As Brighton close in on O’Riley, Celtic has 25 days to give the manager what he needs. Inevitably, it will be too little, too late

For those of you out there continuing to believe that the Celtic board will magically pull a rabbit out of a hat to supply Brendan Rodgers with all the players he needs between now and the end of August, I’d say think again.

A typical example of why this won’t happen is the signing of Paulo Bernardo.

That took over 50 days to complete.

Now, you’ve got to ask yourself, how can the signing of a player, who had a loan to buy option, take that long?

I’ll tell you how, penny pinching.

Trying to browbeat a club into accepting less than the valuation they’ve put on their player.

In the case of Paulo Bernardo, it seems to have worked.

Conversely, in the case of Adam Idah, it clearly hasn’t, and all the browbeating in the world will not get Norwich to shift on their valuation of their player.

In fact, the Celtic board’s tactics have clearly succeeded in doing nothing more than to piss the East Anglian club off.

So much so, that they’ve increased their valuation of Idah.

This is where grandstanding gets you.

Posturing and preening over what would be considered a pittance in the transfer windows of this day and age.

Celtic run the risk of losing the chance to sign a player who contributed hugely to our double winning season.

I wrote an article last week highlighting the value of Adam Idah to Celtic.

Without him, its unlikely we would have won the double.

That’s just a simple fact, his nine goals were instrumental in that acheivement.

For that alone, he deserves the respect of at least coming close to, or meeting his valuation.

That respect clearly isn’t forthcoming from Celtic.

In the event we do not land Adam Idah, what’s plan B?

Anyone? Anyone?

Mathias Kvistgaarden?

A name I’ve heard more times in the last year than I can count.

Why are we not even considering Bojan Miovski?

I mean, if we were, surely there would be some indication?

But there’s nothing so far to say that we have any interest.

Time is now like a noose around Celtic’s neck, its running out fast.

So much of it has been wasted already.

There are only 25 days left in this window.

If we couldn’t get any more than three players in the door in 56 days, what makes you think we’ll fill the four critical positions we need in just over three weeks?

It could soon be five that Celtic require, as Brighton and Hove Albion have upped their interest in Matt O’Riley.

It appears they are working their way towards meeting the club’s valuation of him, according to an article from Steven McGowan in the Daily Mail.

Interestingly, McGowan states that Brighton are asking Celtic how much they want for O’Riley.

Unlike Celtic, who tend to ask clubs how little they’d be willing to take for a player.

If Brighton meets Celtic’s valuation of O’Riley, then we all know what the inevitable outcome to that will be, don’t we?

Money banked.

Replacement already in situ in Paulo Bernardo.

Immediate insertion of Bernardo into O’Riley’s position, and move on.

Marvellous!

And won’t that bank balance look even more spiffy at around £130 million?

Looking at that bank balance is kind of like owning a brand new Ferrari, but without an engine.

It looks great, but it serves no practical purpose, other than to look great.

Look, I wouldn’t have an issue with the sale of Matt O’Riley, if I knew for sure the money from his sale would be adequately reinvested in the squad.

But we all know that’s not going to happen, because it never has in the past.

I cannot countenance the fact that the board might be holding out until O’Riley sells to spend money on the players required to fill the gaps in our squad.

Simply because they will grandstand on this until they get what they want for him.

And based on the pace our board operates at, that could mean another two weeks wasted.

I’ll put it this way, if they know they’re going to sell O’Riley, and they already have £100 million sitting in the coffers, then what’s the issue?

What in God’s name is stopping us from doing the business required to fill the gaps in our squad?

And for those people who will comment on this article and say, “Chill out, there’s still 25 days left in the window, we’ll get the players we need.”

My response to you is this, WAKE THE HELL UP!!

Are you paying any attention to what’s been going on in this window to date?

Or more to the point, have you been paying any attention to what’s NOT been going on in this window?!

You know?

The actual active pursuit of the players the manager stated he needed last January?

There was a deep intake of breath any time Kyogo hit the deck during Sunday’s opener against Kilmarnock.

Its criminal that we’re even in that position with the amount of money we have available to us.

What happens if Greg Taylor is the subject of a bone crunching tackle in the coming weeks?

We recall Alexandro Bernabei from his loan at Internacional?

Yes, we may have played exceptionally on Sunday against Kilmarnock, but we are only exceptional until we get a bad run of injuries.

And that will happen, just like it did last season.

Remember when Ange Postecoglou had so many injuries that he had to play Joey Dawson up front?

Well, there’s something I remember more distinctly at that time.

That was the fact we had the players he required to strengthen his squad lined up to join the club the day the January transfer window opened.

57 days into the current transfer window, and Brendan Rodgers is still awaiting the reinforcements he stated he required last Janaury.

See anything wrong with this picture?

And for those of you saying players don’t want to come to Celtic, or the transfer window is complex and these things take time, give me a break.

For two transfer windows during Ange Postecoglou’s time here, it was categorically proven that this is not the case.

That it never needs to be the case.

That was, of course, until Lawwell and Lawwell independent traders stepped in.

Then it all reverted back to wheelin’ and dealin’, and a bit of this, and a bit of that.

And very little of anything else in between.

The simple fact of it is this, time is running out fast in this window.

A huge amount of time has been wasted already.

The first warning I gave weeks ago has come to pass.

I was savaged in my comments section when I stated we would commence this domestic season weaker than we finished it last season.

Well, for those of you who told me I was full of shit, who’s full of shit now?

Me or the board?

My opinion was that we would not get the business required done to make us stronger starting this season.

My opinion was correct.

So I’m going to give you another opinion.

We will sign at least two players on loan as the window winds down.

They will fill two of the positions required by the manager to be filled.

We might sign two more players on a permanent basis, but don’t expect to be blown away by these signings.

Kaspar Schmeichel was our marquee signing for this window.

Correction, Kaspar Schmeichel was Brendan Rodgers’ marquee signing.

After all, he made that happen, not our board.

Taking into consideration our bank balance, making loan signings is patently ridiculous, but rest assured, it will happen.

It will all be too little, too late at the end of this window to have any real impact.

Especially in the Champions League, where we will be expected to make do with the current exciting brand of football we’re seeing.

Short-termism will be the order of the day.

No strategic or long-term thinking will be in play.

That, of course, is strictly verboten at Celtic Park.

I think I remember a forward thinking guy coming to Celtic a couple of seasons ago, and losing his job for being….eh, forward thinking.

Was that all just a dream?

It seems that way now.

Only the long-term retention and growth of the bank balance at Celtic matters.

It seems to be that bank balance that blinds our board from everything else that matters at the club.

Until that outlook changes, then sadly, nothing else will.

Sad, but true.

If you can disprove that, then the floor is yours.

Be my guest….