ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS - NOVEMBER 27: Celtic head of football operations Paul Tisdale during a UEFA Europa League 2025/26 League Phase MD5 match between Feyenoord and Celtic at De Kuip, on November 27, 2025, in Rotterdam, Netherlands. (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
After the Celtic team is announced fans are increasingly looking at the missing names.
Over the course of two transfer windows Celtic have added 13 players which is way too many for a supposedly well run club.
That myth wears thinner and thinner with every passing transfer window.
The fabled Player Trading Model isn’t working as Daizen Maeda, Yang Hyun-jun and Arne Engels will testify.
Recruitment is something of a mystery. All we know is that Brendan Rodgers wasn’t a fan of whatever it was.
THE CELTIC MODEL
On the watch of Michael Nicholson Mark Lawwell and Paul Tisdale have come and gone. Unfortunately their signings will drain the wage bill for some time to come.
Whoever is appointed manager will be presented with Maik Nawrocki, Luis Palma, Odin Thiago Holm, Shin Yamada and may others. All with at least two years to run on their contracts.
Yamada and Hayato Inamura have already arrived and departed this season. Johnny Kenny signed a four year contract in July then went out on loan in January.
Martin O’Neill has around 12 trusted players to juggle with.
Currently Celtic are the worst possible example of squad management.
MICHEL ANGE BALIKWISHA
The absolute lowlight of the summer 2025 transfer window. Apparently scouted for 18-24 months before being signed on the back of the Champions League KO for Kairat Almaty.
His debut at Ibrox was quiet- it has been downhill ever since.
For £5m Celtic have had one assist. Balikwisha provided the cross for Daizen Maeda’s stoppage time winner against Motherwell in October.
KELECHI IHEANACHO
Signed as a free agent after the summer Transfer Window had closed fitness was always going to be an issue.
Twice he has suffered hamstring injuries during matches, his exit during the League Cup Final was telling.
Since the return of O’Neill II the former Leicester striker has made three substitute appearances. After failing to make yesterday’s squad his future prospects look bleak.
PAULO BERNANRDO
This season has turned into a disaster for the former captain of the Portugal u-21 side.
Since the signing of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain he has struggled to even make the matchday squad.
Out of the blue he started in midweek against Stuttgart. Bernardo was substituted after 62 minutes and was left out entirely against Hibs.
JOEL MVUKA
The January Balikwisha.
There were red flags aplenty around this transfer. A medical issue provided an escape from a permanent transfer. A four year deal had been suggested.
Mvuka played the first half of the Scottish Cup tie against Dundee and hasn’t been seen since. No one could guess when he’ll next appear.
JUNIOR ADAMU
One very telling impact, equalising in stoppage time against Dundee in the Scottish Cup. An impressive, instinctive striker’s goal.
He followed that with 30 minutes against Livingston then got hooked after 45 minutes away to Kilmarnock. An unused substitute in the last two matches.
Can Celtic Still Win the SPFL title?
YES- Keep the faith
NO- Not a chance
Celtic currently have vacancies for manager, Chairman and Head of Football Operations.
The CEO has given two in-house interviews in four and a half years in the job.
With every passing week the summer rebuild gets bigger and bigger- with no sign of anyone prepared to tackle the multiple issues.
Said this for a while have we any money.
Doesn’t look like it to me or are we on a kamikaze mission.
IF the majority of the Board is still here come the summer,
they won’t have the motivation – or ability – to implement a squad rebuild.
Most of today’s squad will still be at the club come July.
IF there is a significant change in the Board personnel – and a change in attitude –
the club will still need time to get up to speed with internal changes and improving recruitment processes:
never mind securing a quality manager ASAP.
So, even with the right intentions, most of today’s squad will still be at the club come July…?
This is not what AWOL means.
Regardless, from a player trading model, Engles was wanted and a bid of £25M was declined by the club – had we been replete with other wuality midfields, we might well have sold him for significant profit.
Maeda has been an excellent signing, whether he gets sold or not.
Yang has started to become one of the more regular picks.
The loans and Balikwisha are all last-minute exercises in failing to plan==planning to fail – these are not AWOL issues either.
Editor: Club is a shambles as highlighted by the hologram of a CEO- call it anything you like Mikey is to blame #penaltytoRangers
The head of scouting and his team need to be stripped down and restaffed as a matter of urgency ! Which genius decided that Balikwisha was a £ 5 million sovs player of Celtic standard and recommended him to the board for purchase ? The guy isn’t worth 5 million of the old Italian Lira ! ( Approximately £237. 46 pence) In today’s money ! No doubt some serious bonuses were handed out to the scouting staff for such sterling work of recruitment ?
Here’s another absentee – how many games since Donovan kicked a ball?
No appearance in the last 4 games, 1 sub appearance (103 mins) in last 6 games, no start since Utrecht game when Araujo was ineligible, 60 min sub against Dundee U on 10/1/26 his only league appearance since O’Neill returned this year. 5 sub appearances only in Nancy’s 7 games, despite starting the narrow 1-0 victory in O’Neill’s last game on 3/12/25.
No wonder O’Dea was laying into the Garden ‘Pathway’ last week. No stealing transfer window minutes from our expensive foreign duds, son. It’s looks as if Liewwell really never left the club. Meanwhile McArdle has scored in his last 4 Celtic B appearances: https://clydebankfc.co.uk/matchdetails.php?id=4948
“As for yesterday’s game, we were completely outplayed from start to finish by a technically superior side who used the width and space on the pitch to great effect.
The killer third goal finally came after 78 minutes. Again, in an all-too-familiar scenario, Celtic were passing the ball around the Clydebank area just waiting to identify the correct pass, and it came from Isiguzo, who played in McArdle on the right-hand side. His finish was top drawer as he dinked the ball past the advancing Stott.”
It’s not just the board that need removed at Celtic.
Defender, midfielder and forward playing somewhere else when they should’ve been recalled as all hands on deck now.
Surely there must be better Scottish players than these foreign duds listed above !
Probably.