Management
The obvious departure last year was that of Brendan Rodgers in February along with his backroom team. With Celtic reeling, Neil Lennon stood in the breach and led the Celts to a historic Treble Treble. It was evident that the summer approaching would be massive for the club.
This summer we replaced Rodgers, Chris Davies, Kolo Toure and Glen Driscoll with Neil Lennon, John Kennedy and Damien Duff.
Goalkeepers
In the goalkeeper department, we saw Dorus De Vries depart the club as he hung up his gloves and went off to pursue his coaching career. Neil Lennon opted to go for Scott Bain – despite apparent reservations in his preferred style of play. After Cluj and Motherwell highlighted frailties in Scott Bain’s shot-stopping, the door appeared open for Craig Gordon to reclaim the Number One shirt. However, Neil Lennon sent for his own ‘keeper in colossus Fraser Forster. Despite being a loanee, Forster offers a significant improvement on De Vries and has been implemented already as Neil Lennon’s number one. Forster himself has spoken of his eagerness to impress and earn a permanent return to Glasgow.
In the youth department, the promising Tobi Oluwayemi joined the club from Tottenham.
Left Backs
In the left back region, Celtic lost two fan favourites. Kieran Tierney left to pastures new with Arsenal in a painful transfer for Celtic fans to take as the club pocketed a record sum of £25 million. The brilliant Tierney, who was endeared to the support, made his desires to head South clear. Prior to KT leaving, Boli Bolingoli was confirmed for £3 million from Rapid Vienna. Despite a shaky beginning to his Celtic career, Bolingoli powered through the abuse directed towards him and stood up at Ibrox on Sunday.
Emilio Izaguirre left Celtic after his second spell below the radar. It was expected after Izzy’s level of performance struggled to impress whilst deputising for Kieran Tierney and the sidelines didn’t suit him much either. He remains a fine Celtic servant and will always be warmly welcomed back on return visits to Paradise.
Greg Taylor was identified as a replacement for Kieran Tierney, along with Meling of Rosenborg; however it was evident that the Champions were after the Scotland Internationalist. The 21-year-old completed his move to Celtic on deadline day for a fee in the region of £2 million. With over 150 appearances in the league, a player that knows the league and an internationalist highlights very shrewd business on the part of Celtic.
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