Last summer’s horrific recruitment shows that Celtic should go back to what they’re best at. Notably, signing for small prices and letting players develop has been ‘The Celtic Way’ in the past; yet this summer, Vasilis Barkas and Albian Ajeti were signed at a considerable fee of £10million – only to produce nothing.
Evidently, the French route has worked well for Celtic in the past. In recent times, French firepower has won domestic competitions for the Hoops’ on its own – Moussa Dembele, Odsonne Edouard and to an extent Olivier Ntcham have been the men who have created glory around the streets of Paradise. Even before the 2010 era, there were some key Frenchmen in the ranks at Parkhead; Didier Agathe, Stephane Mahe and a at times Marc-Antoine Fortune delivered the goods to bring Celtic success.
It does beg to ask questions as to why Celtic have deviated from these plans that have served them so well in the past – a question that has been reiterated by former Kilmarnock defender and Frenchman himself Freddy Dindeleux.
Dindeleux, who played 180 league games for recently relegated Killie in a spell ranging from 1999 to 2005, has suggested that ‘all roads should lead to France’ if Celtic are to become the best side in Scotland again.
Speaking to the Daily Record, Dindeleux said: “French players in the past have shown they can adapt very well to Scottish football even though the pace of the game is faster than in France. In France there is more time on the ball, there is not so much pressure on the ball but at a club like Celtic they play a more similar style to big clubs in France and that helps.”
“You have to be good in one on one situations and you also need to keep wanting to improve and there are so many young players in France just now who have that ability and mentality so it’s a market which has real value for money.”
“To cope in Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 as a striker you need to be physically strong and fast, that is how young players are developed in our game and Celtic know from having Dembele and Edouard as players in recent seasons just how effective they can be.”
