Perhaps one of the most exciting periods of the year for football fans has finally arrived: the summer transfer window. It officially opened this morning, with clubs across Europe preparing to do business.
At Celtic, as ever, it is expected to be a busy few months. Brendan Rodgers has a fattened squad which needs trimming, but there are also key gaps in his team that need to be strengthened with additions of a high-calibre.
Last summer, the club made the mistake of bringing in quantity over quality. Nine players were signed, but arguably only two – Paulo Bernardo and Luis Palma – became consistent contributors throughout the campaign.
The errors of the previous recruitment team are still evident, and they have to be patched up this summer.
Rodgers needs to get rid of sub-par players who he doesn’t deem good enough, while also addressing some key positions in his team. Goalkeeper, centre-back, left-back, midfield, and attack are all areas that need looking at over the coming weeks.
Building on a double-winning squad and moulding it into one which can maintain domestic dominance but also compete in the newly formatted Champions League has to be a priority.
Securing the long-term futures of Bernardo and the influential January loan addition of Adam Idah could be critical but if neither is signed permanently, other targets who can make similar impacts must be identified.
The next few months will be key yet telling at Celtic. With vast funds in the bank and an elite manager who needs to be backed, there is no excuse for the club to push on this summer and reinstate their status as Scotland’s dominant force while also making a mark on the continent.
The planning for the squad building will be key for ourselves this season, and give ourselves a better indication of what our CL ambitions actually are?
Never going to form a 25man quality CL squad with the budget we have to operate within?
However that doesn’t excuse forming a squad where each player knows their roles within the squad upon actually playing than just making up squad numbers?
How the squad will be constructed will become clearer over the next few weeks, but guessing it will consist of 2 keepers, 9 defenders, 7 midfield players and 7 attacking options, within a 433 with versatility within it, imo?
Still have to fit in our 8 homegrown quota as a requirement also?
So still a fair bit of scrambling around to get in the requirements of Rodgers and his planning for the season ahead?
Already way to many who don’t feature within the planning process with no places available for them, yet sitting on contracts that will need to matched or bettered to move them on easier and quicker also?
Still a fair bit of value within some of the player’s outside of the plans of Rodgers also, and would like to think that any money made on such players will be added to our transfer budget?
So could be in line for our biggest ever spend over the summer imo?
Yet spending money doesn’t buy success either, but this summer Rodgers should be able to identify the quality of player he’s looking for, far easier than last summer with not having the squad depth in place when Rodgers took over, and not making enough inroads into strengthening it either with the replacements?
But that happens with transition and didn’t go as smoothly as expected imo?
Yet we still find ourselves in a great position, regardless of the amount of work required over the summer.
The time factor with the euros will possibly be a hindrance to ourselves, but would like to think that some ground work has already been carried out by ourselves, especially as we don’t want to venture into the panic buy mode that has effected so many summer transfers in the past?
Should be very interesting summer to see how it all unfolds for ourselves, but will be annoying if a few faces haven’t been added before the pre season trip to the USA, and would seriously question as to why not and what are the actual ambitions within our club?
But that’s not for today and actually quite comfortable of where we find ourselves, regardless of the amount of work that has to be carried out?
But things can change very quickly within the footballing world, and sitting idle certainly won’t be acceptable from ourselves, that’s for sure?
Not the easiest market for ourselves to be trying to operate within, but the opportunities available to any potential player in that price bracket would be very hard to be matched as a career opportunity, even if the wage bracket could be a potential factor in slowing the process down somewhat for ourselves?
Yet still remain confident that it will be a very productive summer for ourselves, not to many times we have been able to make such a claim, yet has to be delivered all the same?