Celtic this morning finally confirmed the signing of Polish centre back Maik Nawrocki for a reported €5 million. The big defender looks like a great talent, tall, Athletic and comfortable with both feet. He’s also a threat in the opposition box, and is no stranger to finding the net, so we will also have an extra threat from set pieces and corners. Something that’s been missing from our game in recent years.
At such a big price he won’t be coming here to sit on the bench and will most likely battle out with Carl Starfelt for a place in the centre of defence. There’s been speculation about a move away for the Swedish defender, but it looks like nothing thankfully as he too is a superb player and we want to keep our best talent, especially at centre back.
It’s of course an area where we are in need of bulking up, so the acquisition of Maik is a shrewd move by the manager, as competition at the back will only benefit the team.
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— Celtic Curio (@Celticcurio) July 26, 2023
In this transfer window Celtic have lost from the treble winning squad from last season Jota, who moved to Saudi Pro League side Al Ittihad from Celtic for an incredible £27million. To be frank you’d struggle to get a bigger financial win even at casinos with Trustly so this was a great piece of business by Michael Nicholson the Celtic CEO. The 24-year-old winger departed the Scottish Premiership Champions after two years at the club after initially joining on loan from Benfica in 2021 before being signed permanently on a five-year deal last summer.
Aaron Mooy also decided to hang up his boots due to an ongoing back problem. For three or four months at the start of this year the Socceroos legend was a stand-out in the Celtic midfield and like the Superstar from Portugal, deservedly earned a song in his honour from the highly creative Celtic support. Even Aaron himself was singing alone to his very of Daddy Cool.
Other fringe players of course are being moved on as Brendan Rodgers looks to strengthen his squad and players who are not going to feature will hear the bad news from the manager directly. Those who decide to stay – despite not being in the manager’s plans – will be nowhere near the first team squad for training or matchdays.
Already in that category is Swiss international striker Albian Ajeti, a summer 2020 signing from West Ham for £5m. Celtic have offered a compromise deal with a payment to cover the final months of his contract but so far the player is looking to see out his contract, as indeed is his right.
Additions to the Celtic squad in this summer 2023 transfer window are five players with perhaps one or two more to follow. And three key players – the captain Callum McGregor and Japanese forwards Kyogo and Daizen Maeda have all signed contract extensions at the club. Add to that Liel Abada deciding to stay put at Celtic to work under Brendan Rodgers.
First in the door at Celtic Park this summer was Norwegian midfielder Odin Thiago Holm, who made a favourable impression when playing in the pre-season tour match in Japan at the weekend. Australian winger Marco Tilio was next arrive before a wee transfer rush this week with the Korean pair of Yang (another winger) and Kwon ( a defensive midfielder) being joined by today’s signing Polish defender Mail Nawrocki – the graphic below illustrates the summer business that Celtic has already done and we’ve probably still got a few more to come in yet.
The Scottish mainstream media of course have been focused on talking up their own favourites – as they do every summer – and telling Celtic fans that our squad is weaker but it’s a very different story across the city under the genius in charge.
Celtic supporters have been happy with all the signings up until today but the arrival of Celtic Maik Nawrocki will delight the support as central defence is the area in the squad that has been the most in need of strengthening.
So welcome to Celtic Maik Nawrocki. I’m sure you’ll be a huge success at the finest team in Scotland.
Business so far 💚☘️ pic.twitter.com/C4a8jUXptN
— 🟢⚪️🟡CELTIC FC RUMOURS🟢⚪️🟡 (@rumours_celtic) July 26, 2023
Strength is a relative thing.
All those guys look good on paper but the old adage applies: football isn’t played on paper.
I’m looking forward to seeing them though and how they integrate into our footballing style as well as the oddities of Scottish refereeing.
It now appears as if we have strength in depth for everywhere except left back.
Doubt if most of the supporters are delighted with the signings so far tbh. At the price this guy could good or rotten. Hence we could be even weaker than we were when you wrote that.
You mentioned Abada is staying. Haven’t seen that elsewhere. Is that confirmed?