Klimala transfer sums up ludicrous structure of Celtic’s recruitment

Patryk Klimala has been in the news recently speaking of his lack of opportunities at Celtic, even when the club had no fit strikers under Neil Lennon. Klimala looked in glimpses a player that could become something with the appropriate coaching, but he was another who suffered at the hands of a dysfunctional structure behind the scenes at Celtic Park.

It was quite apparent to everyone that Klimala was the kind of player who thrived on the counter-attack; however, the player himself has admitted that Lennon was on to him over playing better with his back to goal. The signing of Klimala made no sense for Celtic – we play in a league where near enough everyone sits in against us, the game versus Livingston being a case in point.

As a football club, Celtic is a behemoth in terms of history and culture in the game. Sadly, our current custodians are like a compass stuck in the mud when it comes to innovation and modernity. In fact, it’s not even innovation, it’s merely the requirement for a modern football operation. Although the PLC are excoriated a lot of the time for not spending money (which can be true, especially with domestic talent), more often than not it is HOW the money is spent as opposed to being frugal.

Between Klimala, Bolingoli and Ajeti its the best part of £11 million. Now, whilst I think that Ajeti is a good player, it is patently obvious that the guy needs to play in a front two. Bolingoli has had his card marked since the beginning, and the idiotic flight to Spain was the coup de grace. But how was he scouted and who recommended him?

We can all agree that Celtic have lost a lot of money on acquisitions that just don’t fit from the outset. You’d think this would be enough for the people at the top of the pyramid to enact meaningful change in terms of recruitment and structure. Yet here we are – a compass stuck in the mud without any direction, lost in a sea of silence that is suffocating the Club’s ability to grow. The current structure at Celtic maybe worked 10 or 15 years ago, today though it is the equivalent of a typewriter trying to keep pace with a laptop.

John Park served Celtic extremely well during his time as Head of Recruitment a decade or so ago. He managed to find gems like Victor Wanyama and Virgil Van Djik. But, this encouraged those within the PLC to adopt the attitude that if enough excriment is thrown at a wall, it will stick. A policy that has severely affected the recruitment at Celtic Park for several years now. The unofficial Director of Football oversaw all of this during his reign, and it’s safe to say the board don’t really have a plan of how to move forward in this regard.

When the dust had settled after the heartbreak of last season, I thought Celtic would take a massive step in the right direction with the appointment of Dom McKay. How wrong was I? After just 72 days he departed and we are all once again left with more questions than answers. And still, silence is the preferred tactic employed by the Celtic board. It’s killing the soul of out beloved Club. The malignant cancer that we all thought was slowly being eradicated, is back with a vengeance. Ange and the team are the only hope that we as fans can view with any hope or optimism.

Patryk Klimala’s signing is just one in a perpetual list of wasted money and failings of stategy and structure. If the PLC continue down this route of silence and non-engagement with fans, I’m afraid that more Patryk Klimala stories will be a feature of Celtic FC for some time to come.

Paul Gillespie