Brendan Rodgers has made it clear that he doesn’t have ‘those certain profiles’ to get Celtic playing the way that he wants.
It seems like a classic chicken and egg situation that will be impossible to resolve in the five days remaining in the transfer window.
By definition a manager is there to make the best out of the players in his squad, every piece of evidence tells you that Celtic have better players than St Johnstone and Kilmarnock yet Rodgers’ side has failed to score in 180 plus minutes against those sides.
It is highly unlikely that Mark Lawwell’s transfer list contains any names from St Johnstone or Kilmarnock.
Rodgers required some convincing to take on the job of succeeding Ange Postecoglou. Michael Nicholson and Chris McKay flew to Mallorca for detailed discussions after Dermot Desmond set up talks.
Callum McGregor was called in for a long lunch before a decision was taken. Rodgers was at Hampden in April for the Scottish Cup semi-final and claims to have watched every televised match since he left for Leicester in February 2019. He had a very decent idea of the squad he was about to inherit.
Ange Postecoglou was possibly a little in the dark when he took charge of Celtic but no-one was better briefed for the job that Rodgers.
He had already experienced the club, the individuals, the pitfalls. He had time to ask the questions, get the promises, the reassurances.
Ultimately the buck stops with the manager. The CEO, the chairman and the Head of Scouting and Recruitment are rarely called to account, they tend to survive disastrous runs of results, they can outlast a manager or three.
Explaining the overall squad situation after the 0-0 draw with St Johnstone, Rodgers told The Sun:
We need to have more of a killer instinct at the top end of the pitch and we’ll work on that.
It’s clear if you go back to my first time here, the team was fast and dynamic, they got through the lines quickly, they created goals, they scored goals.
So this is what we’ll eventually get to here but we’re missing those certain profiles, and hopefully we can bring that into the squad and be a lot cleaner in our play and a lot quicker in our play.
Harking back to the good old days isn’t going to do Rodgers any favours in a dressing room full of treble winners.
The new boss has had eight weeks with the players, he should have had a few ideas after they played two matches in Portugal, they would be confirmed in the 6-4 defeat to Yokohama F Marinos and 1-0 win over Gamba Osaka.
Four matches into the season the former Leicester boss appears to be sending out distress signals, there are five days left in the transfer window.
If anyone ought to have known about the problems of dealing with a Lawwell it is Rodgers.
There are already parallels with season 2018/19 emerging. Retrospectively Rodgers has come out of that in a better light than the CEO that is now club chairman.
If the certain profiles that the manager requires aren’t provided Rodgers will only have himself to blame for agreeing to take on a task that has some very familiar obstacles to his ambitions for the club.
The draw for the Champions League will be made on Thursday.
After a decade as the Head of recruitment at the City Football Group, if his Linkedin profile it to be believed, Mark really should be able to provide the Celtic manager with the profiles required to develop on from last season’s squad, the evidence so far suggests a managed decline.
