Not Actually that Crucial a Summer as of August 2023...beginning to now think everything isnt fine!

having signed 5 players i thought i would have been more excited ,they may well turn out great signings but none are screaming progress in europe

 

Exactly how I feel like you said they may be outstanding but at the moment it's an unknown so hard to argue we have kicked on from last season yet.

Think we have a few squad players to lose yet and 2 or 3 top player to come in and would be a satisfactory window despite us dragging it out a bit

 

For me the most important new signing has to be an midfield enforcer.

We need a powerhouse in there for European games, an imovable destroyer.

The "Korean Rodri" just doesn't fill me with the confidence required not to watch CL games from behind a pillow.

Souza knocked us back and since we seem to have abandoned a move for a REAL number 6.

 

Totally agree with £50 million in the bank before season ticket money coming in and add the money for entry in the champions League and also the 25 million for Jota the transfers have been a bit underwhelming and was expecting 3 or 4 six million plus signings to progress in Europe but there's still time yet .

 

I think our ‘big’ signings will be nearer the end of the window , it may possibly be players who would like to come to Celtic but the Scottish league is giving them second thoughts and they might hold out to see if anything else comes up. KT will be one that will have to be late in the window I would think , tete as well may wait a little longer

 

Did someone not say tete was in Lyon yesterday?

 

Will be interesting to see once Nawrocki is announced if anymore names start to pop up.

I believe Yang has been brought in to be heavily involved in the first team but not so sure on Kwon.

On the later, he does seem to have been highly rated in Korea as the top K1 teams wanted to sign him but he held out for the European move, however the footage of him is hard to judge as it is hard to gauge the standard of the league and his highlights still don’t massively jump out at me.

Tilio I worry for coming in injured for a couple of months then will be another month before he is really fit by which time we are in October and the weather will be turning for the worst. Hopefully he will manage to get some game time around then.

Holm is an exciting prospect but given his preferred position seems to be the same as McGregor I would imagine his minutes will be limited.

Really hoping for some quality to come in down our left hand side in particular but through the team it is really needed.

Also still needing to have a proper clear out of those who aren’t good enough. I know there is still a good few weeks in the window but there is an awful lot still to be done.

There was talk of offers on the table for a winger and midfielder if they are still unsure at this point we must be fast approaching the point where it’s time to move on.

Since the January interim accounts which showed around £50m in the bank (£60m but with a net transfer balance of just under -£10m). We have sold Jota (£25m), Juranovic (£7.5m rising to £10m), Giakoumakis (£3.5 rising to £4.3m) and got wages from Barkas off the books and picked up small fees for the likes of Brooks, Hazzard and Oto’o. I know Benfica get a cut of the Jota sale but still sold nearly £40m of players.

Spend from that same point Oh (£2.5m), Iwata (£0.85m), Holm (£2.5m), Yang (£2.1m), Tilio (£1.5m), Kwon (£0.85m) and Nawrocki (£4.3m), so total spend of £14.6m.

So in terms of sales less income we are around £20m to the good after your take account of Benfica getting a cut of the Jota deal.

Obviously there will be sell ons etc and we have put out a few new contracts but I would expect close to another £20m to be spent from here to the end of the window, £15m at an absolute minimum.

We have also just completed a high value preseason tour to Japan.

If we don’t spend that sort of money whether it’s fee’s for players or offering a decent sign on to a free then I would have to seriously question what we are doing as a club going forward. It would suggest to me we are back to the 2012 model of scattergun transfers hoping for some of them to prove to be gems to sell on.

 

Yeah he was in Lyon for a haircut yesterday but what's wrong with top London barbers?

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That’s him signing out the window so

 

Are Lyon even in for him as well? Obviously he played for them before. Just hope Rodgers and Nicholson convinced him in coming to Celtic.

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Everyday without movement on key improvements for positions hurts us in the coming weeks, maybe even months.

 

It would seem like he’s most likely going to them since he was in Lyon yesterday

 

Maybe he was bored so off he went to France for a hair cut and waiting for a phone call from Brendan coming back from South Korea

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I can't lie, despite 5 signings -- this window feels very underwhelming, so far.

They could very well be good, long term signings, but in terms of "Stepping up a level" to compete in Europe, it doesn't scream that so far. Now of course, the 'improving to compete in Europe' is a more long term project and not something that's necessarily going to happen from this transfer window alone.

Odin Thiago Holm - Looks a good signing, still young, good resale value down the line. But will no doubt only play a rotation/backup role if we keep a hold of Hatate and O'Riley this window.

Marco Tilio - Again, could be a good long term signing, much like Holm - but again - a backup player who will get sub appearances, cup appearances but won't do anything this season that strengthens that area of the team more than we had last season.

Hyun-jun Yang - Probably more likely to play first team football than Holm and Tilio, but as great a prospect as he looks, does it replace the huge void left by Jota? Not even close, another prospect/project who could undoubtedly play a part this season but it's no improvement from last season.

Hyeok-kwu Kwon - Repeat what I've said about the others, likely gets the same kind of game time that Iwata got last season, potential is there but an improvement to our starting squad from last season? Nope.

Maik Nawrocki - The best signing so far, will probably start out as backup to Starfelt but I'd imagine he takes that regular starting spot from Starfelt this season, pretty confident in that. He is a signing that is an improvement in what we had last season, in terms of being an area that needed strengthened badly and he could likely become a starter within a few months.


If we could bring in someone like Gustav Isaksen would be like-for-like Jota replacement, would be an absolute statement signing and it still fits within our strategy of signing players, improving them and selling them on for profit.

It's not been a nightmare window or anything like that, but in terms of signings that improve the starting eleven, Rangers have done that better than we have so far. Before anyone jumps on to attack that statement, their starting eleven last season was bad -- but have they made numerous signings this window that have improved their starting 11 from last season? Absolutely.

Have we, so far? No, in my opinion.

 

Rangets may have signed more but quality outstrips quantity everytime. Not worried about their signings we will still * them

 

I understand your concerns, but none of Rangers' signings are proven successful players. They could flop, just as our signings could. But we have the spine of proven winners to give us the edge.

 

Of course, what I'm saying is that their signings they've made are of a better quality that what they lined up with for most of last season. I'm not saying they're improvements on our squad or better than any of our players -- they're not - that's very obvious.

But they've undoubtedly improved their starting 11 compared to last season. We haven't -- yet.

Plenty more time to go, just hope we do get 2 or 3 really good signings that could go straight into the starting 11 or at least compete for a starting place immediately.

 

I don't think the Huns signings are anything amazing but no doubt they have improved their starting line up and squad depth. It seems they are not finished yet. They will probably beat the other 10 teams and play physical and defensive against us. Sure we are stronger but a few injuries our way could turn things.

 

I've heard it mentioned that their players are mostly rejects at former clubs. Nothing special- only Cifuentes is interesting to some on here.