Why did Lawwell ignore the plea of Callum McGregor?

It wasn’t just Brendan Rodgers that was pleading with the Celtic board to invest in quality during the January transfer window.

From the Champions League defeat to Lazio in November quality was the regular message coming from the Celtic boss as he prepared for the chance to put right the mistakes made during the January transfer window.

Six months into his return Luis Palma was the only summer signing getting regular playing time as Celtic slumped to back-to-back defeats from Kilmarnock and Hearts that threw open the title race.

The home defeat from Hearts was especially painful. Seven weeks earlier they had won 4-1 at Tynecastle, at home they were 2-0 down midway through the first half and barely posed a threat as Steven Naismith’s side ran out comfortable winners.

There was no siege on the Hearts goal, the Green Brigade was absent but the Celtic fans found their voices as they chanted about Peter and Mark Lawwell, none of whom were at the match with the Chairman on holiday in Portugal.

Speaking after that match captain McGregor told the Daily Record:

We’ve got a transfer window that can help the group and I’m almost certain that needs to be a big window to help us. We need players to help the squad. I’m not talking specifics, I’m talking quality coming through the door. That can be in any position, it’s the manager and those guys job to do that.

But like I said, I think we need bodies and we need quality to come in and help us. Every season when we look at it, we want to be better. We come back in off wining a treble, how do we get better?

You have to freshen up the place. You lose five or six big players from last season, so you then have to go and replace that if you want to keep on being successful.

On the 16th of January Celtic announced the signing of Nicolas Kuhn from Rapid Vienna, with an hour left in the transfer window they signed Adam Idah on loan from Norwich City with no option to buy.

While both players could be decent additions even their agents would struggle to describe them as quality.

From the summer signings brought in by Mark Lawwell two have been sent out on loan, Marco Tilio and Kwon Hyeok-kyu, without starting a match. Gus Lagerbielke would have been a Lecce player at the weekend if it hadn’t been for an injury to Cameron Carter-Vickers.

With no January reinforcements and injuries to Carter-Vickers, Greg Taylor and Reo Hatate hitting the squad even more is expected from McGregor and Matt O’Riley to maintain a title challenge.