Celtic's 2025/26 Summer transfer window: needed and wanted!

Wouldn’t be surprised to see some names come out soon

 

From the Scott Burns Q&A on the record




Will it be another record-breaking Celtic summer?
CelticSimon asked: Scott, will Celtic smash the £11m they spent on Engels?

I think there is every chance that Celtic will break their transfer record.

Brendan Rodgers wants to move forward and make further progress in the Champions League. Celtic will also want to try and continue their dominance domestically after losing the Scottish Cup final.

The Celtic board know the positions that the manager wants to strengthen and it is up to them to land them.

To take things to the next level will take decent money, to bring in the two midfielders and winger that their manager wants in the first instance.

 

Hopefully right on the two midfielders..

 

Loose links on Montjader. Swedish, left footed, right winger..

I watched a video of him last week and he didn't impress me whatsoever..

 

I hope he's not the Kuhn replacement. Hopefully a replacement for Yang, who is hopefully on the way out.

 

He doesn't look good enough for even that, in my opinion. No chance..

Just reading the other forum and being said that Brownhill looks to be a Hatate replacement, or what we're trying for. My *..

I'm all for Brownhill,big time....but he isn't replicating the creativity that we lack when Hatate's out/off it..

 

Failures to bring in a striker was widely reported? The manager said so. Multiple times. It was widely reported that we had enquired about the availability of players and then never followed up...

January is notoriously difficult if you make it difficult. What about summer windows? Because I can't remember the last good one we had. It was probably under Ange. In his first season. He also had an outstanding January window in his first season.

The propaganda that the club spew about having a difficult window in January is being happily devoured by fans like you. Whereas, Rodgers has come out and said after multiple windows that it's not been good enough. He's said what he wants publicly and we've never actually done it. I know managers always want a bit more than what they get but Rodgers' view and what the club view what we need is so wide it makes the Grand Canyon look like a crack in the road.

I don't want to be just good enough to lose against Villa or just good enough for the double. Everyone should want the club to reach its full potential. The club isn't anywhere near that. This is not the best Celtic can be.

Idah and Kenny have huge question marks over their heads. Maeda is by far the better striker out the trio but then that leaves us short out wide. Those individual's injuries couldn't be foreseen? Are we seriously saying we thought we'd go a season without any short/medium/long term injuries?

Every man and his dug knew Kuhn wasn't keeping up his first half of the season's form. This badly? No. But he was never doing it for a full season.

 

Kuhn apparently in Germany the now to finalise his deal to RBL.

 

Best bit of news I have heard for a while, if accurate, and I have no reason to doubt it.
The wheels are in motion already, and the talk of two midfielders coming in too, would seem to be up to the mark.

 

Brownhill is absolutely not a Hatate replacement. He's a decent player to be fair and I would definitely take him on a free transfer for 2/3 years but he should be playing instead of Engels. They're both similar style players.

I've always believed that to have a midfield 3, you need a defensive 6, who wins the ball and gets it forward quickly. I think we should have someone like Engels or Brownhill to take the ball and break forward, through the lines and get us on the attack quicker. We should also have a creative player, like Hatate to get the ball in the attacking 3rd, dominate the ball, find openings in the opposition.

For me, Engles, Brownhill and Bernardo are all kinda similar players. McCowan is probably more creative on the ball than they 3 but is nowhere near the standard of Hatate. O'Riley and Rogic seemed to be a mix of the 2 positions but we generally tried to play them much further forward, like attacking midfielders. Playing deeper like Hatate, Mooy is the last one I can think of that was very creative when he was on the ball from deep. Moving into next season, I generally wouldn't be surprised to see us go back to a 4-2-3-1 under Rodgers. Engels and McGregor playing as a double pivot and bringing in a more advanced attacking midfielder, if Hatate does go.

 

Our midfield needs beefing up..

In an ideal world I'd get rid of Bernardo, bring in Brownhill. Keep Hatate and add another type of creative type with pace who isn't a shrinking violet..

McGregor
Brownhill
Engels
Hatate
New centre mid
McCowan

2 players for each position. We also need to find a solution to getting the best out of Engels, there's loads to work with, we need that area functioning as there's times the personnel and fit doesn't gel..

We need a bit of surgery and that central midfield is probably the key area as we stand right now..

I know Jota being out, once Kuhn goes....then between them cental midfield and the forward area's need real quality in..

 

Most agree on the positions that need addressing (back up lb, a decent centre mid).. sell trusty nawrocki lagerbielke Welsh and bring in a good centre half, scales being 3rd choice..

Midfield a complete mess imo- McGregor won't not play so all the talk of buying these big 6's doesnt make massive difference to me.. if hatate goes we need a top top replacement (be happy enough with brownhill). Club will not accept defeat on Engels and Bernardo- either have I, Rodgers simply has to pull the finger out and get these two players firing...

After that....

Club had two windows and half a year to find a striker and came up with idah at 10mill.. i don't trust the club to get it right at centre forward, so id go all out on making Maeda the first choice striker with idah providing back up, sell Kenny and bring in a 3rd choice young striker to compete with idah and hopefully develop..

Put the money into wingers..Sell Yang and Kuhn and go out and buy two decent wingers to cover lw/RW with Jota (when fit) and Forrest..

Being honest the squad is a bit of a mess and we probably became too reliant on getting a tune out of trusty, Engels, Bernardo and idah. Of which none are contributing enough currently

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https://www.youtube.com/results?sp=mAEA&search_query=josh+brownhill

All action
Good in the press
Tenacious
Moves it quick
Positive
Bombs beyond the striker
Scores and assists

No brainer if we can get it done on a free..

 

I would be looking to move on both Hatate and Engels if possible. That would give us the impetus to rejig the midfield completely. I don't think Engels would work in a double pivot with McGregor, I'm not really sure what Engels best position is anymore, he's an enigma, so might be better to offload if possible and start again.

I would keep Bernado and McCowan. Possibly bring Brownhill in with another strong, powerful No.6.

McGregor could be rotated more between No.6 and No.8, to get the best out of him in certain games.

Moving to a 4-2-3-1 would seem to be on the cards too.

 

I do think Engels would be better further back. We definitely played a double pivot when we played Bayern Munich and I thought he was our best player on the park over both legs. He got the ball deep, he bought cheap fouls, he got stuck in, he drove forward when he could. That's exactly what I think he is. A box to box midfielder but I think the question really is do we need a box to box midfielder in our team when we are playing domestically? We camp in the opponents half for nearly 75% of the games and that pretty much negates what he's very good at.

It's no surprise that Engels best performances came in Europe when we had the ball less than what we usually do. That's where his skillset is, in my opinion. We are set up far more defensively than usual and we aren't camped over the halfway line, trying to break down teams with 10 men behind the ball. He can still be effective in our team, as he has shown this year and I really do like him but I'm just not convinced that we are the sort of team that can bring the best out of him when the majority of our games, he will not be able to play to his strengths.

 

Seems to score off left and right too..

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I think Hatate will be away. He's served his time here, he's 27 years old and I think he will be looking to challenge himself in a better standard of league. Also, I think the club will feel like they can get a huge fee for him, be it £10m-£12m. That's massive profit on a player we bought for £1.5m in January 2022.

On Engels, as I just said above. I really like him and I think he would be absolutely incredible in a team who didn't dominate games the way we do. Engels is a box to box midfielder for me and I'm not convinced that works when you're essentially camped in the oppositions half for 90 minutes in a game. In games like that, you do need someone with more flair and more creativity than Engels. I don't see him being a mix of both, like Rogic and O'Riley were. They were both phenomenal on the ball and had the touch, the vision, the creativeness to make things happen. I think Engels has the physical attributes to be incredible as a box to box midfielder but I'm just not convinced that it totally works in our team.

 

Just please dear * never have a meaningful game with a midfield that has Taylor and McCowan in it with Yang on the wing and Scales at centre back ever again.

 

Great post. Our recruitment is frustrating a lot of the time. Last 2 windows, leaving it right up to the last minute. Scrambling about. January was brutal as we let Kyogo go and not replace him. You think we'd be all over that right with someone lined up.

Previous January window saw folk lose their jobs. But we still haven't learned and moved on. I'm looking at things as a glass half full just now. But have a real fear come August of us reverting to type, waiting to see how we do for Europe and then rely on Rodgers contacts, getting Schlupp on a permanent.


Hopefully in 3/4 weeks time, we're seeing a few bodies in.

 

Brownhill would be a fantastic signing, but as others have said, not as Hatates replacement.

Not even in the sense he's not good enough to replace Hatate, he is imo, but he's not a creative player so he'd be starting over Engels for me, with a proper replacement for Hatate coming in.