Beggars belief- Chris Sutton calls out Celtic’s Recruitment Failure

Chris Sutton has called out Celtic’s recruitment team after news emerged that Greg Taylor will miss a couple of matches after suffering a calf injury at home to Ross County.

Despite having a squad of more than 30 first team players Brendan Rodgers has been caught short in a position that is generally felt to be quite straightforward to find cover in.

Taylor has started all 30 matches that Celtic have played, despite the demanding schedule through December Alexandro Bernabei was kept at arms length with the exception of a late substitute appearance in the defeat from Hearts.

Over the next fortnight Celtic have difficult away ties at Aberdeen, Hibs and St Mirren to negotiate with Rodgers having to dig deep or integrate a new signing into the way that he likes his side to play.

Assessing the lack of transfer activity in the Daily Record, Sutton explains:

Everyone thinks Celtic will just roll over Ross County today. They should, but that’s not the point. The point is this is they have left themselves light. Alexandro Bernabei hasn’t been trusted for a while and this was the one position that urgently needed to be sorted out. The fact it’s not yet been done by now beggars belief.

Is it on Rodgers? Is it on Mark Lawwell and his team? Is it on the board? For me, it’s on the recruitment side and the facts are this market seems to be more complicated for Celtic than it ought to be.

Rodgers has spoken about quality and not adding to the squad for the sake of it. That’s fine if you are talking about improvement. But he said himself last week Celtic had to be mindful of a loading issue regarding Taylor and it was about support and back-up.

So are you telling me there isn’t a single left-back better than Bernabei out there and available within the confines of the Celtic model? Come off it. Taylor doesn’t cut it defensively in the Champions League and you should always be trying to upgrade every position for that but there’s no excuse for being short domestically.

As for the quality, well that puzzles me. Rodgers said prior to the window opening he wanted it but he’s got just one in the door by January 27. What’s been happening for the past six months? Where are signs of the behind-the-scenes work?

We all understand the model and Celtic were moving in the right Champions League direction last season but they aren’t now and are also now causing themselves unnecessary issues at domestic level. That’s worthy of fans’ concern. Why are the club not on the right side of the signings? What’s changed on that front since Ange Postecoglou left?

Rodgers will be asked about transfer activities after today’s match, after that it is unlikely that he’ll be in the media before the window closes at midnight on Thursday.

Throughout December Rodgers repeatedly emphasised the need to bring in quality signings during the January window, so far only Nicolas Kuhn has been added to his squad.