Failure- How Celtic will finish the January Transfer Window

You don’t need to be clairvoyant to see how the January transfer window will be played out by Celtic.

They even have two days of February to draw it out, highlight their multiple failings.

How could it be anything else when Michael Nicholson leading negotiations and then waiting on Dermot Desmond for sign off.

Nicholson’s targets were laid bare during the two transfer windows of 2025.

His determination to drive Brendan Rodgers out the club went way too far.

Having sold off the goals of Kyogo Furuhashi and Nicolas Kuhn without replacing them Nicholson wasn’t finished.

Adam Idah was sold to Swansea on deadline day. Shin Yamada, a Paul Tisdale punt was the striker to fill all the gaps.

It took Celtic 22 days of January 2026 to find a striker. Tomas Cvancara has come in on loan from Borussia Monchengladbach.

On Sunday Celtic face a critical SPFL match at Tynecastle, between two Europa League matches. That run of fixtures was known months in advance, Nicholson showed no urgency. Either for his dream manager, Wilfried Nancy or the Martin O’Neill Rescue Act.

Faced with a vital transfer window as a consequence of appointing Mark Lawwell and Tisdale there has been a need for urgency to correct those colossal errors.

Bizarrely another right-back was signed and announced on January 2. A day later Julian Araujo was making his debut. More of a comment on Tony Ralston and Coby Donovan than the qualities of the on-loan Mexican World Cup hopeful.

SAME OLD CELTIC, ALWAYS STALLING

Having two players signed by January 23 is actually ahead of schedule in comparison to previous transfer windows.

But miles short of what was needed. The decline since Munich in February has been horrific, and purposeful.

Rodgers was screaming out for quality replacements from July when Kuhn was sold. There was time before the competitive action started, time before the Champions League Play Off.

But Nicholson had other targets. Delivering a transfer surplus and pushing Rodgers to the limits. The Celtic CEO delivered both. But at an incredible price.

At least two starters should have been signed for January 1. It can be done. On 31 December 2021 Celtic announced the signings of Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate and Yosuke Ideguchi. On 3 December 2022 Alistair Johnston’s signing was announced.

The Tisdale/Nancy excuse is being used for the failure to have players in on January 1. There are no excuses for O’Neill having to wait 20 days to field a new signing.

Cvancara will have two training sessions with his new team-mates pre-Hearts. His last competitive action was on December 4 for Atalyaspor in the Turkish Cup.

🆕 Celtic transfer state of play on Asprilla fight and Rak-Sakyi as Maswanhise assigned ‘go and buy him’ statushttps://t.co/7AMJ2vIjki pic.twitter.com/OHIlGIBc0u

— Daily Record Sport (@Record_Sport) January 23, 2026

CELTIC RUMOURS, FLIERS AND MESSENGERS

Every few days O’Neill is put up in front of the media to deliver an evasive way of words to cover for the failings of others.

A second striker seems to have dropped down the agenda. There are vague links to wingers, all in-demand, all with interest from more ambitious clubs. That wouldn’t be hard looking at how Celtic drag things out.

Yaser Asprilla of Girona is never coming to Celtic. A Columbian with options isn’t coming to Scotland in January or February. Turkey beckons.

With an imaginative agent and friendly messengers Celtic can continue to be linked.

Crystal Palace are looking to move Jesurun Rak-Sakyi on during this window, the links to Celtic are similar.

If there was genuine interest in either player they would already be at Celtic.

However recruitment and negotiations under Nicholson is in slow motion.

Just like Kasper Dolberg in the summer window. Nicholson had no intention of getting that deal completed, giving Rodgers a fighting chance of progress.

HOME COMFORTS BUT EXPENSIVE

Last Saturday O’Neill and Mark Fotheringham watched Motherwell, clearly Tawanda Maswanhise caught the eye.

A 23-year-old goal scoring winger already based in Scotland seems like an obvious target for Celtic.

Motherwell won’t be paying Maswanhise more than £2,000 a week, probably a good bit less.

Asprilla and Rak-Sakyi will probably move on late in the window.

Celtic will go back to Motherwell in the final day or two to get Maswanhise. They will be forced to pay more due to their dithering, or as Nicholson calls it negotiating.

Maswanhise could already be a Celtic player, he could have been on Sunday’s team sheet.

Only world class Nicholson can explain why it hasn’t happened but after two Celtic TV interviews endorsing Nancy the ‘leading sports lawyer’ has gone back into his shell. Unless he partakes in bottles of cheap Italian wine.