There is no doubt in any Celtic fan’s mind that new manager Ange Postecoglou has a massive rebuilding job on his hands, even with his current squad of players.
That current squad is rumoured to be dwindling down even further with the likes of Edouard and Ajer to be added to the departures lounge.
That really does leave Celtic without the spine of a team. The goalkeeper situation doesn’t need any great explanation, Fraser Forster proved the season before last what a solid keeper does for a team, they get you a few wins you probably don’t deserve. They also inspire confidence in the back four.
Speaking of a back four, Celtic’s backline causes the most concern. They are short of at least two wings backs. Ajer was probably one of only a very small group of Celtic players that looked like they had something to offer, he would be ideal to build a defence around but it looks like he is off. Jullien will do well when he is paired with a stronger partner in defence but he is missing certain attributes to be that player.
That leaves the new manager needing at least two new centre backs but one of them needs to be a towering no-nonsense old school type football player, a dying breed these days unless you have a mountain of cash or a brilliant scouting system. We would all love to see Welsh crack the first team and he deserves huge credit for stepping in for those last few months and not looking phased at all but he is still learning his trade.
The midfield probably has the bones of something with the likes of McGregor, Turnbull, Forrest and Christie still at the club, possibly even Soro. But one of these players needs to become a Scott Brown-style midfielder pretty quickly. Celtic do desperately need new wingers.
The Celtic forward line is a real head-scratcher, not because of a lack of talent but the lack of certainty around players futures. Not one Celtic fan would have not been happy going into the start of last season with Edouard, Griffiths, Klimala and Ajeti to choose from.
The reality was Neil Lennon didn’t know his best forward options week on week right up until the time he parted ways. The strikers constantly got rotated and we never got a good long look at any of them to pass judgement apart from maybe Edouard who showed up for one game and took the next one-off.
Like we said at the start with the squad as it stands a spine is missing from the team and any trophy-winning team needs that strong core of players to build on. The board have done very little to calm fan anxiety in the transfer market but perhaps foolishly some part of us all think they’ll surprise us at some point.
Needs a spine fast!
Did Rodgers not leave one lying around when he left?
Football still is a fairly simple game irrespective of your finances.You get the best goalkeeper you can afford,the 2 best centre halves, the best midfielder and striker.In other words the best spine you can get,the rest takes care of itself.Martin’s only failure in this regard was never finding a quality keeper otherwise we would have a couple more trophies to present.