Former Celtic striker Chris Sutton has ravaged the club’s excuses for failing to adequately prepare for the transfer market. The club released interim results yesterday along with commentary, almost defending why they had over £60m in the bank.
Sutton, writing in his Daily Record column, argues that Peter Lawwell’s answers didn’t do enough to explain why the club have failed to adequately prepare and execute transfer plans in the last two windows.
“I’ll be honest, I’m not sure there were enough satisfactory answers in there to key questions. Mainly, the disappointment of failing to further add to the squad. Collective responsibility was taken, but it doesn’t change anything and the big question is why were these mistakes made?
“Who is to blame? If funds were available, there’s a culpability somewhere and, although they’ll never actually say, that’s the point and it leaves Celtic wide open to criticism and speculation.
“Identified targets were unavailable. Well identify more or some alternatives. Because, quite simply, are you telling me there wasn’t a single left-back out there available as better cover to Greg Taylor than Alexandro Bernabei? Come on.
“Also, I’m not entirely sure what transfer activity being at its lowest in England for 10 years has to do with Celtic. Regardless of happenings in England, given Brendan Rodgers talked about needing to be braver in the market, would they have spent big to buy from the Premier League down south anyway?”
The comment about England is spot on and the fact that English teams were not as active due to FFP should have been an added incentive for Celtic, given the deep pockets of England wouldn’t be competing for signings in that £5-10m bracket.
The pundit then rolled back to address the club’s summer recruitment, which has exposed a lack of quality in the squad.
“In any case, what about the summer that really mattered for Celtic. Odin Thiago Holm, barely kicked a ball; Marco Tillo; gone. Kwon, gone; Hyun-jun Yang, project; Gustaf Lagerbielke, told he could have gone in January; Maik Nawrocki, now behind Stephen Welsh in the queue.; Luis Palma, done okay but has faded and needs to get fitter; Nat Phillips, been and gone; Paulo Bernardo, took time to get going and lost his place in the side when he did.
“The reason Celtic were scrambling in January is because of those mistakes last summer and the two arrivals Nicolas Kuhn and Adam Idah aren’t automatic starters, which says it all.”
Celtic need to focus on bringing performances up to scratch on the pitch despite the lack of investment in January. A Premier League manager in Rodgers needs to be getting the best out of the team and getting a run of form that is worthy of retaining the Premiership title.
Matt Corr’s three Celtic books are available in hardback from Celtic Star Books and also on Kindle via Amazon. The books are currently HALF PRICE at our boostore: celticstarbooks.com/shop
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