Stephen McGowan has questioned whether Celtic’s coaching staff are involved in recruitment.
Last night the Daily Mail reporter, who has a strong track record on Celtic stories took to Twitter with some not so cryptic messages.
Going into the January 2020 transfer window Neil Lennon was widely quoted as looking to add experience to his squad.
On January 9 the Herald reported the Celtic manager saying:
I think there is room for freshening things up and bringing in a little bit of quality and experience. That is what we are endeavouring to do in the background. We have been linked with a few players, but there is nothing confirmed yet.
Yes, just a bit of experience. Looking at the team, we have 19-year-olds, a couple of 20-year-olds, 21-year-olds. Allied to that, we have the (Scott) Brownys and (Callum) McGregors of this world. Going forward for the second half we would like a bit of experience in there to augment what we already have.
That is what we are looking for, that is the objective. But if I can’t get what I want then we have got a good core of a squad. We will definitely bring in one or two players. If I can get our No.1 targets, great. If we can’t then we will just freshen things up.
When the transfer window closed at the end of the month Lennon had two more 21-year-old players in his squad. Despite switching to a 3-5-2 formation neither arrival was a defender leaving the injury prone duo of Jozo Simunovic and Hatem Abd Elhamed to compete for a place in defence along with Nir Bitton.
Patryk Klimala and Ismaila Soro watched Celtic lose to Copenhagen from the stand alongside Marian Shved, Vakoun Bayo at least made the substitute bench.
Nick Hammond was appointed as Head of Football Operations in October after he had been brought to the club in July to assist with transfer activities.
The former West Brom and Reading recruiter hasn’t given any interviews to explain his role beyond his delight at getting the job in a club statement when he was appointed.
With 16 years of experience at the club many fans believe that every transfer decision is ultimately made by Peter Lawwell. When Bitton was asked about a contract extension earlier this season he said he was waiting on word from Peter. When Boli Bolingoli spoke to Celtic TV in July he admitted that he hadn’t spoke to Lennon ahead of signing.
A generation ago a signing was barely made without being watched live by the team manager, these days it seems that the Celtic manager simply gets informed of who is coming and going with virtually no input to decision making- other than leaving projects in the stand on matchday.
Guessing Celtic didn’t spend nearjy £6m on Klimala and Soro in January to win the reserve league cup.
— stephen.mcgowan (@mcgowan_stephen) February 28, 2020
I agree. The vast majority of projects like these never make it. We signed 2 not ready for the 1st team (if ever) when we had Jozo – bad knee-& Biton as back up centre backs. Defender was a priority in Jan and we ignored it. Time for Lawwell to do his job and it’s not recruitment
— Schrodinger’s Cat (@trebletrebleye1) February 28, 2020
Free country.
— stephen.mcgowan (@mcgowan_stephen) February 28, 2020
Sure that is the plan, yeah.
— stephen.mcgowan (@mcgowan_stephen) February 28, 2020
6m on project is nuts, they wouldn’t spend 3m on McGinn.
— Ryan Cruickshanks (@Ryan4of) February 28, 2020
It’s not a point about the coaching staff.
— stephen.mcgowan (@mcgowan_stephen) February 28, 2020
Whoever sanctioned their signings needs shot. 7 million spaffed.
— Eileen Martin (@Eileen25may) February 28, 2020
