Those inside Celtic like to push the idea that the club has a Recruitment Strategy.
The club and their messengers will highlight Moussa Dembele. Matt O’Riley, Virgil van Dijk as examples of how Player Trading works.
Happily ignoring dozens of others.
The dud strikers like Mo Bangura, Teemu Pukki, Patryk Klimala and Vakoun Bayo.
The millions wasted on wingers from Marian Shved, Marco Tilio to Michel Ange Balikwisha and Luis Palma.
Over the last five seasons Celtic have got by one two Transfer Windows each from Ange Postecoglou and Brendan Rodgers.
Postecoglou brought in Liel Abada, Karl Starfelt, Cameron Carter-Vickkers, Josip Juranovic, Giorgos Giakoumakis, Joe Hart, O’Riley and three superstars from Japan.
Rodgers signed Adam Idah, Nicolas Kuhn, Arne Engels and Auston Trusty.
That core has almost all moved on.
In its place has come some of the most insignificant players to join Celtic this century.
Paul John Dykes has dived deep into the last three transfer windows.
The results are shocking. If this strategy is continued into January there are reasons to be fearful.
? 6/9 – Minutes Heavily Skewed
Even that low total is carried by two loanees who have already left:
Tomáš ?van?ara (778′) and Benjamin Arthur (436′) make up 46.7% of the group’s entire minutes.
The other 12 signings combined played just 1,385 minutes – barely 15 full games between them.
— Paul John Dykes (@PaulJohnDykes) November 14, 2026
No-one knows with any level of accuracy transfer fees, wages and loan fees.
SO MUCH WASTAGE IN CELTIC RECRUITMENT
The bottom line is that the current Celtic squad is light on quality but bloated on mediocrity.
Martin O’Neill has presided over two transfers windows with only Mika Baur and Camilo Duran providing improvements.
Under O’Neill 16 players have been signed during 2026. Only four made the matchday squad against Kilmarnock.
The failings of the club have a compound effect.
Celtic’s problems on both wings make it near impossible for any striker to succeed. Most of Duran’s goals are from coming inside off the right wing.
Three summer signings were left out of the Europa League squad.
Again, entering a transfer window there is an urgency to move players out. Recently signed players that have no role at the club.
When it comes to transfers, at Celtic the mantra has to be that less is more.
When January gets underway it would be no surprise to find out that Landon Emenalo, Shim Mheuka and Oliver Sorenson are returned to their parent clubs.
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? 8/9 – Where Are They Now?
Out of these 14 players signed since last summer:
??6 have already left (Inamura sold; Simpson-Pusey, ?van?ara, Adamu, Arthur, Mvuka loans ended)
??2 permanent signings loaned out (Balikwisha €5.2m, Yamada €1.75m)
??2 haven’t played a single minute (Doohan, van den Berg €3.5m)— Paul John Dykes (@PaulJohnDykes) November 14, 2026
