It was the strangest of comments when Ronny Deila went public about his dislike of loan signings- just before he brought in five players on loan from elsewhere.
It’s no surprise that none of them are anywhere near Brendan Rodgers side with most of the famous five continuing to have humdrum up and mainly down careers.
As Rodgers has proved a new manager needs to make his mark by bringing in his players to put his stamp on the team. Otherwise you can end up looking like a caretaker.
Only in exceptional circumstances, such as Patrick Roberts perhaps, can it be justified for Celtic to bring in a player on loan. Even with someone of Roberts skill there are punters questioning the wisdom of bringing in a player on an 18 month deal.
Keeping players under contract happy is a tough enough task these days when the player is here for a season and is contracted elsewhere it’s a very difficult task to keep them motivated and interested without putting other noses out of joint.
Perhaps as a farewell to the last of the loan Celts we’ll take a look at what happened to Deila’s loan deal from the summer of 2014.
JO INGE BERGET
This will forever be a painful one- how could someone that showed so little at Celtic plot our Champions League KO a year later.
Confirmation of Malmo’s prospects of eliminated Celtic from the Champions League came when Berget was revealed as their star man. How little did we know?
There was next to nothing in his brief Celtic career to suggest a Champions League player but over two legs in the 2016 qualifiers Berget sent Celtic tumbling and set up the exit route for Ronny Deila.
His revenge was served not cold but chilled. Still playing for Malmo
JOHN GUIDETTI
What a pile of hype!
He got off to a flying start with fears that Celtic would need to spend £5m in January to sign him to keep other interested parties at bay.
After a scoring run in the autumn things quietened down quickly, by spring time he was a bit part player as Deila returned to Leigh Griffiths for the goals needed to win the title.
It seemed a strange act of confidence when Celta Viga provided Guidetti with a five year La Liga contract. He has struggled to nail down a place in the side with goals coming infrequently, just one so far this season.
JASON DENAYER
Arrived as a 19-year-old and quickly steadied things up at the back forming a great understanding with Virgil van Dijk and Fraser Forster.
There was never any prospect of his move becoming permanent with his full international debut confirming the fact that he was out of Celtic’s reach and price range.
Last season’s loan to Galastasaray never worked out with a year long loan to Sunderland this season likely to prove the Belgian defender with plenty of front line action.
WAKASO MUBAREK
Arrived with a smile from Rubin Kasan and started with a flourish scoring 14 minutes into his debut away to Red Bull Salzburg in the Europa League.
After that it was a sharp fall from grace as he struggled to get close to the bench let alone make an impact on the team.
Last season he was sent on loan to the Canarian sunshine of Las Palmes, now with Panathinaikos he has picked up three yellow and one red card in seven appearances this season.
ALEXSANDAR TONEV
He almost joined Celtic a year earlier but fortunately elected to go to Aston Villa who quickly decided to off load him.
His Celtic career had barely started when he was hit with a racism charge and given a seven match ban.
That was virtually that for the Bulgarian who failed to live up to the standards set by Stan Petrov.
Last season he was in Italy with Frosinone who were relegated, a fate that could be repeated this season with Tonev now in the colours of Crotone.