Ange Postecoglou won’t be touting any of his Celtic players for a January transfer.
After losing to Real Madrid in the Champions League and repeated at the club AGM the hoops boss spoke about movement in his squad, the inevitability of players leaving as he attempts to identify new talent to push the club further in Europe.
It would be easier for Postecoglou to hang onto one group of players to develop them together but the modern game requires a constant level of turnover in even the most successful squads.
The team that left to the Bernabeu Stadium at the start of this month is highly unlikely to be seen in Europe again but that doesn’t mean that Celtic are hawking their players around inviting offers.
Asked after the match against Everton if four or five of his players could play in the EPL, the Glasgow Times reports the Celtic boss saying:
That’s not for me to judge. I certainly don’t want them to go at the moment.
Again, that’s part of who we want to be as a football club. I said a few weeks ago, all these things need to be designed to be stronger every year. We can’t plateau. We can’t just be a dominant team in our own backyard. We want to be more than that.
To do that all these other things are important because that’s how we bridge the gaps and have an advantage over other clubs who don’t have this access to worldwide exposure.
Last season Celtic announced three signings on December 31 with Matt O’Riley soon joining Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda in making a significant contribution to winning the SPFL title.
Postecoglou has raised the bar in terms of ambitions with the January arrivals giving an indication to the direction that recruitment is moving in.