The despondency among Celtic fans is reflected in the Twitter reaction to a report that Luis Palma is a £3.5m transfer target.
With a week to go until the transfer window closes fans have long given up on the club taking a significant step forward in terms of bringing in players ready to make an instant impact on the Starting XI.
Palma may well turn out to be better than Jota but at £3.5m from the Greek league he has a lot of ground to make up on the former Benfica prospect.
Whether right sided or left the arrival of a winger will always create throwbacks to January 2019 when Brendan Rodgers commented on having a million wingers when he was asked about Marian Shved.
This time around there doesn’t seem to be any doubt about who is driving recruitment- in 2023 it is a different Lawwell that is making the decisions with Rodgers flagging up the involvement of Mark at every opportunity.
A decade in the shadows at Manchester City with an undefined role appears to be the qualification for a senior role at Celtic as Head of First Team Scouting and Recruitment.
His surname causes alarm among many Celtic fans, even if Mark is nothing like his Dad, is competent, modest and hard working without an ego in need of regular massage he will be viewed suspiciously by hoops supporters.
The days of raising the bar in terms of signing targets and getting business done early in the window appear to be over with a more familiar template emerging.
Over the next month Celtic will visit Ibrox and return to the Champions League. As everyone knows it is a results driven business with verdicts quickly delivered on Palma and Lawwell Jr no matter how unfair that might appear.
🇭🇳 | 𝙇𝙪𝙞𝙨 𝙋𝙖𝙡𝙢𝙖 – 𝘽𝙞𝙙 𝙈𝙖𝙙𝙚❗
Celtic have made a bid of £3.5M for Honduran winger Luis Palma.
The 23 year old left-winger directly contributed to 20+ goals for Aris Saloniki in Greece last season.
[@mcgowan_stephen] pic.twitter.com/inFtqbu3ob
— Everything Celtic (@aboutceltic) August 23, 2023
20+g/a is not bad for a project player
— aidan (@jotaonthewings) August 23, 2023
Buy Jota for 7m, sell for 20m, replace for 3.5m.
The Lawwell Model
— Bipolar Bhoy (@bipolarBhoy) August 23, 2023
Project galore
And another winger
— Velocity (@chivs76188754) August 23, 2023
Palma > Podence
— Jimbard (@themaninthebarm) August 23, 2023
Eintracht Frankfurt is open to receive bids for Rafael Santos Borré and Ajax for Jorge Sánchez, those are the kind of players we should be looking into
— Hydralisk (@chuche7787) August 23, 2023
Ahhh yeah 100% one of those quality signings that we had to wait until the last week of August to sign because he was weighing up his options. We’ve been sitting on our hands and we’re now running around. Not the worst but replacing £6m Jota with a guy for £3.5 – not encouraging.
— GKWLNC (@gkwlnc) August 24, 2023
So in other words, we don’t want to pay the extra couple of million for Podence 👍
— AbadaBing (@AbadaBhoy) August 23, 2023
A transfer rumour 🥹 pic.twitter.com/OIQde8F9Np
— Kaiden (@kaid3n88) August 23, 2023
Another cheap project
£2-4M seems to be our sweet spot 😮💨
— mmabhoy (@mmabhoy1888) August 23, 2023
Cheape punt scatter gun approach
— Danny B (@frankieboy1887) August 24, 2023
3 or 4 signings to come🥹 pic.twitter.com/swLta7uWvK
— Jay (@Jaycfc1888) August 23, 2023
For anyone wondering, here is a playlist of 22 videos of Luis Palma for Aris and Honduras. Enjoy! 🫶🏼https://t.co/ySsXOoQyuS
— HondurasFútbolTV 📺 (@HNFutbolTV) August 23, 2023
Palma, Maeda, Tillio, Yang, Abada, Haksabanovic, Forrest, Johnston.
8 lads for 2 spots.
Unless there is a serious clean out due next week, would we not be better looking for a striker, left back and goalkeeper?— Niall Collins (@Colliniho) August 23, 2023
