Recruitment failure at Celtic reaches critical stage

The mystery of the Celtic transfer strategy appears to be coming to a head.

Although it turned out to be based on a fake AI image the prospect of Yang Hyun-jun leaving for Norwich City highlighted the lack of winger options that Brendan Rodgers currently has. The loss of Yang would be no big deal, the lack of wingers available to Brendan Rodgers is becoming critical.

While more involved that Luis Palma and Marco Tilio, two years on from joining Celtic Yang isn’t the type of player that Rodgers is going to put in his Starting XI for any important match, at best he is a 20 minute option coming off the bench.

With all respect Lech Poznan, Norwich and Rapid are at the right level for those players, it has been evident since Mark Lawwell brought them to Celtic in the summer of 2023 that they were well short of what was required.

In his treble winning farewell season Ange Postecoglou had Daizen Maeda and Jota on the left with James Forrest and Liel Abada on the other wing. Sead Haksabanovic was also on call and came up with a few goals.

The fall off in standards from that season to the sorry side that was involved in the Scottish Cup Final is stark.

There won’t be many Celtic fans saddened to see Palma, Tilio and Yang moving on, hopefully permanently, but there is plenty of concern over the failure of the club to bring in fresh faces, upgrades, players to give Rodgers game changing options.

The trail started at Tannadice at the end of April when Jota was injured, when he was ruled out for six to nine months the proposed transfer of Nicolas Kuhn should have stopped there and then.

At the start of this month Kuhn joined Como, ahead of the formalities being completed Rodgers said:

I think it’s very clear, the model of Celtic. In the 18 months, he’s done absolutely fantastic for us. 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. If he does end up going and signing for Como then it’s great business all round.

Celtic are in action on Como on Thursday night with three first team wingers- James Forrest, Daizen Maeda and Yang. On another day Rodgers would be wary of over-playing Maeda, now as the only left winger and first/second choice striker he has little option but to start him in every match. An injury or transfer of the Japanese internationalist would be incredibly harmful.

Over the last four seasons under two different manager Celtic have been at their best when they’ve had four primed wingers, bringing freshness on the hour mark with a new pairing to confront tiring defenders.

The process involved in current recruitment isn’t known, it is unlikely that Rodgers would have put up much of a case to hold any of the three wingers that he was presented with two years ago.

Last season’s Champions League campaign should have put the club in a position of strength, one to kick on from and become an attractive place for players to go. Instead they look vulnerable, happy to cash in while the going is good, preparing for the inevitable rainy day.

Which brings the role of Michael Nicholson into question.

In June 2023 the reclusive CEO said that the aim of the club was to be world class in everything that they do, recruitment isn’t close to being adequate. Even more so with a bank balance that varies between £80-100m.

Rodgers has been very guarded in his comments after this season’s friendly matches, gently deflecting elsewhere to get signings completed.

After the win over Newcastle he referenced the lost goals of Matt O’Riley, Kyogo Furuhashi and Kuhn over the last year.

Ben Nygren and Shin Yamada could be pushed out onto the wings for the Como Cup matches, the fans won’t be fooled and neither will Rodgers.

Selling clubs will be rubbing their hands as Celtic become more desperate by the day, repeating the ‘negotiating tactics’ used to sign Adam Idah and Arne Engels a year ago.

With a Champions League Play Off just four weeks away it seems that Nicholson is content to play at Russian Roulette in the same manner as a CEO who lost out to Malmo, Maribor, AEK Athens, Cluj and Ferencvaros while consoling himself that he presided over the best run and most admired club in Europe.

The reality is very different, the base of the current squad continues to be the one put together by Ange Postecoglou and Frank Trimboli over two transfer windows in season 21/22, that core is badly in need of being topped up but so far it seems that Nicholson is unwilling or unable to provide for Rodgers.

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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.