Are Celtic about to engage in a massive reset, or a catastrophic failure?

At the moment, it’s very hard to understand what it is exactly that’s going on at Celtic.

Last night, on the Trinity Tims podcast, we had a deep discussion on the current state of the club.

The reality is that there is very little to discuss.

A vacuum of nothingness tends to cause a lot of wild speculation.

Everybody across the blogosphere and podcasting world is engaging in speculation, sometimes wild – but more often than not – pragmatic and sensible.

On our podcast last night, we discussed some very legitimate points.

But one that came up again, and again, is what is the board’s endgame here?

They are taking us on a journey this summer that either leads to a massive reset, or a catastrophic failure.

Those who still have faith in the Celtic board consistently trot out the ‘they’ve delivered 14 out of 15 titles’ line.

As if they were footballing men, who understood exactly what it takes to deliver titles, and supported the management 100% with the signings required.

As we have learned over the last decade or so, Celtic does not operate on an ‘ask and you shall receive’ basis when it comes to player recruitment.

It has always been a case of you’ll work with what you get.

Close to £70 million has been wasted on projects, duds, and loans over the last decade or so.

Nobody has been held accountable for that financial waste.

Nobody was held accountable for the financial waste of the 33 days that was the Wilfried Nancy debacle.

There are people in situ at Celtic who have lost the club millions.

Yet they are still in situ.

In any other industry, people who lose that kind of money lose their job.

It’s that simple.

People will attempt to point to the fact that the club is one of the most cash rich clubs in Britain.

It’s easy to be a cash rich club when you spend nothing, and act like you are a financially distressed club.

It’s easy when you can take advantage of a malleable support.

Especially when you know that their love and emotional connection with Celtic will always ensure they part with their hard earned cash.

Celtic fans are the driving force behind the bank balance the club so openly boasts about.

And those 14 out of 15 titles?

They were won to spite the people in the boardroom, not because the people in the boardroom supported those achievements.

Anybody who cannot see that has not been paying attention.

Or at the very least, chooses to ignore exactly what’s going on right under their noses.

Every manager at Celtic over the last decade has had one hand tied behind his back.

But we are now at the point where it would seem the current manager has both hands tied behind his back.

Whether you choose to accept it or not, the manager has not been supported in this transfer window up to this point.

Valuable time has been completely squandered over the last seven weeks, and we have one signing to show for it.

Who, it would appear, is now already injured.

You don’t waste seven weeks in the midst of what’s supposed to be a monumental squad rebuild.

None of the other clubs in the Scottish Premiership have squandered those seven weeks.

Which once again begs the question.

Are we headed for a catastrophic failure, or a complete reset?

And by a complete reset, I mean are we willing to accept the departure of our current captain, as well as several other valuable assets?

Because it’s starting to look that way.

Sarah Clapson of the Nottingham Post confirmed that Nottingham Forest had submitted their first formal offer for Arne Engels.

You would imagine, considering their final bid after two previous bids last January was £25 million (the magic number), Celtic will demand somewhere between that and £30 million.

Now that a formal offer has been made, it shouldn’t be long before the first departure from the club happens.

Under normal circumstances, a club conducting a critical rebuild would hand those funds directly to the manager.

But our club is the furthest thing from a normal club.

Do any of you think this is going to happen at Celtic?

Well, if a complete reset is happening, then that’s exactly what should happen.

As I said in an article last week, it’s likely that the absent meddling golfer has demanded that sales happen before any purchases.

Especially in light of the fact that £6 million has apparently been spent already.

This is unheard of happening at Celtic before a major outgoing sale happens.

So, we’re either going to see serious movement inward after the sale of Arne Engels, or we’ll continue on the path we have been during this summer to date.

More sales will follow, no doubt.

Maeda, Hatate, and possibly Nygren could go.

And this could finally culminate in the departure of Callum McGregor.

If the board and Martin O’Neill make no attempt to keep him at the club, then this is a decision that is already pre-ordained.

From a financial perspective – and you must always follow the money at Celtic or the relentless pursuit of it – McGregor’s departure would remove one of the top earners off the books.

Effectively a £2 million per annum saving for the club.

The captaincy is then either handed to Kieran Tierney, or Alistair Johnston, if the Canadian isn’t sold, that is.

Martin O’Neill then brings in the players he requires to play the system he wants at the club.

The reset is then complete.

That, to me, represents a logical – if not altogether undesirable – outcome.

It’s the only thing that makes sense to me right now.

The only problem with this is that time is fast ticking away.

If a reset is the plan, then it should be well under way at this point.

During Ange Postecoglou’s first window at Celtic, which we all know required a huge rebuild, he signed the following players, on the following dates:

Liel Abada – this day 5 years ago

Kyogo Furuhashi – July 16th 2021

Carl Starfelt – July 21st 2021

Joe Hart – August 31st 2021

James McCarthy – August 3rd 2021

Josip Juranovic – August 21st 2021

Liam Scales – August 27th 2021

Jota, CCV, Georgios Giakoumkis – all signed on deadline day August 31st 2021.

The sales of Odsonne Edouard, Kristoffer Ajer, and Ryan Christie funded this rebuild.

The sales of Edouard, and Christie did not happen until deadline day, whereas Ajer was sold on July 21st.

As we know, Ange was woefully underprepared for the Champions League qualifier against Mitdjyland, and we paid the price for that.

So are we to expect the same to happen this season?

Are we to expect similar timelines when it comes to getting the rebuild done?

Well, It’s looking that way, isn’t it?

The only caveat this time around is that there is much less competent board in place in comparison to then.

We also know that this was one of the best transfer windows in Celtic’s recent history.

In addition to that, this was a season where the captaincy at Celtic changed as well.

Callum McGregor took the armband from the departing Scott Brown.

Bearing that much in mind, we have to hope that Martin O’Neill is thinking that way too.

Personally, I’ve given up on CL qualification at this point.

We will be nowhere near ready for it.

Qualification will be a bonus.

This should never be the case, but unfortunately with Celtic, it is always the case.

However, once the sales of our major assets go through, the least we should expect is movement inward on the transfer front.

If this doesn’t happen, then – as I’ve outlined already – we are headed for a catastrophic failure next season.

If there is a plan, and this is a big if, we have to hope that this is it.

It’s the only logical explanation I can come up with.

I have now adjusted my mindset to losing our top assets, including Callum McGregor.

There is no point in clinging to the hope these things won’t happen.

The manager certainly gave us little reassurance that it wouldn’t.

So temper your expectations to meet what should realistically happen.

Put simply, I expect a rebuild to be done in a similar timeline to that of Ange Postecoglou’s rebuild.

That will include last minute.com deals on deadline day.

We won’t be ready for our CL qualifier.

But by September 1st we might just have enough to help us retain our title.

That’s the best we can hope for right now.

Too much time has slipped away to expect anything more.

At Celtic, it was ever thus.

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