Kenny Miller has pointed to Celtic’s transfer business as an example for rivals Rangers as they go into their fixture with Napoli after back-to-back 4-0 defeats to Ange Postecoglou’s side and then Ajax. Ahead of Wednesday’s games whereby the Italians visit Glasgow and Celtic travel to Warsaw to face Shakhtar Donestk, Miller compared their recruitment.
Speaking to Clyde 1 Superscoreboard, Miller lambasted Rangers’ recruitment as he claimed that the players that they have signed have failed to make an impact, whilst Celtic have signed a number of players that have become first team regulars.
“The recruitment side is getting a lot of scrutiny at the moment and there are reported figures of £12 million that are not even anywhere near the team at the moment.
“Yilmaz, Davies and even Matondo, you throw those three players in – £4m, £6m and £2m if that’s accurate – they’re nowhere near the team at the moment.
“When you’re recruiting in a summer, Rangers or Celtic, when you’re spending that type of money, they have to be hits. They have to make an impact on that first team.
“At the moment, there’s question marks over Davies – is he going to be the long-term partner for (Connor) Goldson and has he got the quality?
“Matondo we’ve seen in flashes but at the moment, he’s not going to be a starter. Yilmaz, we’ve barely seen any of him.
“There’s not been much evidence of if it’s going to be money well spent. It might be a project but it’s a lot of money spent on a project.
“You go on the other side, (Celtic) sign Carter-Vickers and Jota, and they’re the same players, so are they going to make Celtic better?
“Well they spent their money and they’ve spent that money really wisely.”
Earlier Roger Hannah pointed to Matt O’Riley, Reo Hatate, Jota, Kyogo, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Liel Abada but Josip Juranovic, Joe Hart, Carl Starfelt, Daizen Maeda and Giorgos Giakoumakis could all be worthy mentions. Ange entered the fray in the summer of 2021 and inherited a mess from Neil Lennon. The Australian worked with what was left, acted shrewdly in the summer transfer market as well as the January window before establishing a title-winning side.
This season, we have witnessed the manager again foraying into the transfer market and buying players to bolster the strength of the squad. Now, we are seeing the quality of the squad as we look to compete on all fronts. For Giovanni Van Bronkhorst’s team, they require to revisit their requirement strategy but hopefully, by that point, Celtic are out of sight.
