Exciting new signings lined up, but are we looking at the wrong areas? Or is it telling us something else?…

Brendan Rodgers. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

The summer transfer season is now fully underway and Celtic have already signed Norwegian midfielder Odin Thiago Holm. The youngster looks an amazing addition. We haven’t stopped there and are reportedly looking to bring in wide players Marco Tilio and Yang Hyun-Jun.

It’s good that we are looking at bringing in quality additions, but are we concentrating on the right positions? Especially out wide as we are already well covered in that area.

We have Daizen Maeda, Jota, Sead Hakšabanović , Liel Abada and James Forrest who all occupy those berths. My main focus would be in the defensive department, particularly at centre back.

It’s glaringly obvious how reliant we are on Cameron Carter-Vickers, his absence towards the end of the season proved just that. Carl Starfelt has been superb, but we need another quality centre back for cover as doubts remain over Yuki Kobayashi. Although to be fair we are reportedly looking at Arsenal’s Rob Holding, whether that proves to be accurate though remains to be seen.

22nd October 2022. Anthony Ralston of Celtic during the Premiership match at Tynecastle . Picture: Neil Hanna / Sportimage

Right back and left back are also arguably questionable as Tony Ralston and Alexandro Bernabei both fail to convince. Curiously Brendan Rodgers over the past week has talked about the small number of players who are still at the club since he was last here and mentions Callum McGregor, James Forrest and Scott Bain but not Anthony Ralston.

I’m sure Brendan has it covered though, but with the club looking to bring in more wide players, it begs the question, are we going to lose a star player? Obviously with Ange leaving it’s only natural some of the players might seek a move elsewhere.

And in January we were ahead of departures as new signings were already sorted, the perfect example of that being Alistair Johnston being in the building for well over a month before Josip Juranovic was sold. That tends to point to a winger being sold this summer.

The other dynamic of course is that it’s a different manager picking the team and for Daizen Maeda, who was always a favourite of Ange Postecoglou, he is going to have to earn his place in the side on merit and impress a fresh set of eyes, rather than the manager who signed him.

That of course applies everyone and there could be winners and losers in the current squad in terms of how much game-time they receive. It’s going to be an interesting summer transfer window. Strap in!

Here’s yesterday Celtic Fan Media Conference with Brendan Rodgers…

Just an Ordinary Bhoy

Celtic banning @BBCScotlandNews from Brendan Rogers’s press conference says everything about the broadcaster which can’t even be trusted to report a football appointment impartiality.

— Bill Cruickshank (@BjCruickshank) June 23, 2023

HUGE SAVINGS IN THE CELTIC STAR’S SUMMER SALE!

The Celtic Star’s book promotion has been so successful, with hundreds of books at great prices being posted to Celtic fans all over the world, that we’ve decided to continue with the sale until the end of July. We’ve reduced all six books currently available from their usual retail price of £20 and prices are as low as £6 (see below).

All books are high quality hardback, with some signed by the author. And it’s also worth noting that you only pay postage on one book, so it’s free for the second, third and so on. ORDER HERE or click on The Celtic Star image above…this is how it feels to be Celtic!