McInnes is starting to feel the pressure, as Celtic ramp up the ‘quality over quantity’ recruitment

Yesterday evening, I wrote an article about Celtic’s ‘quality over quantity’ approach to this transfer window.

Even though there has just been three new recruits through the door, with a fourth imminent, there is no doubting that quality has been the order of the day.

Whatever you want to say about Martin O’Neill and his dithery dothery press conferences, he has been true to his word when it comes to what he said he wanted to do.

Haissem Hassam was announced last night, with Mika Baur possibly looking imminent today.

As discussed between Bhoycie and I last night on the Bhoycie Bus, Mika Baur looks to be the like for like replacement for Reo Hatate.

Gvidas Ginitis is most likely the replacement lined up for Arne Engels.

But I think we can take it now that Engels will be with us until after our CL qualifier against Lask.

Suddenly, there seems to be joined up, logical thinking at Celtic Park.

But this hasn’t happened because Michael Nicholson has suddenly become good at his job.

No, it has happened because Martin O’Neill has told this board not to f*** him around.

As Bhoycie said on the Bus last night, Martin probably has a little ‘truth bomb’ that could expose their true colours, and they certainly don’t want to risk that.

It is interesting that recruitment has ramped up in the aftermath of Martin’s short hospital visit.

There were enough theories doing the rounds about that last week.

But it is a bit coincidental that we could see as many recruits in one week in the door at Celtic Park, as there has been for the entire summer.

Don’t you think?

Is it joined up thinking or the threat of exposure?

I’ll let you be the judge of that.

However, I will give credit where it is due on the signings thus far.

Especially the latest one.

A deal for Haissem Hassan looked dead in the water last week.

Marseille had entered the race for his signature, and it seemed as if the Stade Velodrome was Hassan’s preferred destination.

Somehow, Michael Nicholson convinced him that Celtic was a better option.

For that, he gets full recognition from me.

Like I said yesterday, when good things happen at Celtic, I will happily call it out.

And I will continue to do so because I much rather talking about good news rather than talking negatively about the club all the time.

Who knows, maybe Michael Nicholson’s negotiation skills will improve drastically after this transfer window?

Maybe he will get over his agent-o-phobia too?

Here’s an interesting and non-related point to what I’ve been discussing throughout this article.

Say Haissem Hassan’s first name backwards.

Is he?

Will he be for Celtic?

Meanwhile, over Ibrox Ibrox way, tonight is a do or die night for Staunch Del.

He really needs their scattergun approach to the summer window to start paying dividends for him in what is a must win Europa League game for them.

Otherwise, it’s off to the Europa Conference League in for the first time in their history.

It seems as if the Ibrox managerial curse has struck ‘one of their own’ in the most vengeful way possible.

As I discussed in an article earlier in the week, McInnes could be headed for the worst start to an Ibrox managerial career in the short history of the 14 year old club.

Celtic’s recruitment cannot be a source of contentment for him either.

Like it or not, we are flexing our financial muscle.

And that just adds more pressure to the kind of pressure McInnes is under already at Ibrox.

In an interview yesterday in the Record this morning, he trotted out all the old party lines and cliches:

It’s my job to keep the spirits up.

It is the players’ job to keep themselves going. We are going to be playing a European game in front of 50,000. If you can’t get up for that kind of event…

We understand it is not always going to be sunshine and rainbows. I got the job for a reason. There are a lot of changes to be made and a lot of turnaround in the squad.

Of course, it is not going to be as straightforward as I hoped.

I would enjoy the job a lot better than I am at the minute, but you can only enjoy it when you are winning. We have got stuff to do and work to do. It is part of being a manager.

I have got a lot of experience. There are ups and downs, and it is coping with difficult times that defines you.

It is up to us now to knuckle down, stay calm and work really swiftly in recruitment. Hopefully, we can be really effective in what we need and what is there to help us.

Andrew [Cavenagh] has already come out and said that we are going to get a significant number of players in.

Hopefully, we can get those in. We want to keep the optimism and the support. It is the start of the campaign and there is still so much to play for.

You will note that the majority of his talk is around recruitment.

A club that already has 8 players in the door, and he says that Andrew Cavenagh says they are going to get a significant number of players in.

How many more?

Is it now a case of let’s throw some shit at a wall and see how much of it sticks?

If any club can testify to the pitfalls of signing loads of players in one transfer window, it’s Celtic.

Remember the summer of 2023?

Has any of that shit stuck?

Not one single player acquired in that transfer window is still at Celtic.

It will be interesting to see how many of the players signed at Ibrox this summer will still be there 3 years from now.

Is the Ibrox scattergun approach being driven by our smarter recruitment this summer?

We’ll never know for sure.

But you can tell that the pressure is getting to Del, while it seems to be easing on our oft times floundering CEO.

That’s the contrast, right there.

Tonight the pressure on Derek McInnes could ramp up tenfold.

Next week, we could have a foot in the door of the Champions League.

Levels and all that…

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