After confirming the signing of Maik Nawrocki this morning Celtic released the most heavily leaked picture of the week.
While the club was staging the arrivals of Korean duo Yang Hyun-jun and Kwon Hyeon-kyu on Monday there was another deal that fans were anxious for confirmation of Maik Nawrocki.
From Friday evening the Polish central defender had been reported to be in Scotland but it was two says after the leaked image appeared on Twitter that the club could confirm the deal which is accompanied by the now traditional five year contract.
Well aware of the conversations that have been going on Celtic’s social media team didn’t try to act all innocent as they followed up on the announcement.
👀 The New Bhoys at Lennoxtown!
(A photo that definitely nobody has ever seen before)#YangIsACelt🇰🇷🍀#WelcomeKwon🇰🇷🍀#WelcomeNawrocki🇵🇱🍀 pic.twitter.com/oPCs7A6YW4
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) July 26, 2023
Now do the Polish boy pic.twitter.com/IF23bKzdRE
— ceern. (@NotoriousBAG_) July 24, 2023
This week’s triple announcement kind of brings a halt to the current round of transfer discussions.
After Gangwon and Busan Ipark announced the departures of their players Celtic kept quiet for nine days before confirming the moves from their end.
The days of a real surprise signing are virtually dead with social media quick to pick up on transfer hints from near and far and attention being placed on the target.
Last Thursday Celtic were first linked with Nawrocki, later than day coverage of Legia’s pre-match media conference revealed that their highly rated central defender wouldn’t be involved in the opening league match at home to LSK Lodz.
The bandwagon was off and running with all of the news coming from Poland, on Friday night Nawrocki was reported to be in Scotland, on Saturday he had undergone his medical with a five year contract, a fee paid in two instalments and Legia due 15% of any future transfer fee all out in the open before the ‘secret’ photoshoot.
With the deal now wrapped up the onus is on Nawrocki to integrate with his new team-mates with Josip Juranovic able to give the former Legia man a few pointers over what to expect in and around Lennoxtown, just six months ago the Croatian was saying his farewells ahead of a move to Berlin.
After making his first significant signing Rodgers has plugged an obvious issue even though Cameron Carter-Vickers is well down the road to completing his rehab from knee surgery carried out at the start of May.
Nawrocki’s arrival takes a little bit of anxiety out of that situation but there is no doubt that the Celtic defence is a very different proposition with the former Spurs man in place.
Having Carter-Vickers, Nawrocki and Carl Starfelt to select from going to Ibrox in September is certainly a lot healthier than the options that Ange Postecoglou had in May with predictable consequences.
After two seasons of solid progress and squad building the arrival of the Pole puts Rodgers in a position of strength although another stand-out season for Carter-Vickers is bound to bring in offers, most likely from the EPL.
In January Postecoglou showed how to manage that aspect with Alistair Johnston signed in the knowledge that Juranovic would almost certainly be leaving after the World Cup Finals. Similarly Oh Hyeon-gyu took over from Giorgos Giakoumakis as back-up for Kyogo Furuhashi.
Getting the best balance in central defence will now be the issue with the one complication being that the three options are all right sided.
When available Carter-Vickers starts which leaves one slot between the other two defenders without the need to press the panic button if there is an injury- as we witnessed in May when the USA international defender went under the surgeons knife.
With five weeks left in the transfer window there is plenty of time left for incoming and outgoing deals with anything between five and 10 players in the squad likely to move on if first team football means more to them than their monthly salary.
