Ange Postecoglou is continuing to stay one step ahead as he has revealed that Celtic are already preparing for the January transfer window.
Unlike recent times, Celtic were quick off the mark during the January window bringing in four new faces to add to the squad.
There’s absolutely no doubt that without the additions made to the team, Celtic would not have won the title in such a fashion that they did.
New Year’s bells hadn’t chimed and Jackie Bird never appeared on your television before Celtic announced the arrivals of Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate and Yosuke Ideguchi.
Once more, the Hoops remained active and when a deal for Australian Riley McGree broke down Celtic swiftly turned to Matt O’Riley who has been a revelation at Celtic.
Celtic are likely to have a robust contingent of players jetting off to Qatar in the World Cup which will no doubt attract interest in some of Postecoglou’s top players.
“We showed last year that we always want to stay ahead of the game. Last January, without certainty or being able to predict the future, we thought about certain positions and what was needed. We’re doing the same again this year. We have already started planning and have identified the targets that we need,” said Ange Postecoglou speaking in the Daily Record.
“We will look to bring in players in January that hopefully then insulates us in case any of our players are taken off our hands. It’s part of our planning and we’re well underway in ensuring we are ready for that. Mark knows how I look at things and we’re planning for the next two, three, four windows – and trying to project what gaps we potentially might have. We look at the age demographic of our list and we have a lot in the younger bracket at the moment.
“We know that in the next few years that will progress and some of our players will move on. So we’ve got to make sure that we have players in the age group underneath who we can bring in and develop. You don’t just look at what the immediate concerns are, you look at medium term and long term issues as well. That’s just as important.”
These excerpts are great to hear from Postecoglou as Celtic in recent seasons appeared to have little strategy or contingency plan in place as to how the club progressed.
It’s Postecoglou’s ambition to make Celtic a Champions League club that consistently performs at that level meaning that long-term planning is crucial to achieving that goal
Recruitment is the main reason as to why the club have such healthy annual results with it being imperative that the squad as a whole continues to develop even if players do leave in the next few years.
Mark Lawwell will play a hugely important role in years to come and it’s great that Celtic have someone of his expertise leading the way on transfers alongside the manager.
Recruitment during the Postecoglou reign has been spot on and long may it continue.
