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

You know what they say @HTG Empty vessels make the most sound.

Sorry I hurt your feelings, by you deciding to take it personal.
BTW, I didn't actually mention you.

 

If Yamada comes in then it looks like Idah, Yamada and Osmand as the striker options. From there I feel like we need to spend on a centre back and a couple of wingers. Jota's injury makes it more urgent than it otherwise would be, in my opinion.

 

This is actually a really good post, and very true what you said about differing styles.

But I cant agree with what youre saying about the spend.

Youre making a comparison, the same one that Lawwell has made twice at AgMs, that we spend, since Covid under Lennon, an adequate amount. At least thats what Im reading.

But alot of the complaints for fans us not about what we spend, its how we spend.

I think we can all agree that our scouting and recruitment network isnt fit for the modern game. And that our policy of hoovering up a clutch of low cost players every window is more hit than miss.

Rodgers, or under him should I say, we've been much much better this time around in the market in comparison to his first spell, no doubt about that for me, but we're still leaking money and wasting opportunities; Holm, Tilio, Yang, Kwon Lagerbielke; thats over TEN million, pished away.

Then theres the bigger spends, Idah, Nawrocki, Trusty, those three just under NINETEEN million, argued by more than a few, pished away.

It baffles me as much as it * me off.

Why are we * away millions like this?

Why * 4.5 million away on Nawrocki, then refuse to play him as we watch Liam Scales fumble and * about when Nawrocki hasn't really done a single thing to warrant his expulsion from a first 11?
Why * 6m on Trusty, see his performances take a dip over a month spell, then pap him out if the side for Laim Scales?
Why * 3m on Lagerbielke, then apparently conclude AFTER we sign him, that hes not a good fit?

I mean what the * are we playing at here?

Theres your 30m right there.

Now we're seeing links that are less than exciting. How are we supposed to be hopeful about what might come in August?

We were well aware that Kyogo wanted out, that he was leaving. We had, lets be charitable, 6 months to find a replacement. A normal, modern operation would've had a ready made list of REALISTIC candidates to pull the trigger on. * were we to do if Maeda got a serious injury and was laid up for months, like Jota??

We banked the kyogo money, and didn't look sideways.

What your saying about the August signings like Engels does hold water though, and it us encouraging, but, and this is a big BUT from me, that isn't par for the course from us. Its not something we have regularly done, in fact, weve done the opposite more often than not; watch the transfer window slam shut whilst we scratch our heads wondering what the * this board are playing at.

Also, important to note this, as youre the second responder to jump on what i said about Sevco beating the pish this time around, i never claimed Sevcos business was better than ours, i never said i was worried about their "new" signings as if their business was better than ours; i said that they have strengthened, COMPARATIVELY, that IF they can turn us over with that raft of pish they did last year, theres nothing to stop them doing it again, if we dont plug the deficiencies in our side, namely CB and especially the midfield, then we're in trouble.

That does NOT mean their players are better than ours, or their business in the window is better. It means WE are ignoring the holes in our own ship.

No point in having a bigger, faster, more expensive boat if theres a big * hole in the side of it.

Thats not panty wetting or getting knickers in a twist at Sevcos business, its a serious concern about OUR business, that too many fans seem only too ready to ignore.

 

Read above responses please, regarding Sevco.

Ffs

 

Im not being an * here, but do you * read anything before you chime in?

"Funny how long it took you to reply"... Seriously? What are you 12 ffs? Is this a Facebook beef we have here? Is your maw gonna talk to mine? My da would beat your da in a fight mate.

I have a life outside this board ya know. I dip in on weekday mornings whilst taking a * or having a coffee, if I dont snooze my alarm. Saturdays is a hangover day (sorry, but i think i earn it).

Is that ok, can that schedule work for you?

Again, *sigh*, please read before you respond, i never said i was going to "block you". I said if my "pish" is so "inane" and causes you to act like a 5 year old who just dropped all his sweets FEEL FREE TO HIT THE IGNORE BUTTON.

Why reply about how all my posts are "pish" if theyre just... Ya know, PISH.

You ever hear the old saying about arguing with fools?

Ironically the two middle paragraphs you wrote an entirely relevant and indeed pertinent. Id love to talke the time to respond to THOSE, but its a shame you had to bookend them with insults against TWO other members.

Three different posters have accused me of something i never said. Jumped on my comments about Sevco beating the pish this time around, and used it to swing their panties around above their heads screaming "hes worried about Sevco transfers! Hes takin baws!!!".

Ive had to do this numerous, numerous * times. The last time, when i was accused to saying Rodgers should be sacked, which was a complete nonsense derived from my comments about wanting him to leave after the title won with his rep restored.

So I'll say it again, just for three responders, and the others looking to twist words when they disagree with something else entirely...


READ A * POST BEFORE YOU RESPOND.

Labelling what i write pish and then quoting and countering things i never said is * retarded.

Now, my dear @HTG , its nearly 7am here, and my * girlfriend is about to wake me up and give me * about not wanting to go out today and spend the day looking at cats to adopt because she thinks its a * fashion accessory.

I promise I will try to pop back in later before bed. Hope thats ok.

Oh, just before I go, both you and Shelby are actually spot on about something, im outta this thread or any other like it until this window is closed.
Its become very exhausting responding to things I never said.

Take it easy

 

A genuine thesaurus as a response, my goodness.

Going to be honest, I cannot be arsed reading any of that.

Sorry that happened, or happy for you, whatever fits

 

This lecter * keeps on producing doesn't he?

Keith Jackson cover band.

 

I agree with a lot of what you say, but I don’t think concerned supporters diminish the good things we have done. I can’t recall anyone on here downplaying our success.

We all support a huge, monumental football club that we all want to do well and reach its maximum potential, and people express this in different ways.

The manager and players proclaim regularly that they very quickly move on from success and the subsequent trophy wins, and look to conquer the next challenge. This has proven a hugely beneficial mindset over the years.

Why should our supporters, board, and recruitment team not think along the same lines?

Also, do you want people to declare how happy they are with our history and recent domestic success every time they question the recruitment strategy?

We’re all happy we’ve won a lot of trophies. Nothing wrong with trying to win a few more.

 

Feel like Rodgers made a rod for his own back with that comment about definitely being here for three years.

 

https://thecelticblog.com/2025/07/a...red-managed-decline/?_unique_id=68734d0694c5c

Perfectly sums our board up with 3 weeks today until the league starts & we are weaker in terms of quality and numbers from last season but have over £77m cash at bank and over £29m taken in between sales and add-ons since 1st June.

Beyond 14 players in the squad its threadbare and exceptionally low on quality!

 

Go back a couple of pages on this forum and you'll see a couple of supporters on here downplaying the titles from last season. I have absolutely no problem whatsoever with supporters airing their views and I understand why a lot of our supporters are extremely wary, given past transfer windows.

I think when we start getting into the conspiracy theories with regards to the board, you just lose me. I think that when supporters automatically turn on the board for failing to get big money players of quality in now, they would prefer to blame the board or Peter Lawwell, instead of the very real and difficult issues we face as a club in bringing in the desired quality. It's not a soundbite from the board, it's just the * reality of playing in a * puddle, I think I seen someone call it that last week. We aren't a big fish in a small pond, we're a whale in a puddle.

I'm not expecting any supporters to praise anyone, really. Just a bit of reality that getting transfers in early is incredibly difficult. And patch the conspiracy theories. It's beyond tiresome. As I've said multiple times on here, the whole footballing department needs restructured and changed. I want a DoF or Sporting Director to oversee the football operations of the club. I want changes to be made, too. But, there's a dose of reality in there.

Going back to your last comment. We should aim to win every trophy in every single season, regardless of what that trophy is. We know we aren't going to win the Champions League but we go into it to try and win it. We have only lost 3 domestic trophies out of 16 in the last 4 seasons. We have spent, on average, £33m every season, since Ange was appointed after COVID season. Could we spend a little bit more? Probably. Would that greatly affect what we end up winning? I'm not sure it would, to be honest.

It's ironic that 15 years ago, I was a 20 year old, going up to Celtic Park and watching us lose another title to the huns, as they romped to 3 in a row and I literally dreamed of not winning another double or a treble or a European run like I'd seen under O'Neil. All I wanted was to see us lift another league trophy at Celtic park. 9 years ago, we appointed Rodgers and changed our history and I hate to say it but created an entitled monster within some of our support. His ridiculous level of success is almost treated like some sort of norm. It's not and it should never be. Of course, discuss the negatives that have led to losses in individual games, like the Aberdeen defeat last season. Don't use that defeat as some form of weapon to attack the club.

 

We won the league by 17 points by the way. We also won the two most important games against the huns. The first league game and the cup final. They gubbed us at Ibrox at New Year, and we gubbed them in the first league game. There was very little in the others. You’re still hurt over Rodgers leaving eh?

 

Will add your comments and attach my comments.

"But alot of the complaints for fans us not about what we spend, its how we spend."

I have literally been one of the biggest voices in here when it comes to how we spend money. I'd rather the club went and bought all the best scouts and talent spotters from all the very best run clubs before we signed another player and I'd spend millions doing that. USG, Feyenoord, Salzburg, Brighton... go and pick up some of their scouts and offer them whatever they want. We don't disagree on that point. HOWEVER, scouting only goes so far. You watch a young player perform, he looks incredible. You check analytical statistics and he looks brilliant. You can get a deal done. He's from a relatively obscure league and you make your bid and then BANG, some * on talkceltic hasn't heard of him, he's from a shiter league and he only cost £2m. "THE BOARD AREN'T SPENDING THE MONEY IN THE BANK." The board can never win. That player I was talking about before, he misses home. He can't deal with the pressure and the tenacity of playing in Glasgow. It's not just about what someone can do on the pitch. What you need is someone who can actually play for us because bigger characters than that fake young man have come into this city and been swallowed up.

"Rodgers, or under him should I say, we've been much much better this time around in the market in comparison to his first spell, no doubt about that for me, but we're still leaking money and wasting opportunities; Holm, Tilio, Yang, Kwon Lagerbielke; thats over TEN million, pished away.

Then theres the bigger spends, Idah, Nawrocki, Trusty, those three just under NINETEEN million, argued by more than a few, pished away."

We've bought some * and always will. We need to be better at filtering out the *. I think I seen somewhere that around 35% of our signings are deemed a success but that also included players that we've managed to sell on for minor profits after not really working out here. So, someone like Oh, for example, would be classed as a success because we made money on him but he wasn't a success here, was he. Yang, if he was to be sold tomorrow, would likely be considered a success because we will probably make money on him. Again, I don't think he's done enough here to be considered a success but the metric the article used would class him as being a successful signing for the club. Brighton are considered the very best club when it comes to that metric, certainly in the UK. About 50% of their signings are deemed a success. That just shows you how * difficult it actually is. The best player trading club in the world with the very best analytical company in the world still only gets half of it's signings right.

To add in, I still think it's harsh on Idah. People deem all 3 big summer signings of 2024 a failure and I really only dislike one of them, which is Trusty. If Idah had been £6m, I don't think we are having the conversation we are having now. The fact we probably overpaid for him is the problem amongst some of us and I still think he could come good, which is why I'm hoping to see a completely different player after a full pre-season with Rodgers.

"Why * 4.5 million away on Nawrocki, then refuse to play him as we watch Liam Scales fumble and * about when Nawrocki hasn't really done a single thing to warrant his expulsion from a first 11?"

I don't think Nawrocki done anything wrong. That's a management decision, though. The board can't make Rodgers play players and truth be told, I don't know why Scales played over Nawrocki or Trusty. It's really the only thing I question Rodgers about. The 'I like playing a left footer at LCB' doesn't really cut it for me when he played Ajer in that position in his first spell and played a right footed CB at LCB when he was manager of Leicester. If I was to guess? I think the consistent injuries Nawrocki picked up when he was beginning to get fit and some blind loyalty for Scales when he was there, fit and ready to go, are probably the main reasons why he's in the team consistently. I disagree with it. I'm sure others believe he was justified in that decision.

"Now we're seeing links that are less than exciting. How are we supposed to be hopeful about what might come in August?"

Wouldn't say the links haven't been exciting. Balikwisha, Jansson and Orjasaeter have been decent links. The Youte link at CB was very very exciting, as was the Turkish DM. I think what you're getting at is the deals for Inamura and Yamada. Again, the very best scouts pick up players from relative obscurity and manage to get great deals over the line. We signed Matt O'Riley from an absolutely pish MK Dons side. We paid £1.5m. It wasn't exciting at the time but it certainly is now, when you look back on it.

"We were well aware that Kyogo wanted out, that he was leaving. We had, lets be charitable, 6 months to find a replacement. A normal, modern operation would've had a ready made list of REALISTIC candidates to pull the trigger on. * were we to do if Maeda got a serious injury and was laid up for months, like Jota??

We banked the kyogo money, and didn't look sideways."

I had this discussion with someone a couple of days ago on here. My opinion is that we tried to bid for Strelec, which was turned down and Kvistgaarden, where we were told absolutely not, while they were in a title race. We could have signed a striker in January. We probably couldn't get the striker the manager wanted, though. So, Rodgers made the decision to wait until the summer, when he knew his targets would be available. What's happened in that 6 month spell? Maeda was essentially unplayable up front. He was on another level. So, I think Rodgers has changed his mind. He doesn't want to spend big on a striker, knowing they're likely to be less effective than Maeda, we seem to be targeting wingers now. Which makes sense. And, while you may disagree, I still believe Rodgers sees a lot in Idah to work with. We spent big money on him and Rodgers will want to make that work. Idah is definitely a more Rodgers type striker, as well.

We have banked the Kyogo money but we bank a lot of money. Again, we just need to spend it wisely. The amount of money, as you said earlier, isn't the problem so what we banked for Kyogo is irrelevent.

Can't be bothered quoting it because it's quite a long reply but you're comments on Sevco.

We do have holes and the board and manager will be working to patch the holes as we speak. If you're only worried about 'our own ship' then there is no point in even mentioning them. The difference in style of play is more important than you can ever imagine. It's why Rangers traditionally do well in Europe, while we struggle. We try and play football, score goals and attack the opposition. Even when we play relatively defensively, we still try and get forward and attack the opposition. Rangers don't. They try and stop teams playing. That's why they struggle against the teams playing a low block so consistently, in our league. They can't dominate games. Martin won't allow that. His team will be set up very similar to ours, probably. It's a massive change up in how they've played. Le Guen was the last * who properly tried to get them to play attacking, possession based football and he was booted out quicker than you can say Sebo. The 'raft of pish' they have does one thing well, stop good footballing teams from playing football. Different style, different manager, different players, same hun * in the stand. Let's see the patience in a couple of months time if things don't go there way.

 

I would add that we also spent a chunk of the Kyogo money in Jan on Jota (re-signed for a 3rd of what we sold him for). And some of it also probably went on pushing the boat out to secure a big contract for Tierney. So Im not sure we just banked it.

It also looks like we moved Kyogo on at the right time. His age profile had moved the wrong side of 30, he wanted out and he was having a mediocre season with us by earlier standards. 10M was good money to move on a player in these circumstances.

We also had a 9MM striker waiting in the wings to come into the team and see out a season that we had a very healthy points lead in. It wasnt a cheap punt or kid that we were flling bck on.

And lastly, it may have actually worked out for the best by seeing what Maeda could do there.

 

These are all good points.

I think however there’s a fine line between people coming across as entitled, and being angry that the club never capitalise effectively on periods of dominance, are incredibly reactive, and do not maximise our potential.

Being irate at the fact we haven’t won a European knockout tie since you were in 2nd year in high school for example, is not entitled, it’s entirely justified, and is all down to the way you express it.

Are there any similarly sized clubs or even slightly smaller clubs than us in Europe who have a similar record? I can’t think of any. That’s not just bad luck unfortunately.

I appreciate the factors in bringing players to Scotland. However, we do ourselves no favours with our lacklustre, backwards footballing operation. Our structure is stuck in the early 2000s.

We should be striving to be the best we possibly can be, and I don’t think that’s evident in many aspects. That’s my main gripe.

 

how do you reconcile the fact that we are a whale in a puddle with a level of success that shouldnt be the norm. since rangers ceased to be due to their cheating that level of success is the new norm

 

Don't disagree with any of this, but I think there's a fine line when it comes to certain people on here.

You will have people rightfully concerned about what you've said, I've always said that I don't think we'll fully progress as a club whilst Desmond and Lawell are still here, it needs revamped. @Celtic_Daft1888 said it best, I would absolutely love to be ran in a similar fashion to those of Salzburg, Ajax etc with a proper structure in place, it's something we seemingly keep putting off for whatever reason.

At the same time, it's the same few posters who also clutter up these threads with doomsday scenarios about how the board and Rodgers have fell out, how the huns are beating us in the transfer window and how we're not spending this season as Rodgers is effectively gone. All this before the 20th July! By some of the reactions on here, you'd have thought we lost the league last year.

Our record in Europe should be better, and complacency can always kick in if we're not careful (seen it in the cup final against Aberdeen last season) but I just don't think it's even a quarter as bad as a lot of people are making it out on here.

Granted, maybe I do sway more towards the "Happy Clapper" side of the support, but if we're in the exact same position this time next month (with only Yamada being signed) then I'll gladly join the support in voicing my frustration, just feels a bit early this year compared to previous. I think there's also a large element that still won't take to Rodgers, and I don't think that helps.

 

I think thats definitely fair. Although I dont think thats entirely on the board either.

Winning a knockout European game in the Champions League under the old format was probably stretching beyond our limits. Im not sure theres any comparable clubs that did it routinely (depends on what you consider comparable I guess).

Europa League - not winning a knockout game in that is a stain on us, no doubt. But off the top of my head ties we had against teams like St Petersburgh and Copenhagen should have been winnable with the squads we had.

 

Aye, I agree with this. Good points.

One thing I would say. For every doomsday merchant and conspiracy theorist, there’s the people who talk us down as a destination for aspiring footballers. Footballing backwater to play against hammer throwers and so on.

For all of our flaws, we’re an absolute giant of a football club who wins silverware every year and plays European football every season. We can offer incredibly competitive wages against that of our competitors, we play in one of footballs iconic arenas, have top class training facilities, based in a desirable part of the world, and we have a proven track record of getting our players career defining moves whilst trebling or quadrupling their salary in the meantime.

I get that there are other factors that potential signings will consider, but with a competent footballing structure, it’s not impossible to entice players of the required profile to the club.

Looking at the current squad. Is that the best possible squad of players we can put together given our resources? For me the answer is a resounding no, and I’m just praying it’s effectively rectified over the next few weeks.