Chris Sutton has questioned how Celtic managed to reach the end of the transfer window without signing the type of midfielder Martin O’Neill had clearly been looking for.
The failed move for Gvidas Gineitis has become one of the more puzzling parts of Celtic’s summer business. They spent a considerable chunk of the final week trying to find a deal with Torino, only for the Lithuanian international to remain in Italy when the window shut.
There had been optimism earlier in the week that Celtic could get it done. CeltsAreHere exclusively revealed on the eve of deadline day, however, that talks had broken down and the chances of Gineitis coming to Glasgow had taken a significant hit.
Nothing changed sufficiently after that to revive the move.
That has left Sutton wondering why Celtic allowed the pursuit to run for as long as it did without either reaching Torino’s asking price or turning their attention elsewhere.
“The failure to land Gvidas Gineitis meant O’Neill didn’t get the defensive midfielder he wanted,” Sutton wrote in his latest Daily Record column. “The whole pursuit of the Lithuanian was strange. If they really wanted him, they should have sorted it out weeks ago.”
He added: “If it was looking like a non-starter then they should have moved to other targets.”
It is a fair question after a window in which Celtic eventually signed plenty of players, but still appear to have missed out on one of the specific profiles O’Neill wanted.
Oliver Sørensen came in from Parma and Joel van den Berg arrived from PSV, giving the manager another couple of midfield options after Reo Hatate and Arne Engels departed. Neither, though, looks like a direct answer to what Celtic were trying to get from Gineitis.
Sørensen is more naturally a box-to-box player, while Van den Berg is a 19-year-old who Celtic will hope can make the step into senior football. The Gineitis pursuit appeared to be about adding a bit more size, strength and defensive presence to a midfield that has been criticised for lacking those qualities, particularly when Celtic step up into European competition.
There is also the wider issue of when Celtic chose to push some of this business. By the time the window entered its frantic final stages, O’Neill’s side were already out of the Champions League following the extraordinary collapse against LASK.
Sutton believes Celtic changed tack after that defeat and questioned why some of the more ambitious moves were not being pushed earlier, when strengthening the squad could actually have helped them in the qualifier.
Celtic cannot go back and change that now, and the players who did arrive deserve the opportunity to show what they can do. There is enough quality among the summer signings to suggest the squad has improved in several areas.
But Gineitis feels like unfinished business.
Celtic identified the player, spent days trying to find an agreement and reached the final stretch of the window still working on it. O’Neill ultimately did not get the midfielder he wanted, and Sutton’s question is one a lot of supporters will probably share.
If Gineitis was considered important enough to chase until the eve of deadline day, why was Celtic’s alternative plan not ready when that deal fell apart?
