Throughout last season the Celtic support put bizarre team selections and tactics down to Brendan Rodgers sending a message to the board.
At Tynecastle last August a shadow side lost 1-0 to Hearts ahead of the disastrous Champions League exit against AEK Athens.
Against Motherwell in November, Olivier Ntcham turned out on the left wing with two points dropped, the following month away to Hibs Emilio Izaguirre was played as a left wing-back with Scott Sinclair on the other side of the park.
With hindsight the fault lines between the manager and the Chief Executive were already beyond repair with the events at the end of February the culmination of the breakdown.
Neil Lennon’s relationship with Peter Lawwell is far healthier but every manager is always on the look out for one more signing.
This season the Celtic squad has coped with every eventuality but the prospect of an injury to Odsonne Edouard is one that can’t be skirted around.
Lennon has three very capable goalkeepers, six more than decent full-backs, plenty of wingers and a midfield that struggles to find places for Olivier Ntcham and Tom Rogic.
If the Celtic boss had the same alternatives in attack the prospects for the season would be much more certain.
In the Daily Record Sutton writes:
The fact Leigh Griffiths was only on the bench (against Rennes) was another message – to him as well as the Celtic board. Griffiths still has work to do to get back to full fitness – while Peter Lawwell now knows Lennon needs to be allowed to bring in another front man in January. Forget about the Green Brigade and pyros – that is the real burning issue for Celtic right now.
Celtic’s record in the last few January transfer windows has been fairly disastrous which gives Nicky Hammond the chance to make an obvious impact.
Marian Shved and Vakoun Bayo have still to make any impact while Oli Burke and Timo Weah made a quick impact before dropping out of contention.
In January 2018 Marvin Compper, Jack Hendry and Charly Musonda all proved to be costly mistakes although Scott Bain proved to be an inspired signing.