhere.
Funny how quickly things can move when somebody finally switches the lights on.
One question therefore has to be asked.
If Celtic need five or six players now, why didn’t they need them before the Champions League qualifier?
Everybody knows the answer.
They did.
Celtic’s Champions League Squad Wasn’t Ready.
Forget transfer fees for a moment and consider what Martin O’Neill actually had available when Celtic’s Champions League season was disappearing.
Had somebody told me at the beginning of the summer that we’d finish the second leg with Liam Scales at left-back, Dane Murray at centre-back and Anthony Ralston at right-back, I’d have thought they were having a laugh.
Some sort of sick joke.
Yet that’s exactly where we ended up.
Calling that hindsight doesn’t wash with me either.
Kieran Tierney requiring genuine cover wasn’t a revelation. Questions surrounding the depth of Celtic’s defence didn’t suddenly emerge in Austria. Midfield changes were hardly unexpected.
Plenty of work remained to be done and everybody could see it.
Of course, Martin O’Neill and his players also have to take responsibility for surrendering a four-goal aggregate advantage. I’ve no interest in pretending otherwise.
Two things, however, can be true at the same time.
O’Neill’s team should have managed the situation better.
Those above him should have provided a stronger squad to manage it with.
Instead, Celtic are now attempting to strengthen the very positions supporters were discussing before and after the LASK tie.
Five Or Six Celtic Signings Now Actually Makes It Worse.
Jonathan made the point during our discussion that another five or six players could potentially arrive before the transfer deadline.
My immediate reaction was pretty simple.
He was involved during the decisive European game. Depending on Celtic’s remaining transfer business, however, McCowan could soon find himself sixth or seventh in the midfield pecking order.
Think about what that says about the squad available to O’Neill that night.
Someone who could potentially be viewed as Celtic’s seventh-choice midfield option within days was being asked to help navigate, what is for me, the biggest fixture of the season.
That’s not planning.
That’s hoping you get away with it.
We didn’t.
Deadline Week Cannot Rewrite Celtic’s Summer.
Transfer deadline week is exciting. I’ll never pretend otherwise.
Give me a new Celtic signing and I’ll be checking his statistics, previous clubs and clips like everybody else.
Should a cracking player arrive this week, I’ll call him exactly that. Criticising Celtic’s transfer strategy doesn’t require pretending every footballer they recruit is rubbish thereafter.
The player and the strategy are two separate things.
Someone signed on deadline day could become Celtic’s best player this season.
That wouldn’t suddenly prove waiting until deadline day was sensible.
Similarly, I’ve nothing against loan deals when used properly. Celtic have benefited enormously from them before.
What concerns me is the apparent volume and timing.
When Premier League squads are being finalised, other transfer windows are closing and agents need destinations for players requiring minutes, opportunities naturally become available.
Fine.
But was waiting for those opportunities really Celtic’s carefully constructed summer strategy?
I’m struggling to believe that.
Right now, it feels far more like seeing what’s left on the shelves than executing some grand recruitment plan.
Gvidas Gineitis Sums Up The Problem.
Perhaps no player illustrates my frustration better than Gvidas Gineitis.
Assuming reports identifying him as “the prime” midfield Celtic target are accurate, why are we potentially trying to conclude this deal after the Champions League qualifier?
If he’s the midfielder O’Neill wanted, go and get him.
We’ve seemingly got the logic completely backwards.
Qualify for the Champions League and then strengthen the Champions League squad?
No.
Strengthen the squad to give yourself the best possible chance of qualifying for the Champions League.
Surely that’s the ambitious way around it?
Too often Celtic appear to want the reward before accepting the risk required to obtain it.
That in itself, creates a vicious circle. Or cycle if you prefer. Either way, Celtic are stuck in it.
Recruitment is delayed because Champions League income isn’t guaranteed. An inadequately prepared squad then fails to qualify. Afterwards, certain targets become more difficult to justify because the Champions League money never arrived.
Round and round we go.
The tools are all there, but we are inept or too afraid to use them.
I want Celtic behaving like a financial powerhouse in markets where our resources should actually make us one.
Scandinavia. Eastern Europe. Smaller European leagues. Highly rated talent sitting just beneath the first team at Europe’s major development clubs.
Celtic should be the shark in those waters.
A £4million transfer fee shouldn’t terrify us.
Neither should £6million.
Even £8million or £10million for the right footballer shouldn’t be treated like we’ve just remortgaged Celtic Park.
Modern football has moved on.
Supporters, however, have been conditioned into believing relatively ordinary transfer fees represent some extraordinary Celtic expenditure.
They don’t.
Years of accumulated resources, packed stands, merchandise sales and player trading have put Celtic in a position to be considerably more aggressive in their approach. Yet it is the opposite we see from this Board.
Judge The Celtic Transfer Window By The Timeline.
This is where I think the narrative could quickly change.
Imagine the transfer window closes with another five players signed.
Scarves are above heads. Announcement videos are everywhere. Supporters are debating starting XIs and somebody produces a graphic adding up Celtic’s total summer expenditure.
Then comes the inevitable line –
“See? They backed Martin O’Neill”
However, that argument can be thrown back in the happy clappers faces with ease.
When did they back him?
That’s what matters.
Should Celtic’s post-window starting XI comfortably beat the team which finished that Champions League play-off, I don’t see that as evidence of a successful transfer strategy.
I see the opposite.
Why wasn’t that stronger squad available for the biggest match?
Why did Celtic apparently have to negotiate Champions League qualification before properly completing the team?
Months from now, people will remember the names, the fees and the volume of players who signed.
The timeline will become blurry.
Our makeshift defence will be forgotten. The lack of depth will fade from memory. Celtic’s sudden scramble to address several positions immediately after Champions League elimination will become a footnote.
Don’t let that happen.
I desperately want Celtic to finish this transfer window with a stronger squad.
Every player who arrives will get my backing. Hopefully several become outstanding Celtic players and help us have a fantastic season.
None of that changes how this summer should be judged.
Improving the squad late doesn’t prove the strategy worked.
Celtic’s biggest objective of the transfer window has already been lost.
We didn’t tool up for the main event.
We’re tooling up after it.
No number of deadline-day announcements can rewrite that.
Keep Your Eyes On The Board.
The points you are making Bhoycie are all valid, and we are all very well aware of the the usual fk ups that were made by our incompetent leaders, but I still think it is better late than never. At least we have something to look forward to now and there is genuine hope that we can do well in the Europa. The board though do not get any plaudits for the late burst of action, but at least we have a season to look forward to now.
Great to see you on this site Bhoycie, really enjoy your articles
As most of us predicted the Gineitis deal has “collapsed”. Although this was always going to happen because it involved a transfer fee. If we had gone into deadline day ONLY expecting loan signings then we would all be up in arms, but they kept the Gineitis deal floating around in the background to distract us from it. We get 4 loans in Sorensen, Johnstone and the two Chelsea kids but that’s fine because the 8m midfielder “could still happen”. Oh wait, all the loans are in and the big deal collapses at the last minute, that’s unfortunate. We only had all summer to get it done buy hey ho. All of a sudden our summer “rebuild” becomes yet another “Just get through the season” job as next summer all the loans, as well as the manager will be away and we can all prepare for ANOTHER rebuild. We got 10m for Hatate and Kenny meaning we are 20m (give or take) in profit for this summer and we still couldn’t deliver the midfielder the manager clearly wanted which the Hatate fee alone would’ve covered. Van Den Berg and the Feyenoord RB have yet to sign, suspiciously both permanent deals. Don’t be shocked to see one, or both, “collapse” at the last minute also. Hopefully not, but what’s the hold up?
Ps great to see you here Bhoycie. I enjoy your articles and pods.
Bhoycie, many will not consider this season a success even if we win the treble….and I get that because these trophies are now seriously devalued.
Regarding tooling up for the UCL qualifier. LASK didnt see any need to tool up to play us. We just sold Johnny Kenny for more than their most expensive signing ever.
We really need to look at the big picture…I look forward to your input m8.
What a nugget, winning the Treble will not be considered as a success?
Mere trinkets…. thought of, only by the imposter that is you!
Jelly and ice cream for everyone else. 🙂
We are wanting rid of the board that provided a quad treble and 9iar. Invincibles etc. Thats the value of these trophies.
You want to see a confused nugget…look in the fucking mirror m8!
I rarely comment but I’m a Texan (American if you must) who loves Celtic football. I can’t help but wonder if there is an element to this that is actually never discussed on this website, and that is the publicly traded nature of Celtic on the LSE and the OTCM in the US. I follow an investment community that recently produced a report on all the publicly traded football clubs in the world and they identified Borussia Dortmund as the most undervalued publicly traded club in the world. The identified Celtic as the most compelling and biggest reward opportunity currently in this sector. I will leave the website address here, I understand this could lead to my comment being moderated/deleted but I believe this is an important factor to my point. There is something in me that believes the leadership at Celtic are potentially sandbagging their business model. They want to be good, but not THAT good. They want to maintain their clutch on the power of this little hidden gem in Scotland that is massively profitable and gives them personal relevance. If Celtic gets discovered as purely a stock play that could potentially put massive pressure on the board if and when a buyout/takeover attempt eventually occurs. This group that I follow believes the “gamification” of society through betting/prediction markets is going to create a giant bubble in the valuations of professional sports teams and Celtic could command a price that even these losers would possibly accept. Just my thought on the matter bc it is very odd to me to build your team after the fact. https://www.inflation.us/news/articles/exclusive-nia-report-on-publicly-traded-football-soccer-clubs/
Interesting comment, Tex. Hopefully you’ll contribute more throughout the season.
Very interesting texas. I guess you are saying careful what you wish for….but even so the current custodians time is up. There will be constant protests until they are gone.
We can only hope that whoever comes next doesnt think like that.
The Gineitis miss is so disappointing! We sold two empty shirts two days ago for £9.5m and wouldn’t give £8.5m for our number one target.
Bhoycie you’re spot on I’ve been saying for years that Celtic should be buying players to make sure you get into the CL not wait to see if you get there first and then buy and that’s backward thinking. You’ve got to speculate to accumulate and that way you can go deeper into the tournament which generates more money, which in turn means you can buy better players to go further etcetera, etcetera. Celtic seem driven by fear and what Tex said about the board sandbagging us could also be a part of it as well, stay the big fish in the small pond instead of trying to reach the potential that we the supporters can see that we could reach. It’s not rocket science or reinventing of the wheel that this club’s potential is exponential and there’s so many untapped revenue streams and markets we could reach into. The diaspora of Celtic supporters the world over mean we could be a global giant, there’s three things stopping us 1) Scottish football being small fry, 2) we’re not a financial match to the top five league’s, yet, 3) our board are the biggest thing holding us back as they’ve no sense of what Celtic could become or don’t want Celtic to become the behemoth we could potentially be. We’re in a club in stasis and while this board remain we’ll never reach the potential we could get to and what we all see we could become. Another thing that’s a bugbear of mine is if you win your domestic league you should be an automatic entrant to the Champions League, the clue’s in the title, the countries with five and six representatives should be the one’s involved in play-off rounds. How are other associations supposed to get closer to the big five league’s when they’re trying to make it a closed shop that only clubs that are include in those leagues can win the big European silverware, this is the problem with guy’s like Infantino trying to sell off the rights to the World Cup, it’s all about the money. The guts has been ripped out of the game by money and it’s only going to get worse, football’s riding a gravy train just now but it’s not sustainable, eventually there has to be a reckoning and a lot of clubs which are institutions of football will go the wall.