Brendan Rodgers has put the spotlight on Michael Nicholson and Chris McKay to deliver the signings needed to improve the Celtic Starting XI.
Two wins out of two in the USA has reduced the pressure on the Celtic executives but Rodgers is on record as looking for four quality first team starters from his initial assessment of the squad last June.
In the absence of any known Recruitment Team Nicholson and McKay are tasked with improving the playing squad to give Rodgers a fighting chance of competing in Europe with last season’s dead-rubber win over Feyenoord highlighting how far Celtic have fallen on that stage.
Eight weeks after winning the Scottish Cup Final no outfield signings have been made, not even Paulo Bernardo and Adam Idah who were key to the Hampden success.
Recruitment issues from the disastrous summer of 2018 led to Rodger quitting Celtic in February 2019 with the failure to sign John McGinn coupled with the arrival of Youssouf Mulumbu highlighting the difference in ambitions between the boardroom and dug-out.
In January interest in Marian Shved wasn’t well received by Rodgers with others such as Vakoun Bayo, Oli Burke, Manny Perez and Andrew Gutman brought in that were clearly pushed through on a reluctant manager.
Five years wiser from that experience Rodgers seems to be using different methods to try and get the current board round to his way of thinking.
Speaking after the win over Manchester City the Daily Record reports Rodgers saying:
I had a long meeting with Michael and Chris today, we know the targets we want to bring in. While the club is getting on with that, myself and the coaches were really focused on the improvements of this team, physically, tactically and technically. Yeah, at some point before the end of August I’d expect us to have the players we want in.
Following the Scottish Cup Final victory in May STV reported Rodgers saying:
The board know how I feel on Adam, that was the reason for bringing him in. He’s been a real catalyst for us, especially over the last few months.
With that request ignored there is clearly greater pressure on Nicholson to conclude some deals, almost three years on from being appointed as CEO following the curtailed reign of Dom McKay.
During McKay’s one and only transfer window the Celtic squad was completely transformed with Nicholson having a background role seeing how proper recruitment is carried out.
Postecoglou wasn’t appointed as Celtic manager until June 10 but alongside his agent Frank Trimboli he knew the areas that he had to strengthen and quickly identified targets that were within budget.
Liel Abada and Kyogo Furuhashi were first to arrive, Carl Starfelt’s deal went through at almost the same time as Kris Ajer was sold to Brentford.
Joe Hart and James McCarthy came in at exactly the same time with Josip Juranovic arriving to fill the problem right-back position despite the impressive early season form of Tony Ralston.
Finally on August 31 the triple signings of Giorgos Giakoumakis, Jota and Cameron Carter-Vickers were announced.
As the window closed Postecoglou knew what still had to be done, on December 31 Reo Hatate, Daizen Maeda and Yosuke Ideguchi arrived at Celtic, midway through January they were joined by Matt O’Riley.
It looks unlikely that that level of activity and success will never be matched but it is hardly greedy on Rodgers’ part to look for two outfield starters to be signed before the August 4 SPFL opener against Kilmarnock and a further two before the transfer window closes.
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1 Comment
by Pedro
This is a smart move- distancing himself from calamity should it happen so he doesn’t get the blame like he did the last time. BR is definitely pulling the strings with regards to who’s in control.