Christmas lasts for a full month for football agents with the action getting underway next week.
How many players have already been linked with a move to Celtic?
Looking at the recent record of the club I think it’s fair to say that the players and agents that make the most noise are the least likely to be signing for the club.
Of the five players that Tony Mowbray has brought to the club only the deal to bring Marco Fortune has been played out in public.
All of the other deals have been carried out quietly with minimum publicity until they have been virtually signed and delivered.
The loan deal for Landry N’Guemo came to light from the Nancy website with a very matter of fact announcement, Danny Fox’s arrival was highlighted as he underwent a medical the day before his debut against Al Ahly at the Wembley Cup.
With speculation flying around all over the place on the final day of the August transfer window Zheng Zhi was brought on board with the deal to bring Ki Sung Yueng to the club becoming public with the negotiations well under way ahead of the request for a work permit.
Most clubs prefer to keep their transfer business low key, most agents like to slip out information about their players to increase their profile and stimulate demand.
Unless Dermot Desmond intends dipping into his personal fortune I think it’s pretty safe to write off any transfers from the Premiership; the Championship seems to be the limit of Celtic’s transfer interest in England.
This month alone there has probably been in excess of 20 players brought in to Lennoxtown to be assessed, very few of those players are likely to be first team material which is clearly the area of most concern for supporters and the clubs management.
January is mostly a month of letdowns, none more so than last season, when the addition of Willo Flood did nothing for Celtic’s ambitions and gave hope to a Rangers side desperate to offload players.
The previous January, the arrivals of Barry Robson, Georgios Samaras and Andreas Hinkel gave Celtic a badly needed boost and even if the season didn’t run to script it did have a particularly happy ending as three-in-a-row was celebrated at Tannadice despite the season being extended to accommodate others.
Chelsea and Manchester United have both indicated that they won’t be involved in the January transfer scene, even Harry Redknapp has distanced himself from involving Spurs but you’ll get generous odds from any booky on ‘arry being able to resist a bit of trading throughout next month.
If there’s no money circulating around the top end of the game there’s unlikely to be much circulating elsewhere with the obvious exception of Manchester City.
Even clubs involved in the relegation battle are likely to continue without reinforcements with Portsmouth banned from signing players and others like West Ham trying their best to stay afloat.
Offloading players is probably the most likely activity at most clubs, it’s fair to say that there may be upto a dozen players that Mowbray wouldn’t mind losing.
With Gary Caldwell, Lee Naylor, Barry Robson, Mark Brown and Chris Killen becoming free agents at the end of the season it wouldn’t be a surprise to see any of them departing next month with others such as Koki Mizuno and Mark Wilson also likely to be moving on.
The transfer window will be more infuriating and frustrating than pleasing but we’ve become used to that, with Santa out of the way for another year perhaps the Herald may get around to revealing details of their secret Florida based billionaire…
