The announcement by Brendan Rodgers on Saturday that Carl Starfelt is close to leaving the club was a shock to the system for many Celtic fans, but maybe it shouldn’t have been.
When Ange Postecoglou joined the club at the beginning of the 2021/22 season, six players over age 26 or over were signed in his first season at the club. This was a clear strategy from Ange and the club as they looked to hit the ground running with proven quality players.
Two seasons on and Celtic have signed just two players over the age of 26, Benjamin Siegrist and Aaron Mooy. The latter who retired from football this summer, with Siegrist effectively just a back-up keeper.
Of the six players over age 26 or over who signed for the club two years ago, only half remain in Glasgow. Kyogo Furuhashi, James McCarthy and Carl Starfelt who will not be at the club much longer.
Of those six more experienced, proven players Ange signed in his first season at the club, Josip Juranovic was sold to Union Berlin and was replaced with Alistair Johnston, Georgios Giakoumakis was sold to Atalanta United and replaced with Oh Hyeon Gyu, and now Carl Starfelt looks to be on his way out the door with promising Swedish international Gustaf Lagerbielke reported to be his direct replacement.
Juranovic and Giakoumakis were arguably both replaced by better players, quite the feat considering he quality both players have shown since leaving Glasgow’s East End.
Celtic have always adopted a transfer model of buying cheap and selling high, but replacing these players has always been the difficulty. In recent years Celtic have revelled in replacing our best players, something that has not always been the case in the modern era.
Postecoglou discussed this transfer model when he was at the club as reported on The Celtic Star. “I don’t fear losing our players. I see that as part of the process. If you look at clubs who do well at Champions League level that are our size, what do they do? They develop players, sell them on, and replace them with better versions, hopefully. That is where I think our growth lies.
“I think it is part of the process. I don’t fear that. I think that has to happen for us to grow. We need to be bringing money in to be able to keep bringing better players to our football club.”
Celtic look to be continuing this model the Aussie emphasised even in his absence, as the club look set to replace Starfelt with a more than adequate younger replacement in Lagerbielke.
The name that stands out in all these players mentioned in this article is James McCarthy, a strange signing, given a long term contract, and who appears to have as little chance of playing under Brendan Rodgers as he had of getting a game under Postecoglou, who quickly established that he wasn’t really suited to the face paced style of football that the Aussie insists on.
James French
