Last week Brendan Rodgers revealed that he wants to have three strikers at the club and that he had offered Rocco Vata, the teenager who spent over a decade at the club coming through the Celtic youth system, the role of the third striker in the Celtic squad for the new season.
That would have seen Vata, who instead opted to sign for Watford, being behind Kyogo and presumably Adam Idah in the manager’s plans.
They say two of of three ain’t bad and you can be sure that Brendan Rodgers would agree if the club can get the Adam Idah transfer from Norwich City moving, amid the current stalemate over the transfer fee. No-one frustrates in a transfer window quite like Celtic, or so it seems anyway.
Brendan returned to this point after the 4-0 win over DC United in Washington on Saturday evening, local time. He’s already got over the Vata decision and wished the boy all the best, and as things stand has only Kyogo in his squad as one of his three strikers, although Daizen Maeda could fulfil one of the spots if required.
Brendan explained his thinking, as reported by Football Scotland: “I think my ideal scenario was to have three, was to have Kyogo, one other one and bring through a young player. That was the role we came up for at Rocco.
“It’s very difficult for a club of this size to have three number one strikers. You can live with two because we play so many games and the specific nature of the games then we can change it about. Three is very difficult. But I also think for development I want to bring some young, maybe a player from within.
“Rocco was that but he’s moved on. So we may have to look elsewhere. But three is a really good number. Two, I would say to be number one strikers, and one that we can nurture and develop.”
So far Celtic has added goalkeepers Kasper Schmeichel and Viljami Sinisalo but no outfield players with recruitment needs in defence, midfield and obviously up front. Greg Taylor being used as the main player in the yellow away kit launch this morning suggests that he’s staying, so a new contract must be on the cards.
Michel-Ange Balikwisha (winger),Tanner Tessmann (midfielder) and of course the two Celts in waiting Adam Idah and Paulo Bernardo are currently on the manager’s radar.
At the moment the team has NOT been strengthened from last season and it looks like our current prize asset Matt O’Riley is set to be sold for a record breaking fee.
As a support we’ve got to appreciate that the summer is always a difficult transfer window and maybe we’ll have more luck in the winter.
Rinse, reverse and repeat in January…
READ THIS…From Larry Henry Jr, Managing Editor – SBI Soccer reports for The Celtic Star -DC United 0-4 Celtic – Captain O’Riley at the Double as Celtic shine in Washington
Six weeks left of the window.
Pre-season has already started, so late arrivals (and they are) will miss out on important prep work for season ahead.
We’re weaker, with 2 keepers signed to replace 2 outgoings and Bernardo and Idah loans ended. Even if they are signed permanently, they simply bring us back to last year’s level, which was not good enough for Europe. History suggests that Bernardo may also be an O’Reilly replacement, so again weakening us from last season.
Still, we’ll probably make signings at the end of the window, long after domestic season started and not long enough to get up to speed in Europe. It was ever thus.
Fail to prepare and you know the rest.
Its not rocket science but I suspect if you put a rocket up the club’s you know what, you still wouldn’t unblock its slothful way of doing things.
Just one year it would be nice to have the groundwork done so when transfer window opens, we are announcing the new boys.
They get full pre season together and do well in Europe.
Instead we get crucial players leaving at the end of the window and we are scrambling to get a replacement in.
And new boys having to make competitive debuts 15 minutes after their plane lands in Glasgow for the first time.
Rodgers initially said he wanted players in early although, once the league was won, he rolled back on that and said we had all summer.
At that point the alarm bells started ringing for me.
Our Board are great at signing merchandising deals, sponsorship deals but utterly useless at the fundamentals underpinning all those deals: the progression of a football team on the park.
Unlike any other form of business, sports franchises have a captive audience. If they can fill the ground and even better have a waiting list to take the seat of people who can no longer attend, then they can essentially run the business over a cliff and fans will still show up.
I’m not suggesting that is what our Board are doing however they are clearly operating with the financial handbrake on to create the illusion of competition.
Personally believe that is a very weak argument regarding squad strength at present imo?
Only Oreily and Hart had a decent season overall last season imo?
Maybe we have forgotten just how rotten we were for large chunks of the season, especially earlier in the campaign?
Making the newer younger players the targets for the frustration, yet the established players get a free pass?
Don’t expect to see the likes on show this season, especially when competition for starting positions will become stronger for ourselves, that I remain confident about?
We still have a tendency to write off players far too quickly, which is ridiculous within a squad game in operation today?
We haven’t even created a strong overall 25man squad for seasons now, with being so reliant upon certain individual players, yet when injuries impacted ourselves, then the backup options had way to big of a gap within quality imo?
Change in our approach takes time to put into action, and currently see Rodgers trying to address our 8 homegrown quota required at present, and not just for next season in mind, but for the longer term also imo?
Already seen massive improvement with Holm, yang and Kwon in pre season, even if it remains unclear as to whether they will earn themselves a squad place next season?
Rodgers has already made the claims that he wants to look from within the club first, before going outside for the additional players that may be required?
So are we currently condemning the process that Rodgers is currently taking, as seems the case in operation at present imo?
Still say that we have someway to go before our CL squad is finished, yet there is another 6 weeks for that to be completed for ourselves still?
We should have had targets identified months if not years ago in preparation for the window opening.
There really is no reason to wait till the last minute to make a signing unless it’s to save a few bob on wages.
If the player wants to hold on in the hope of better deal then he’s not for us and we move on.
It’s ok saying there are 6 weeks of the window left, and we may well sign some superstars in that period, but we’ll be four games into the season by then and potentially, like last season, out of a cup.
The best approach will always be to get players in, settle them within the squad, and then start the campaign and I can’t think of a single manager who wouldn’t want that.
Boards a disgrace. Manager has asked for signings and got the square root of fuck all. We need shot of peter and his cronies and start looking to improve the playing squad year on year. Since Peters arrivall in 2002/2003 our playing squad has been in a state of austerity. Still paying.wages for players from 2002 as well. The game has moved on,it’s time we did. Maybe that was the reason dom mckay left of “mutual consent.” Ruffling toany feathers and actually wanted to speculate to accumulate.