An international break at the start of September is perhaps inconvenient – particularly on the back of an impressive Glasgow Derby win – but it also offers an opportunity to reflect on recruitment, pre-season and the start of our title defence…
The arrivals of Kasper Schmeichel and Viljami Sinasalo has seen the goalkeeping position strengthened with both an experienced operator and a young protégé allowing for supporter optimism that both today and tomorrow are now well catered for between the sticks, meanwhile at left back Greg Taylor, an over utilised and underrated player, has both competition and/or cover in the shape of Barcelona loanee Alex Valle.
In central defence USA international Auston Trusty arrives to strengthen the squad, adding both recovery pace and an ability to progress the ball from defence, whilst also offering an alternative to the strong defensive qualities of current incumbent Liam Scales.
In midfield Matt O’Riley, who will be sorely missed, has been replaced by a record transfer from the Bundesliga -and now a full Belgian international – in Arne Engels, a canny midfield acquisition in Luke McCowan, from Dundee, who has been a consistent performer at domestic level – and our try before you buy returnees in Paulo Bernardo and striker Adam Idah are proven talents who will require no bedding in time.
Add to that as impressive a pre-season as you could reasonably expect -and a start to the domestic campaign that has been near faultless – and great optimism ensues as we head into the post international ‘break’ landscape and the incessancy of two games per week.
Celtic also enter a fresh UEFA Champions League competition where the squad will test themselves against eight high level opponents, allied to a hope – if not expectation – we can add further elite opposition post January to our congested fixture list.
The squad has been streamlined with an incredible eleven exits through sales or retirement and a further four first team players out on loan, which may well be lauded as business suitably concluded in some quarters –and there is merit to such a stance – but is also is a stinging critique on the club’s recruitment from previous transfer windows where a quantity rather than quality issue would be the logical conclusion to reach, as realistically only the retiring Joe Hart and the sale of O’Riley to Brighton were losses who were within the manager’s circle of trust.
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With the benefit of hindsight January was a good transfer window, with Adam Idah and Nicolas Kuhn proving astute business and a sign the overseeing eye of the manager –something that appears to have continued into the summer window- has aided a recruitment team hitherto under deserved scrutiny.
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The jury remains out of course on the abilities of some of the new arrivals, however, bar perhaps an extra left-wing option and a young pretender to offer back up to Kyogo and Idah up front, on paper at least, the key positions which required strengthening have been addressed. Although the inordinate time it took to conclude our business hints at either – or both – a recruitment department and executive in need of some assistance when it comes to transfer strategy, squad building awareness and the art of the deal.
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The manager has more than hinted at his own frustrations this summer and the next few weeks may well signify some further recruitment at Celtic – this time behind the scenes. Indeed, to not address the operating worthiness and leadership of the recruitment team would be both folly and arguably tone deaf based on the available evidence, the manager’s annoyed utterances and previous departures in positions of key importance to a modern thinking football club that have yet to be backfilled.
We are paying some £9m over the course of his contract for Brendan Rodgers to manage Celtic. History shows his key strengths are player improvement, tactical nous and game management. Perhaps then it would be astute to ensure moving forward he has a supporting cast who can deal with his recruitment requirements in a timely and efficient manner and leave the time-consuming distractions and debates to suitably qualified professionals.
Having them be available for scrutiny in the way the manager is may also lighten the load for Brendan Rodgers, who whilst exhibiting extraordinary levels of patience, is often asked to answer questions for which he may not be best positioned to offer the appropriate responses.
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Celtic have started the season as well as any of us could have hoped but it should be noted the manager and players have had one game a week and a full week between games on the training ground to prepare thus far. With the visit of Hearts this weekend and Slovan Bratislava in midweek that changes. Squad depth and utilisation will be key moving forward and the summer recruitment will be tested.
We have a manager who has proven himself second time around, particularly in some significantly testing moments last season. He now has a squad down in numbers but arguably stronger in both talent and versatility – as he demanded.
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We now approach the Champions League where some appropriate benchmarking – particularly in the home matches – can be carried out on the strength of our team and squad in comparison to some talented opponents, rather than gauged solely at a domestic level and a city rival in a state of flux.
It’s going to make for an exciting few months at Celtic and will be a real test of the credibility of our strategy both on and off the park. Only time will tell if the encouraging early signs can be maintained as the challenges arrive thick and fast, but it’s hard not to be optimistic given the start to the season and the welcome overhauling of a previously bloated first team pool.
Niall J
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We’ve already heard how we’re the BEST RUN CLUB in Britain!
So these two-bit opinions of “off-field” problems are infantile at best!
Maybe it’s time the childlike minds who write this stuff, stop their witchhunt on Peter Lawwell, the man responsible for our current financial success and superiority, as well as the death of the old rangers!
Time to grow up Bhoys! Time to admit you’re WRONG about Peter!
Time to admit……..wait for it………………………HE ACTUALLY KNOWS BETTER THAN YOU.
Did you read the article Joe? The stuff that was going on last week regarding the extreme wings of the pro and anti-Lawwell camps had nothing to do with this site. This article isn’t about the Celtic Chairman in any way, the essential point is we are paying Brendan £9m for three years and his best attributes are on the training ground developing players, his tactical approach and game management etc. Due to the circumstances he found himself heavily involved in player recruitment this year. He has said himself that the changes need to be made and lessons learned from the last two windows, basically get on with it and sort it for the future. Nothing to do with Peter Lawwell. I suspect that many folk would place themselves in the centre ground of th two extremes we read last week but that’s just my view.
The delusion in Joe is off the scale.
Welcome back NJ. It is good to hear from you again.
The great start to pre-season and early league and LC wins were achieved with largely last year’s squad (so-called “failed” signings and all). Only the game against Sevco was won with a returnee who was now a full signing (Paolo) and some cameos from a similar returnee full signing (Adam Idah) and a run out for 2 new signings- Arne and Luke). Kaspar did for us what Joe Hart was doing anyway.
Pronouncements of a successful window and improved squad should await some evidence. I’m not saying you will be wrong; merely premature in claiming this to be “arguably” correct.
There is no evidence so all argument is worthless on this. Wait a month or two- see what happens if we have long term injuries to 2 CBs and we have to use some n0n-circle of trust players like Nawrocki or Holm who have never shown the Celtic support during matches any reason to doubt their ability or commitment.
Would still say that the transfer window was more of a success financially at present, as it’s yet to be proven as to how successful it’s going to be upon the pitch still?
Would remain confident that it will prove to be a success also imo?
Think it’s safe to claim that Rodgers himself was the main decision maker, within the building of our 25man squad for this season?
Yet a few surprising decisions made?
The time delays for getting these deals done remains infuriating, yet we tend to do our most effective business at the back end of a transfer window?
Yet it would make a welcome change if that trend can remain successful, but speeded up a fair bit also?
Even though I find it quite alarming that we left it so late to actually make the approach for McCowan?
A squad building flaw, that could and should have been dealt with far better than it was imo?
Eventually getting in McCowan, helped hugely regarding our homegrown quota requirements, along with increasing our midfield options to 5, within our 25man squad?
When we have 6 at present for our SPFL campaign, still seems a strange decision for our CL campaign?
We haven’t had any luck regarding injuries within our CL campaigns to date, so hopefully that will change moreso for this campaign, especially in our midfield areas?
Again our homegrown requirements still need to be addressed, and certainly not a fan of a 3rd keeper within our squad, and looking at monty and possibly Welsh having to make up numbers regarding our homegrown quota, by the looks of things?
So overall, ended up being very content with the business we did achieve during the transfer window, but still a feeling that we could have done better overall, in a number of aspects also imo?