CHRIS SUTTON doesn’t hold back on the current mood at Celtic Park after Brendan Rodgers decided to go public with his grievance with the board’s inability to get deals done this week.
Rodgers missed out on one of his top targets John McGinn after the board messed around and Lawwell partaking in some brinkmanship which ultimately saw the player leave Hibs for Aston Villa.
While many believe John isn’t that big a loss when it comes to the football side – the manager obviously felt he would add something and tasked his board with signing a player which should have been an easy lay-up.
A Celtic fan, on the last year of his deal who wanted to come to the club, ended up signing for Villa because by the time Celtic got serious he already had the proverbial briefcase of cash opened up to him down south.
Sutton believes there are faults on both sides of the argument when it comes to recruitment and one thing the former Celtic striker pointed the finger at Rodgers for was the appointment of his own head scout Lee Congerton who seems to be out his depth in the role he was brought in to do.
Chris Wrote in his Daily Record Column: Only in January, Rodgers was patting Lawwell on the back for a great transfer window. Now he’s launched a grenade in the CEO’s direction. Scratch beneath the surface and Rodgers’ appointment of Lee Congerton has had a major effect on Celtic’s transfer policy. And not in a good way.
The new head of recruitment was lauded when he replaced John Park but his track record has been pretty abysmal. Once you get past Olivier Ntcham and perhaps Odsonne Edouard there’s Marvin Compper, Cristian Gamboa, Eboue Kouassi, Charly Musonda and Dorus de Vries. It’s not good enough.’
Agree that Lee Congerton has been poor but Sutton should really do his research. Gamboa, De Vries and Kouassi were all signed before Congerton arrived. Fact is, for every good signing Celtic make, there are five poor signings standing alongside them.
Betty de vries and musonda were 100% Rodgers signings. He raves about them from his previous jobs.
The McGinn deal was 200% the boards fault.
Common sense should prevail these matters need to be sorted before the European campaign begins by the board and manager every year this occurs and yes it has an unsettling effect on the players and staff time to put this matter to bed and concentrate on the league and coming games.
Was Congerton not at Sunderland, I think he was peddled, if he can’t get deals over the line he shouldn’t be there. We had the challengers at arms length last season. We are weaker with Roberts and Armstrong leaving. You can tell by BRs reaction this week he feels let down by the finance people. We need new blood so complacency doesn’t set in.