Celtic's 2025/26 Summer transfer window: Stage: Shelby hovering over the Panic button

Brendan saying he still expects more players to come in

 

Oh well, we can all sit back and relax now that we know that Brendan expects more players.

 

Do we believe anything though? Not a slight on him and his words he means, but we have heard him say all this before, only for he himself to be disappointed and let down by it all too.
"3 or 4 by end of the window"
"maybe 1 or 2 more"
"we tried"

seen it play out many times.



Add though, still relatively early and there is obviously more time to go and I'd be shocked if we didn't bring in a few more - the quality of who is the real question

 

Still got weeks to go so we’ll defo get a couple more


But do you want the same situation quantity over quality

 

I want both, quality quantity

It's amazing how a year or two ago it felt like we was really getting rid of the deadwood - at one point it felt like only B squad players and McCarthy were left lurking around. But somehow in the last 18 months or so we have just completely bloated the squad - as you say that quantity aspect, rather than the quality.

Dread that we now need to shift so much * out the door before we will really push on with quality - but at the same time it seems we are signing squad players (not the quality) and simply adding more to the quantity.

Yamada, Inamura, Osmand, Nygren, I truly hope all cut it here - very excited to see Nygren. But outwith Nygren (and KT of course), they are all absolutely unknown quantities and can't be classed as the quality we need to come straight in the door.

Gyokores, Arsenal are about to sign the lad. Now clearly he is outwith our reach and a level or three above our calibre, I totally am not advocating we even entertain going down that path. But he is a known quantity that everyone connected to Arsenal and beyond fully expects and knows he is quality that will slide straight in to their starting line up. No doubt, no questions, sheer quality.

Where (KT and Nygren potentially aside) is that sort of quality for our level coming from? Again, I am on a rant here so apologies Crow, not fully aimed at yourself bud, I really can't get excited in the sense of quality over quantity for guys like Osmand etc, when it is clearly punts/hopes/projects and is simply adding the quantity, rather than the quality.

I just want a proven player in a league that is respected (not a dig at the J league, just mean not a random punt from, for example the korean 2nd tier) and we have actual confidence and belief they walk in to the starting 11.

Right now, I don't think anyone other than KT walks in to the starting 11 - and we all know KT is quality, but that is also half because there is no other option there either (a joke, he would be the starting LB regardless).

 

We obviously have a list of players some are happy to come in


Others would rather go somewhere else that’s no problem



Different factors in dealing with different clubs and players

 

My worry is that all the primary targets we have been very strongly linked to over several months seem to have gone due to our lack of decisive action / availability / cost / stinginess.

It seems from the lack of firm new links, we are not fully prepared for the '2nd round draft' and Plan B.
We seem to be enquiring/monitoring everywhere without a plan and getting increasingly desperate/random with links to Edouard / Schlupp etc
But in the end, we the fans don't know what's going on - which is part of the problem.

Same old then!!??

 

It's really not that difficult to improve our team. Or at least, it shouldn't be.

Nygren is the profile of player we should be signing more often than not. Standing out in a decent European league - similar or slightly better than ours - and clearly on an upward trajectory.

People always make excuses for us taking ages to do business. "Players that we want have other options and they'll want to take time before making a decision." * bollocks. We managed to sign Nygren fairly quickly. Not a chance someone playing for an average Danish, or Belgian, or Croatian team is making a club like Celtic wait for 8 weeks while they make their mind up. If they go somewhere else, fine. But that's where we should have 4 or 5 options per position.

Isak Jensen, who just signed for AZ, is a perfect example. 21 year old winger, tearing it up in the Danish league. He's signed for the 5th best team in the Netherlands. Europa Conference League football next season. Why are we not signing him? Such an obvious, easy one.

 

Outside the LB, who will obviously be a back-up, I hope Yamada is the last of the squad fillers we sign.

Need a first choice LW, RW and CB ASAP. Need a midfielder as well but I think we need to move Bernardo on first.

Still plenty of time, but id be a bit disappointed if there's no fresh links by the end of the week, and worried if it's the same the week after.

 

Suppose Yimada will make it the 6th signing of the season..

We're still lacking starting quality but at least there's work going on..

 

See realistically all the chat of “plenty of time” is not entirely accurate. That all depends on where we are with potential players and deals to bring them in.

Outside the last few days of a window or free agents these things normally take a considerable amount of time to line up as we keep being reminded, when people are not happy with progress.

We are dealing with a paper thin squad just now and after Yamada still realistically need around 5 or 6 players in. It is also now getting to a point where it is probably prohibiting us selling fringe players when deals could be on the table for guys like Yang.

Palma I still think we could get a buyer for but I am starting to worry he will be held as an option because of us failing to get the players we want.

 

This

Knowing how slow we are at getting business done, even if a bid is accepted for a player today, they likely wouldn't be officially signed until next Friday.

Keep saying it but we're now just over two weeks away from the season starting. We have no depth at left back. One good centre half. No power or pace in midfield. And a lack of quality on the wings.

Given how poor the last few months of last season were (performance wise, and with some results), it's not looking good.

 

Annoys the * out of me this argument about players waiting to find out what european competition we are in, or wanting to see where the chips lay when the big clubs do their business.
As you say, signed for AZ 5th best twam in the Dutch league and playing the 3rd rate Euro competition. Didn't he want to wait and see if a UCL club was coming in for him? Clearly not.
Kvistgaarden (I know), done our utterly best at monitoring the situation, drip fed rumours and suggestions of Brondby hiking the price up every window/few weeks, told he probably was waiting to see if we would be in the UCL or not, usual nonsense - signs for Norwich, a second tier club not even in Europe for a release clause fee of approx £6.5m - basically meaning every * excuse allowed for us not getting our act on was false.

Kvistgaarden, Jansen, Nygren, Jota - If we had signed all of these guys in the last 12 months to date, would have cost us circa £20m and we would have a fantastic front line/attacking 4, add to that Maeda, Idah, Forrest - and suddenly that looks like a very tidy attacking options - but no, we have Osmand as a PL2 project, Yamada as a punt, Yang, Tilio and Palma getting his 45643th chance.

The excuses allowed to be peddled for the clubs inactivity is stunning at times.
Kvistgaarden one is now just gonna be brushed away and folk pretend they didn't want him anyway, or his attitude is poor or some nonsense - when reality is, we are just a shocking club at doing transfer deals. We've heard from past players, agents and other clubs who have had to deal with us about how * poor and badly organised we are at this aspect - clubs have admitted they have waited for weeks on us to get back to them regarding interest in their players, only for the contact to eventually come from a completely different person from within the club and they just get bored with us. We have far too often left players and agents standing in car parks and airports, while we attempt to sign someone else instead, haggled over a couple 100k when not needed, and our fanbase actually still gives the club the benefit of the doubt at times.

 

Transfers really do not take as long as we make them out to be. Of course some can happen within a matter of hours if everything lines up and all parties are active and willing. But most will take a few days. They do not, however, take multiple weeks, stretching months and to our extent even years to get transfers done.

A respectable recruitment and scouting team will actively have scouted and researched plenty of players, assuming we aren't just doing the initial first scout of a 18year old making his 3rd appearance in the Croatian league, none of this should be taken the length of time we pretend it takes.

Even take Aston Villa and the McGinn saga - we made that drag out for weeks, months, as we haggled over a fee (I admit Hibs did not want to budge on their initial request, but this isn't the point to this for now), they swooped in and asked Hibs what the fee was, offered it and within a matter of days, theyhad McGinn signed and sealed. It really doesn't take that long.

Even Ange managed it with Maeda and Hatate - signed and delievered before the window opened - knew who he wanted and made the club just get on with it. One of the few times we ever manage that. Guess what - the backroom operation wasn't the usual suspects at that time.

 

Given that it appears we have one guy replying to emails on one specific deal at a time until it either completes or falls through, there indeed isn’t plenty of time left.

The lack of urgency and ambition is astounding at this point. We’ve become a complete parody of ourselves.

I mean, how bad do you need to be at improving the first team that it’s actually an inside joke within the support?

 

I have to say I think those deals were very different in that in Ange’s mind he would have signed those two when he signed Kyogo. He wanted Mitoma then but couldn’t beat Brighton to him.

There is also what holds us back most, the finances, Japan is dirt cheap in football transfers both for players fees but also wages. The negotiations would have been the most straight forward set of conditions you could get.

- transfer fee is cheap
- wages are cheap
- season is finished
- players want to move to Europe
- we had a coach who was working in the market 6 months prior so knew it inside out.

You only need to look at the comparison the next year trying to sign players out of Korea and how convoluted that became because the clubs weren’t wanting to let the players go as cheap so there was some negotiating to do. It took the full window and the main deal they wanted to do didn’t even get done.

As mentioned in earlier posts and I am sure cannot be the case but we appear to go into windows with a very limited list of targets who we know very little about their situations and preferences and when the bulk of them inevitably fail we are back to square one with no real plan B.

It is when you get in that scenario you have the danger of either over paying or as we have seen recently failing to actually fill fundamental holes in your squad and first team.

In all honesty I don’t think the squad we have just now gives me confidence we win the league and qualify for the CL which right now must be our two biggest targets for the season ahead.

 

Apart from KT and Nygren this transfer window has been shambolic. Where is the planning? It’s like pin the tail on the donkey. I’m expecting the “we tried but nobody wanted our money…” guff to be trotted out. No ambition shown despite the large amount of money in the bank. The * on the board are not slow at asking supporters to part with their cash though.

 

He's still waiting on the striker he "expected to come in" in January tho

 

And as long as the supporters continue to give them it nothing will change

 

Tbh outwith KT and Nygren Indont believe any other player with make an impact on our squad thisnseason.

KT is an outstanding piece of business, best LB in country one of the best around europe. However is Nygren going to better Kuhns start? I dont think so, but still happy hes been brought in.

I also dont see Maeda getting the same stats from last year, I also think our playbwithbsuffer from him being upntop, think his workrate woth kt would be unreal but that might not happen if hes up top. Also with kuhn and jota out of the equation that will no doubt impact our attacking play negatively.

Huns are pish, but if theyve by anyway improved we're in trouble, our end of season performances including thay dire cup final and also they were tbh better than us in our games, managed to get through cup in the end but technically it was a draw in league terms. Put it this way in current squads I believe theres more chances of them winning 4 out of 4, than us, not that I think itll happen but there is a possibility. Think they league has went from 75/80% win to around 55/60 at a stretch now.

Not one target has me excited too, so hopefully its an out of the blue signing.