Brendan Rodgers has attempted the near impossible- explaining Celtic’s transfer strategy.
For the third and possibly final summer the Irishman finds himself at the sharp end of business involving a club with a unique internal set up.
Celtic don’t have a Sporting Director or Football Director overseeing policy, no-one really knows how the club goes about their business leaving it wide open to a variety of theories.
Only Rodgers goes in front of the media/public. Michael Nicholson has faced the media once in almost four years as CEO, sitting alongside Rodgers and Peter Lawwell in June 2023 to ‘welcome’ the Irishman back in June 2023.
That welcome turned out to be the worst ever transfer window in Celtic’s history with the wholly unsuitable job lot of Odin Thiago Holm, Marco Tilio, Yang Hyun-jun, Kwon Hyeok’kyu, Maik Nawrocki, Gus Lagerbielke and Luis Palma presented to the manager. On five year contracts.
The sales of Jota and Carle Starfelt funded those deals and more, as usual a profit was generated from that transfer window.
Last summer was different, Rodgers did get quality players but only after the season was well underway with fans quick to criticise the fees paid but failing to realise that the fees were down to Nicholson’s complete lack of negotiating skills.
Never the less Auston Trusty, Arne Engels and Adam Idah played significant roles in Celtic’s Champions League success with 12 points picked up from eight matches.
Five home Champions League matches, progress to the Round of 16 Play Off plus the sales of Matt O’Riley and Kyogo Furuhashi will take turnover towards £150m and celebrations among the Balance Sheet Boys.
Ten days before the start of the SPFL season Rodgers has had £3m spent on his squad so far this summer.
Kieran Tierney and Ben Nygren improve the current squad but it is hard to believe that Shin Yamada and Hayato Inamura were in the thoughts of the manager as he watched a paper thin squad finish the Scottish Cup Final in May.
Rodgers faces the dilemma of being an ambitious manager but also a club employee.
Having committed himself to seeing this season out, 200% no less, it looks like his internal enemies have decided to put a squeeze on recruiting players ready to take the club forward, concentrating their efforts on the dubious project market that failed spectacularly two years ago.
Speaking to the Daily Record, Rodgers attempted to explain Celtic’s transfer strategy:
It’s pretty straightforward. There will be players within our recruitment team that are not just for now but for the future.
Clearly, I will look at those players and assess, and see if those players can come in and play. Then there will be other players we specifically need. It’s still very much joined up.
I suppose it’s more around whether the players are for now or later. People know the model over a number of years. There are players who come in who are maybe not expected to hit the ground running, but some of them do.
That’s what I need to assess, those guys coming in. But I also need to win now, and we need to get those players in. Either way, I will be responsible for that.
Club signings, with the greatest respect, I don’t care where they come (from), I just need good players in the building who can help us win today, tomorrow and the next week.
I’ve always developed players in my career, so I respect that side of it, but also the need for the present.
I respect what the supporters are – I want players in tomorrow but I understand the market and what you need to do to bring a player in.
It’s not as easy as clicking your fingers. We all want them in at the start, absolutely, and none more so than the coach but there is a middle and an end, and as long as you have them in by the end, it’s such a long season, so I’m very hopeful we’ll do that.
I am, because there is a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes in terms of players. Of course, you look at our squad and you can see where there are needs for improvement. It’s pretty clear.
Referencing that a lot of hard work is going on behind the scenes is a favoured phrase from Rodgers, used when it appears that the club has ran out of ideas on how to improve the first team squad with a £3m ceiling imposed on transfer fees.
Nicholson failed to replace Kyogo Furuhashi in January, this summer he had plenty of notice that Como wanted to sign Nicolas Kuhn but going into tonight’s match v Ajax the only wingers available to Rodgers are Daizen Maeda, James Forrest and Yang.
At their best in recent seasons Celtic require four wingers, two to start the match and two to push things further as substitutes between the 60th and 70th minutes.
While Rodgers wears his Company Hat in public you have to assume that in private he is trying to apply pressure to get players such as Michel-Ange Balikwisha in the door before August 31.
There are effective wingers out there costing £5-6m who could do a Kuhn type job for Celtic, for £2m you get wingers like Yang and Tilio.
While Rodgers tries his best to get a football team on the pitch and on the substitute bench he does have one ace card to play.
With less than a year to run on the managers contract one of Nicholson’s next tasks could be to find a successor that is happy to comply with the transfer straight-jacket that comes with the Celtic job.
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Nicholson: 8 minutes- The strategy has always been clear, that’s to be a world class football club in whatever we do.
