Recruitment is incredibly easy to get right in hindsight and you never really know if a player would develop in the same way if they made a different move, but it’s clear that Celtic have made a lot of wrong calls in the past couple of years.
It was never going to be easy to replace Kieran Tierney when he left in the summer of 2019, but it does look like Boli Bolingoli has to go down as a flop.
In fairness he did develop a bit of a cult following and he was quite entertaining to watch, but he would be unlikely to improve the current side and his antics surrounding a trip to Spain gave Celtic a distraction that wasn’t needed at the time.
A report from HITC has indicated that there was another alternative at the time of that signing – Romain Perraud – and it looks like Celtic are trying to re-ignite their interest in the French full back who now plays with Brest.
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He moved for £2.5m so he was cheaper than Bolingoli and he’s excelled in Ligue 1 so it does look like he would’ve been a better signing, and it’s also likely that he’ll cost a lot more if he does move this summer.
On paper he looks like he would be an upgrade on Diego Laxalt presuming he returns to Milan, but it’s hard to see any big moves like this happening just now.
There’s little point sanctioning a big money signing before appointing a new manager in case they don’t rate them, but it does make sense to come up with a shortlist and sound out any interest in preparation for the summer.
A move for Perraud can’t really happen until a new manager is appointed and they’ll need to decide if they want to treat Greg Taylor as the back up or the starter, but it’s another name to keep an eye on this summer.
