Not so subtle Rodgers sets Nicholson a transfer warning

Brendan Rodgers has sent a not so subtle reminder to Michael Nicholson to get transfer business completed.

While inside the corridors of power and among a large section of the Celtic support the club has turbo charged its recruitment process with FIVE signings completed ahead of the first pre-season friendly, others take a different view.

In the real world the squad that managed to lose the Scottish Cup Final to a horrific Aberdeen team has stood still.

Callum Osmond, Ross Doohan and Hayato Inamura barely count, none of them are currently scheduled to get a minute of playing time in the Champions League play off ties towards the end of August.

Greg Taylor has gone with Nicolas Kuhn 90% on the way to Como, if that deal falls through due to whatever circumstances it is unlikely that the German winger will have much of a role to play in the season ahead.

Kieran Tierney is a clear upgrade on Taylor although the injury issue will hover for a while, Ben Nygren is a welcome addition, a creative, attacking option that is lacking from the current rota of midfielders. But he is not a winger, not in the Rodgers mould, not the way Celtic require them.

Towards the end of last season Rodgers said that the squad needed three new signings, presumably without anyone leaving. Kuhn and Taylor have gone, Tierney and Nygren have been signed which means that the squad situation is exactly as it was. The manager needs three players, the main part of pre-season begins in Portugal on Wednesday involving two matches before returning to face Newcastle United at Celtic Park on July 19.

WILL NICHOLSON HAVE THOSE TRANSFER TARGETS DELIVERED?

It was clear in January that Rodgers expected a striker to replace Kyogo Furuhashi, the expected answer wasn’t Daizen Maeda, that was a great stroke of luck, not really something to bank on. Nicholson failed the manager with another deposit in the bank.

Following the win over Queens Park Rodgers did an in-house interview with Celtic TV that said very little, in a general media conference he went into some detail about transfer expectations, releasing enough detail to put the spotlight on Nicholson- the CEO that excels at weakening the Celtic squad.

There was one telling comment from Rodgers on the Kuhn deal, interest from Como didn’t appear out of thin air, the transfer was underway before the end of last season.

Discussing Kuhn, The Sun reports the Celtic boss saying:

He was aware of interest towards the end of last season and that sort of followed through.

Other teams have joined in that interest over the summer and that’s why a lot of the young players come.

It’s a wonderful, brilliant club to come to develop, and improve.

And you can see within a short period of time, 18 months, he’s now getting the move that he wants.

Rodgers added:

The earlier, the better, really. Because if a player wants to go then I don’t see the point in them hanging about.

Really, if you can get the deal done and you get the valuation, what you think is right, then do it, move on and look to get the replacements in.

I think we’ll always look to improve the squad. There’s money there to bring players in. It’s just that we’re getting the right ones. I’m really excited by this season.

Nicholson and the recruitment team have had plenty of notice that Kuhn was leaving, just as they had in January when Kyogo left for Rennes without any genuine attempt at signing a replacement. Seven months on the only striker activity has been the effective swap of Daniel Cummings for Osmond.

With Jota not expected back until much later in the year Celtic are currently well down on wingers. Yang Hyun-jun is way down the pecking order for meaningful matches, Rodgers has already given up on Luis Palma and Marco Tilio.

For the Champions League Play Off the Celtic manager needs four wingers, at the moment he has one- Daizen Maeda. James Forrest could do a job as a substitute but it would be a push to be starting with the soon to be 34-year-old in either leg.

Rodgers knows what is needed to go into the Champions League Play Off with confidence of progressing, August also contains trips to Pittodrie and Ibrox.

There are other areas of the Starting XI/ regular substitutes that need strengthened such as at left-back, probably central defence as well, projects most certainly aren’t required, for every Kris Ajer or Jeremie Frimpong there are at least half a dozen Luca Connell’s, Jonathan Afolabi’s, Osaze Urhoghide and Liam Shaw’s.

With minimal backing from the club in terms of support and through self financing transfer activity Rodgers has maintained Celtic’s domestic dominance and taken them to a new level in the Champions League.

Before the end of this month Nicholson can either decide to seriously back the manager or cross his fingers for another season in the big time with the comforting fall back option of the Europa League followed by regular Sunday domestic matches.

Four weeks on Sunday the SPFL Premiership season begins with the visit of St Mirren, in an ideal world Rodgers would have new first team ready signings having a fortnight alongside their new team-mates ahead of that match, ie; in the squad to play against Newcastle and then play in the Como Cup.

A year ago Nicholson thought that he was being clever by leaving three signings to the final 48 hours of the transfer window. It wasn’t exciting, it was reckless.

If he wishes to take that gamble again a fourth successive Champions League campaign could be lost, if the manager’s plans aren’t backed there is no point discussing a new contract with him as the clock ticks down towards June 2026.

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