Day 10 of the January transfer window and Celtic are still without a new striker, leaving O’Neill with Kenny and Yamada as his only options today

The very definition of the word ‘urgency’ is ‘importance requiring swift action’, something that seems to be entirely alien to the people occupying the Celtic boardroom.

This time last year, Brendan Rodgers was surely aware of the imminent sale of Kyogo Furuhahsi.

Therefore, he was probably trying to impress upon Michael Nicholson and Chris McKay the urgency in finding a replacement for Celtic’s main striker.

You would think so, wouldn’t you?

I do not doubt that this was Brendan Rodgers’ perspective.

Now that the Irishman is gone, it is clear to everyone that it was never for the want of trying from him when it came to trying to convince the board of what he wanted.

By his own admission, he said he had to beg them for the signings he needed.

Most notably a striker.

It must take a staggering level of ignorance to continually dsimiss these kinds of requests for a whole year?

Because lets make no bones about it, we are almost a year on from the sales of Kyogo Furuhashi, and what have we done?

Instead of signing a noteworthy striker, Celtic sold another one last summer.

Nobody can tell me that Shin Yamada was an adequate replacement for either Kyogo Furuhashi or Adam Idah.

Nobody.

We know that Yamada was presented to Brendan Rodgers as a replacement for Kyogo, and he dismissed him out of hand.

That he was foisted on him last summer, tells you all need to know when it comes to the attitude of the board towards Rodgers’ pleas for a quality striker.

If Celtic weren’t desperate for striking options right now, I don’t doubt that Yamada would be following Hyato Inamura back to Japan as another failed project.

Yamada cannot buy a goal at Celtic.

The only reason he’s being retained is because we have no other options.

So, as I said, it must take staggering levels of ignorance to dismiss the pleas of one of Celtic’s most successful managers ever out of hand.

Today, in the dugout against Dundee United, we have a manager who is a Celtic legend picking the team.

Martin O’Neill is the man who set us on the path to domestic dominance in the 21st century.

He is the last manager to take Celtic to a European final.

Since he is the first number in Dermot Desmond’s phonebook, you would imagine he commands huge respect from Celtic’s principal shareholder, wouldn’t you?

Desmond would not have called him twice to rescue Celtic if this was not the case.

Therefore, you would imagine when O’Neill outlines what he wants for this to work, people should listen?

Nobody needs Martin O’Neill to tell us we need a striker.

Every man and his dog knows this.

This has been a critical position since January of last year.

It is the bare minimum requirement right now to get this title challenge back on track.

Yet we are headed into today’s game with that hole still in need of filling.

It is the tenth day of the January transfer window, and we still do not have that striker.

So, that tells me one of two things.

Either I’m delusional when it comes to the level of respect I think Martin O’Neill commands at Celtic?

Or the people tasked with delivering the players required to fill the gaps at Celtic right now are incapable of fulfilling that task?

Which would you think it is?

I’d be leaning towards the latter.

Now, I know we have all but secured the signing of Jocelin Ta Bi, and there’s no doubting we need a right sided winger, so this is a step in the right direction.

But I get the feeling that Ta Bi is a Tisdale/Nancy signing.

My guess is that Martin O’Neill assessed the move, and has given it his seal of approval.

As a result, it’s been given the go ahead.

The Kyogo rumour?

Well, it seems to me that this was nothing more than that.

Especially if Chris Davies’ comments are anything to go by.

He was pretty blunt about it when he said this:

We’ve had no discussions at the moment about anything other than Kyogo giving his best and doing his best for Birmingham City.

Pretty conclusive, wouldn’t you think.

Personally, I think Kyogo Furuhashi returning a year later to Celtic would have been pretty farcical.

So I’m glad it didn’t come to pass.

Regardless, it doesn’t change the fact that we are on day ten of the January transfer window and we still don’t have a prolific goal scorer lined up.

The more I think about this, the more I begin to think I get the picture though.

Michael Nicholson, true to form, is most likely looking for a buyer for Daizen Maeda first.

He is probably looking to bank the money from his sale before he even contemplates bringing in a striker.

And you know what?

That whole scenario, or the fact that it might be the case, would not shock me at all.

It is day five since Wilfried Nancy was sacked, and this utter incompetent is still in a job.

And by God, it shows.

Celtic’s modus operandi is never going to be anything other than stagnant with him as CEO.

He serves no purpose other than to hold this club back.

A competent CEO would have a decent striker in the door by now.

No, a competent CEO would have had a decent striker in the door last summer.

It is time for him to go.

Number of days Michael Nicholson remains Celtic CEO since Wilfried Nancy’s sacking – 5