Celtic fielded what Brendan Rodgers described as their best XI for the Glasgow Derby last weekend. Of the 11 players selected in the starting line up, not a single one was a new signing.
Given that the Hoops banked not much short of £100m at the end of last term, and needed to replace Jota, Mooy and latterly Abada; it is quite remarkable to think that no new recruits made the strongest 11.
It’s well documented that our recruitment has been poor this term, but now with a new recruitment team and another £60m of Champions League money coming in, there really is no excuse not to push on.
Holm, Tillio, Nawrocki and Lagerbielke barely feature in squads. Therefore, it is baffling as to why they were signed. Yang, Palma, Bernardo, Idah have seldom held down a starting place for a run of games. Not one can be deemed a total success yet.
We now must show our ambition and push on. Celtic is the richest it has ever been. We cannot allow players like Jota to leave and then replace them with inferior talents. Otherwise there is no point in selling. It is not good practise to make record profits yet become weaker on the park.
It’s time to join the 21st century and start upping our transfer fees and wage caps. We are, generally, spending less on players now than we did 20 years ago. However, we will have circa £150m in the bank next season – thus £10m players shouldn’t be beyond our reach.
Let’s push on to give a better showing in Europe and then maybe future seasons will give us a chance to try and go deep in the Europa League with Scotland losing the automatic Champions League spot after next season.
Failure to show sufficient ambition will see a repeat of this season, and an eternity of just being a step ahead of a poor theRangers side.
We will never have a better chance to rebuild respectability on the European stage.
Liam Kelly
In the meantime wrap Jamie and Maeda in cotton wool until the final.
Hail Hail