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.