Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Kilmarnock v Celtic - Rugby Park, Kilmarnock, Scotland, Britain - April 16, 2023 Celtic non-executive Chairman Peter Lawwell in the stands before the match REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
Chris Sutton is amazed at the situation Celtic have allowed themselves to be drawn into.
With three days left in the transfer window the hoops have one striker and one left back after losing Alex Valle and Kyogo Furuhashi during the transfer window.
Celtic opted to sell Kyogo, the striker flew to Rennes the day after starting against YB Bern in the Champions League, with Barcelona taking up the option to recall Alex Valle.
Facing six matches between February 2 and 18 is a huge ask that would become near impossible of Greg Taylor or Adam Idah picked up an injury.
As ever the mantra coming out of Celtic is to emerge from the transfer window stronger than they had at the start but that claim is going to be sorely tested over the next couple of days.
Fringe players such as Luis Palma, Stephen Welsh and Odin Thiago Holm have been sent out on loan with only Jota breaking the trend by arriving at Lennoxtown.
After getting into a near perfect position in Europe and domestically February looks like a gruelling month with the squad thin on numbers and quality.
Sharing his concerns in the Daily Record, Sutton warned:
Celtic cannot see out the second half of the season with just one recognisable striker and just a left back who is out of contract in the summer. I know they are miles ahead, but they must not take the Premiership title for granted.
And they should not just put up the white flag in the Champions League – even if Bayern are a fairly daunting task. Signing?Jota for around £6m looks a stunning piece of business but he’ll need time to get up to speed again after 18 months of struggling for game time. And there are other parts of the squad that need addressing. None more so than up front.
Sutton adds:
I am still struggling to get my head around the decision to sell Kyogo at this stage. In fact, I can’t remember many occasions when Celtic – or Rangers for that matter – have sold such a key part of their side in the middle of a season. You can go back to the likes of Josip Juranovic, but they already had Alistair Johnston in the door when he departed.
Kyogo was allowed to go before any replacement was secured – and now the board and recruitment team simply have to deliver. There’s been a lot of noise around Mathias Kvistgaarden and it does look like he’d fit the bill. But it’s a bit like Celtic and Kyogo, the other club has to be willing to sell. Kvistgaarden won’t come cheap either. It will be interesting to see how Celtic play it.
By 11pm on Monday Sutton and the Celtic support will have some of the answers that they are looking for.
I think there’s revolution in the air!
Lawwell and Nicholson may well have taken us for granted once too often.
Regardless of the conclusuion to this window, those two have gone too far too often and it’s well past the time they should have been removed.
Just what does it take to get the supporters to unite and chase the lot of them?
I gave up my long held season ticket in protest at these two clowns in particular…
Sadly I can’t see that catching on. among the support.
Oh there’s plenty of keyboard warriors who will make noises of protest…but…
Talk is cheap.
Terence I pretty much agree with that. The problem seems, to me, that there’s a lack of unity between so many ‘representative’ bodies of the Celtic support. I don’t understand why we don’t have more unifying forces within the various ‘bodies’ and then there’s apathy. The lack of unity may well be due to little ’empires’ and ’emperors’ who love their own power above the common good. It’s sad that you’ve had to give up your clearly cherished ST to make your own statement. I see Lawwell as the centre of failure for Celtic FC due to his love of the deceased Old Firm brand and his and his master Desmond’s unwillingness to accept that ‘they’ died and the two above’s wish it hadn’t happened and they could still make many millions if only the OF were allowed to join the EPL. I’ve had discussions with a few well-known Tims but it didn’t get to an end product with the intended end product being a vehicle to unify various Celtic FC supporters’ organisations into one ‘voice’. I’m not in any position to proceed on my own so I just sit and hope. One thing I can say is that a unified support would prioritise the removal of Lawwell and his like and he’s not popular in general but gets away with things due to what I mentioned earlier: empires and apathy.
Just hope we go to Motherwell tomorrow and return with 3 ponts and prepare as best we can to give Bayern the shock of their lives in around 11 days time. The preparation from the PLC Board has been expectedly shocking. GTTF!
Great post Tic Toc…But one thing that wouldn’t be hard to do…and would start to get the message across…are BANNERS…Can you imagine the Board’s faces looking at banners telling them how angry the support is…and how unwanted they are??…It’s a start.
I’m in total agreement with you Terence but I don’t know anyone in the GB for example who could lead the way here. I’d happily contribute to the cost and I’ve made similar offers in discussions and on Celtic-minded sites to give my support to anything that promises change, permanent change, change to the type of people who are custodians of our world-famous football club. Supporters instead of parasites. But just look at the upcoming CL fixture at CP. Just 10 days away!
THERE’LL NEVER BE A BETTER OPPORTUNITY TO SHOW THE WORLD OUR CONTEMPT FOR DESMOND, LAWWELL AND CO. Anyone reading this that has ‘clout’ please consider taking this on. Done properly you’ll get all the support you need. Celtic FC is not the ‘sleeping giant’ here, it’s our supporters.
Go on, give them a wake-up call and promote the necessary action. You’ll be glad you did so and SO WILL WE!
Hail! Hail! The Glasgow Celtic, STRONGER TOGETHER!
Total football was successful not so long ago. Surely one of Celtics pool of players could adapt to a new position, For example I believe that Tony Ralston would be an excellent defensive mid field player. Its worth a try Brenden.
Meant to say…
Another transfer window…another shit show.
How many times has this happened over the years?
I’ve no doubt that something will happen over the week-end…but seriously…is this the way to operate ?
Oh and its not as if we’re skint…
How much money do we need FFS ?
So Rodgers wants Kvistgaarden but he will cost €14m, so PL decides Strelec would be better and would be €6m cheaper.
There’s no fckn way BR signs on for more than the 3 years he promised, why? Cos Lawwell thinks he knows best!!!!
How many managers do we go through before someone at the top realises it’s not the managers at fault?
While there’s still 59 hours to go before the window closes it looks like they are trying to play poker once again…
I couldn’t comment on Lord Lucan-Nicholson’s skills or otherwise at that game…
But I know ‘Daddy’ Lawwell thinks that he’s very astute at it…
When in actual fact he’s utterly fuckin useless at it !
It’s January transfer nobody wants to sell there GOOD! players
if players wants to move his agent will push it but it’s usually the final couple of days uf they do sell they need time to get a replacement Celtic left back position is not been addressed yes KT coming back but looks like summer move player could earn a £1,000,000 staying at arsenal till summer i can’t see Celtic doing business we won’t get passed bayern Munich so we are left with spl and cup for the treble I’d rather be in Celtic F.C position than any other spl club maybe as supporters we are spoilt reality must kick in
Is that a picture of two “Barrowland wide boys” at the top of the article Joe?
TicToc is correct – these two need to be removed and Terence Nova is correct.
Talk is cheap and action is needed. However, Terence, it would seem that the money we have is really for bonuses which are self-awarded. So much for “Celtic men” – what a load of crap. There is no self awarenes from either of these clowns.
Brilliant, The Bunnet. HEAR! HEAR!
I’ve just answered Terence (above). We’re all on the same side here and I’ll always have hope. One day………..
Well said sir…nail on head. Pm
Well said sir…nail on head.
To The Bunnet…you got my approval in triplicate…so it must be right…:)…lol.
Well said sir…nail on head.
KT could be a Celtic player this week: as ever, it’s just about the money.
Arsenal and KT would need financial compensation to make that happen.
But it is certainly doable.
But, PL wants to save a few quid by leaving it until the summer…?
Optics are terrible IF that is what actually transpires.
A ridiculously cash rich club very publicly putting further cash hoarding above football ambitions – yet again?
At this rate Bayern Munich will play their under 21’s in the CL tie ,such is the lack of coverage for the squad of players and transfer business . As I’ve said before , big Ange would have had his business virtually done in the first week of the window if he was still in charge .
To The Bunnet…you got my approval in triplicate…so it must be right…:)…lol.