The January window is a time characterised by distressed purchases.
Of course, selling clubs know that.
Consequently, like the road to Galway, I wouldn’t start from here.
Celtic badly messed up their recruitment last summer.
Brendan didn’t get three out of his four main targets.
So when 2019 started there was some ground to make up.
The player that was landed in the summer out of the quartet Rodgers had identified was Odsonne Édouard- a striker.
As the summer window was closing Celtic had three first-team starters for one slot.
When Moussa Dembélé was lured away to Lyon as the clock ticked down that left Rodgers with two players for the Number Nine berth.
Of course, he not have foreseen that the situation with Leigh Griffiths would take the ex-Hibs striker off the roster.
Consequently, the forward areas that have been most targeted in the January window.
Rodgers now has excellent attacking options for his preferred formation.
It is well documented that Celtic failed to land two defenders and a midfielder during the summer.
The absence of Cristiano Piccini and Fabian Schär, the two additions to the back four that Rodgers had identified really did hit home during the Champions League qualifiers.
With Boyata playing a leading role in the unfolding Athenian tragedy it proved to be a costly failure.
However, with the emergence of Ryan Christie, the absence of John McGinn in the Hoops has been rather ameliorated.
The ex-ICT kid has established himself as a dominant Number Eight as opposed to an understudy for the peerless Tom Rogic in the Number Ten slot.
It is undeniable that the weakest part of the Celtic squad is in defence.
Consequently, the 11th hour acquisition of right back Jeremy Tolijan on loan from Borussia Dortmund addresses one problem area in the back four.
With Filip Benković out for 4-5 weeks, it remains to be seen if Celtic’s back line is up to the task.
Three of the signings during the January window can definitely be filed under “succession planning”.
The two American fullbacks are definitely “projects”.
My information is that of the stateside pair the guy most likely to make the cut is Andrew Gutman.
However, it is Rodgers’ comments about the acquisition of the Ukrainian winger Maryan Shved that I find the most perplexing.
In the presser, the Irishman sounded somewhat detached from the recruitment process.
That narrative has a bad history at Celtic.
It was reminiscent of the summer when Rodgers let it go in public about the failure to land John McGinn.
When discussing the signing of the Ukranian kid Ridgers spoke of the decision by “the club” to target Shved.
Does that mean Brendan Rodgers does not see himself at the club after the summer?
When the sports desks in Scotland posed that question recently they aren’t making mischief, they were actually doing their job.
I think it is fair to say that Celtic emerge now from this window stronger than when they went into it.
That cannot be said about what transpired last summer as the Double Treble was being celebrated.
During the Christmas party season, people at the top of the tree in Parkhead were briefing corporate types that the plan for the upcoming window was “Boyata out and three in”.
My information is that Brendan opposed to first part of that plan and didn’t want to lose his Belgian defender despite the pram kicking episode in Athens.
Now that the window has closed it is undeniable that Rodgers has the best squad in Scotland at his disposal.
That is as it should be if the recruitment process is working properly at the richest club in the country.
It is almost as if having more money than your opponents is some sort of sporting advantage,
Strange that…
Is Son of Dallas retiring? 4 pens, is this his swan song?
Lets put 5 away tomorrow and trump the Ibrox scoreline.
Even the Rangers sites were laughing at the 3rd award, clearly outside the box by all accounts but Dallas and his linesman saw it differently.
Can’t wait to see how Sportscene portray this tomorrow!
No transfer fee income in the window for Rangers. What does that do to the already forecast cash shortfall till the ST monies arrive in May?
We already have had a warning shot from Mr Bennett that the board/director soft loans can’t go on for ever.
The expensive January additions make even less sense with no departures from the first team squad.
Defoe won’t be very happy sitting on the bench playing second fiddle to the Columbian man/child.
Neither will Alfredo or his agent be happy that the guy on the bench is the top earner at the club.
What is going on with the merchandising deal, all appears to have gone very quiet?
Of course there will be no criticism if the fabled treble treble is delivered.
However the injury list is worrying, especially the absence of Kieran over such a long period without any finality as to when he will return.
I’ve been very much in the ‘Brendan is offski’ camp recently….
…..not so much the ‘projects’ and 4 month loans swaying my mind in this because ‘projects’ ( while there may be too many) are just that, something for the future… and if 4 month loans get us to ‘8’ and a stabilising summer then I can accept that.
No… the main indicator that worried me regarding BRs future was Scott Browns prolonged deliberations regarding Australia , USA, Celtic or wherever…
It’s clear that his heart is and has been with Celtic but if the future is uncertain and big money is being waved from ‘supposed’ idyllic locales ( I don’t buy the Australia dream hype myself) …. ANY player will have their doubts.
My personal thoughts are that Broony wants to be there for ‘ten’ as much if not more than any Celtic supporter wants to see it happen. He knows however, just like us supporters that it is not a ‘sure thing’ and most importantly needs this seasons league to be won before the final 2 titles can be won.
Just like us supporters I feel that he has waited to see what happened in terms of transfers this last month – not just to know that we leave ‘the window’ stronger than we entered , but in order to see that there was a team that could secure an 8th consecutive title AND go forward to 9 & ‘ten’.
For me… the timing of Scott Browns ‘extension’ is no coincidence.
Even more important … and purely conjecture on my part would be Scott Browns wish to know whether he will still be captain under the same manager next season.
I’m pretty certain that if Brendan WAS heading off in the summer, then it would already be known to those who ‘need to know’ at Celtic Park. I would like to include Scott Brown in this group especially knowing the degree of confidence shown between manager and captain since summer 2016.
I could be over analysing this but I think Scott Brown knows exactly where the Club AND current manager will be when European qualifiers kick off in the summer.
If he didn’t …. then I think Australia may have just ‘tipped it’.
Said it then and I’ll say it now…Boyata should be nowhere near a Celtic jersey….End of.
Completely agree.
Perhaps a wee glance at the Liverpool transfer window might give you an idea as to why it is Brendan isn’t fully trusted in the market.
A highly promising winger (Markovic) went on a free this window after signing for Liverpool for £20m under Brendans tenure.
The boy was deployed mainly as a Wingback on arrival (Calvin Miller) and his career hit the skids at Anfield as he never fully recovered under Rodgers or Klopp as his confidence was shattered.
I see similarities at Celtic with the constant tinkering and playing players out of position.
It’s almost as if the Domestic stuff is too easy and he’s finding ways in which to appear as some sort of Managerial Guru.
Started with Hayes arriving as supposedly backup for both KT and Sinclair.
This made perfect sense given Hayes spent most of his career deployed as a left winger and auxiliary
left back at Aberdeen.
His limited appearances however have been mainly as a back up to James Forrest on the right wing.
Strange given Forrest’s good form and Sinclairs indifferent form on the opposite wing- again his natural side.
Same with Johnston coming through the Youth setup primarily on the left side of attack?
Again he’s been getting dropped in on the right as relief for Forrest whilst a succession of non natural wingers helped out on the left.
Ntcham McGregor and even Éduoard deployed out there.
Come the debacle at Ibrox?
Leaves both KT and Hayes on the bench,a fit Izzy at home and deploys arguably our best Midfielder at the Club Calmac in at Left Back?
Christ he’s even deployed Sinclair as a Right Wingback this Season!
Calvin Miller has spent his entire Youth career as an attack minded winger both for Celtic and Scotland and he has done so with rave reviews throughout.
Brendan has him rebranded as a defender.
There have been issues all Season with the pairing of Brown and Ntcham in Central Midfield.
When both were missing for several weeks due to injury and Calmac Rogic and Christie formed a 3 in there and a change of shape (4-3-3) we were like a team transformed.
Rosenborg and the Killie humping proved these 3 were far more dynamic in the approach.
Since then Brendan has been forced to report back to a more familiar setup with the exceptions of both Rogic and Ntcham of course.
Will we see the Calmac Rogic Christie 3 again under Brendan?
I doubt it because I get the distinct feeling he never planned it so it probably will never happen again.
I personally think we have seen peak Brendan in Europe and throwing an extra £6m at it isn’t really going to achieve that much.
After all Liverpool threw nearly £300m in Transfers at it and he never made it past the last 32 in the Europa.
Phil, Getting a tad ahead with the “treble treble” 🙂
IMHO Celtic as with all the Scottish team have to balance the books – or at least take a risk with outgoings against ‘future’ income….I don’t think Celtic have done badly – a balance that a CL window might be missed 2 or even 3 times in a row has to be properly budgeted for – remember Leeds Utd and the big gamble on CL money..
Anyway great work
Where would we be without Freud?
Many thanks.
Duly fixed.
There’s gambling and there’s investing. An investment of £10m in a couple of decent Centre Backs in the summer would have given a £40m plus CL return.
Rodgers has the best squad in Scotland. He has an even better squad when he has a fit squad.
I cast my mind back to the original attempt at 10 in a row. Injuries cost us the title that year. Of the eleven men who took to the field on the opening day of the season, ten had been under the surgeon’s knife by Christmas. It was traditional back then to put out your best side on opening day. There were no European Qualifiers to negotiate.
Things were very different from a medical stand point. For instance, a knee cartilage problem now is keyhole surgery. Back training in a week, playing in three or less. Back then it was a full open up job. If it happened in September the target was preseason training the following July. Sometimes it ended a career.
In the presser Brendan also stated HE approves ALL signings. My problem with Brendan are his contradictions & inconsistencies. He will bring in young/inexperienced or players who have lost their way on short term loans and they start for some reason. We then BUY 3 players and send them out on loan, the 19 yr old I can perhaps understand but the other two are hardly youths. Weah & Burke from what I’ve seen are nothing special, having played against weak opposition, why Burke is being played at CF is beyond me, his first touch awful.
We will have a nightmare in the summer, recruitment wise with nearly a whole new defence required in trying to qualify for European Competition whatever that may be.
So in effect we are really no better off than summer, we have lost our 2 CB and LB, okay the gift of prescience is beyond the management, but when you have no reliable back ups (albeit Ajer is coming along), then that is the issue, again poor squad management on Brendan’s part.
Difficult to argue with that….
The writing is on the wall looking at the business done in this window – it smacks of short-termism to our long term problems on the park – defence.
I do hope I’m wrong but reading the ‘permancy’ of deals done, come the close of this season it looks increasingly like bye bye Brendan. He’ll most likely have his treble treble, but here for ten?
Castsange cryptic post proves he was crying out for the move to us and we yet again can cast the blame on our pennywise pound foolish, meddling chiarman.
Are you on holiday Dermot???