We all know the success or otherwise of a summer recruitment drive is not judged when the window closes at midnight, indeed such an awareness was probably highlighted by the perceived success of the transfer window this time last year only to find the excitement of a squad on paper waned the longer they ‘performed’ on the field of play.
Yet given the overhaul of a playing staff required at Celtic the progress made has certainly been both dramatic and encouraging, all the more so when you consider Dominic McKay and Ange Postecoglou inherited an almighty mess.
Time was lost with the protracted Eddie Howe saga; the Head of Football Operations and Chief Scout had headed into the sunset and add to that the longstanding glue that led it altogether in the dressing room had left for a new challenge in the Granite City. And that’s us as supporters only looking from the outside in, you dread to think what the Ground Zero reality of the landscape was like behind closed doors. Into that came a new CEO and a new manager, a freshly appointed Captain and a great deal of last year’s problems to solve with very little time left to do so.
The overriding satisfaction of those who have made their way to Celtic is that the vast majority of the fourteen players who have come through the door are Celtic players for the foreseeable future. Two of those are loan players but both have the option to try before you buy, and even if you exclude the two in Lawal and Dawson signed for the B squad that means ten players signed over the last few weeks have committed themselves to Ange Postecoglou and Celtic long term on four and five-year contracts, showing we are buying into them and they are buying into us.
Those are pretty strong foundations from which to go forward, particularly when you consider the balance of youth and experience mixed throughout the new acquisitions. To have players who want to be at the club certainly isn’t something you could have said with certainty about a few of those playing for the club last season.
Conversely, of those who have left Celtic the vast majority of the fifteen who have exited due to their loans expiring or have moved on to new clubs, or indeed been released, did not wish to be at Celtic last season, never mind this one.
Add to that the financial recompense received for the likes of Kristoffer Ajer and Odsonne Édouard into the final years of their contracts was mightily impressive and plenty of credit has to go to McKay and no doubt others who assisted him to get good returns with the guaranteed backdrop of agent pressure and the spectre looming of unhappy players seeing out their final year and offering half-hearted efforts as the clock wound down on their deals.
Whilst a rebuild may not yet be complete, the work for one transfer window is over and the turnaround has been incredible. The manager has at least two or more players for most positions, with the proviso the central midfield area looks short on numbers, particularly those tasked with filling those vital ‘eight’s slots in advance of Callum McGregor.
That’s not to say attempts weren’t made to address those issues, and it perhaps was telling recently Ange Postecoglou indicated the Japanese market wasn’t an area that could realistically be looked at until their domestic season had concluded. As such if the manager has quality over quantity in mind it may well be certain positions could be earmarked for J-League recruits come January.
The manager, and it seems the majority of the support, are satisfied now with progress being made on the field. Ange Postecoglou will now get to work fine tuning new recruits into his playing philosophy and probably hoping that 30 player transfer window turnarounds are consigned to the history books.
Meanwhile Dom McKay will no doubt be able to turn attentions to footballing operations matters to assure a less reactive approach to transfers and a more proactive planned approach can be instilled to ensure we don’t have to go through such a repeat any time soon. Let’s hope his efforts over the last few weeks have earned the man some trust from those who will sign off on his structural changes.
Dom McKay made a promise to ‘surprise and delight’ when he introduced himself to the Celtic support. The sheer turnaround so far has certainly been a surprise. The delight we can but hope will come when the promising start made under Ange Postecoglou emerges fully.
As with last season’s transfer window the judgement will not be made at midnight on the last day of August, it will be made on performances and results as the season progresses.
What we do know this time around is we have a group of players who have invested themselves in Celtic and Celtic have invested in them. We have a manager that plays a style of football we love to watch and he appears to be getting backed.
We may not have completed a rebuild just yet but solid foundations appear to have been laid. I think we can all buy into that. And at 11.59pm last night, most of us were “buzzing like a jar of wasps.”
Niall J
Some you win, some you lose. They are saying 2.5 million for christie which is good by my books. You just cant buy players for the sake of it. I wanted them to buy ronaldo but it didn’t happen.I wont be holding anyone to account it’s not my place
Unfortunately part of the almighty mess is still there in the name of Kennedy and Strachan. Postecoglou nerds his own staff to help h knit these new signings together. Surely he cannot do it himself. The recent away defeats highlight this!