‘Rotting’ Joel van den Berg is a cautionary tale when it comes to Celtic’s haphazard recruitment

Yesterday, the story of Joel van den Berg took a turn for the strange.

Strange because many of us would love to see what the boy is capable of, but it’s beginning to look like that might not even happen.

Rumours are doing the rounds that he could be sent out on loan in January, just months after he arrived.

Now, to be fair, the Daily Record is clear that those rumours are unconfirmed.

But the fact that they make sense tells you everything.

So why exactly did we spend £3.4 million on the Dutch youth international?

Here is what was said on the matter, as reported by the Daily Record:

“He is nowhere near getting game time in this Celtic side.”

“His future certainly isn’t looking all that great if he is sitting rotting and just not getting game time for the entire season.”

Sitting rotting.

That’s the phrase being used about a 19-year-old we paid good money for.

He has made the matchday squad twice and is yet to make his debut.

Meanwhile Mika Baur has walked into the midfield alongside Callum McGregor and Benjamin Nygren as if he’d been there for years.

So how did we end up here?

Well, there’s a story doing the rounds that van den Berg was very much a Desmond acquisition.

And that Dermot Desmond sees himself as the de facto Director of Football at Celtic, amongst other things, as we well know.

I can’t say whether that is true or not.

But whichever way you cut it, £3.4 million is a nice chunk of change.

You would like to think we’d get something in return for it other than somebody to send out on loan.

Of course, that’s if the money was ever spent with a plan in mind.

Our summer signings tell their own story, and it is not a flattering one.

Out of all of them, the ones we spent serious money on are the only ones seeing consistent first team action.

Look at the rest.

Oliver Sorensen is an empty shirt.

Shim Mheuka has yet to be given the time to show what he can really do.

Jordan Lotomba looks like he’s in the completely wrong movie.

Sam Johnstone debuted against St. Johnstone, flopped against the Ibrox side, and has not been seen since.

Landon Emanalo made his debut last weekend in the 7-1 win against Hearts.

Hardly a ringing endorsement of how the window was run, is it?

And I’ll concede one thing before somebody throws it back at me.

Glen Loovens, who watched the lad a lot at PSV, called him a very good young talent and a real box-to-box player.

He reckons the boy will be a huge success for Celtic if he’s given a bit of time.

Maybe he’s right.

Maybe van den Berg is everything Loovens says he is.

But time is the one thing a player cannot get from the bench.

Our signings before LASK were serious signings, those after LASK were an afterthought.

So what have we learned about the business done post LASK?

Something that is crystal clear.

The ones we got in before the Austrians knocked us out were targets.

The ones we got in after were panic.

You can almost picture it.

The deadline is looming, the Champions League money has gone up in smoke, and somebody needs to be seen to be doing something.

Van den Berg is proof positive of that haphazard method of closing out a transfer window.

A player bought without a clear idea of where he fits, who he replaces or when he plays.

And a manager who, quite clearly, doesn’t feel he’s ready.

Make no mistake, Martin O’Neill isn’t going to play a teenager just because the board spent £3.4 million on him.

Nor should he.

That’s not O’Neill’s fault, it’s the fault of the people who signed the lad without asking him first.

Because O’Neill is not staying beyond this season, we all know it will be more of the same in January.

Which brings me to the next window.

I’d love to tell you things will be different.

I can’t.

With O’Neill not staying beyond this season, nobody at the club is planning for a long-term squad, only a short-term fix.

I made the same point yesterday when I wrote that the board aren’t serious about recruiting managers either.

Players or managers, it’s the same story.

Even the rumours of resurrecting the Gineitis transfer smell more like another scramble than a plan.

It’s the same board.

Same absent meddling golfer.

Same last-minute approach.

And the same people telling us to trust the process.

Joel van den Berg is ultimately the poster boy for the board’s, and Dermot Desmond’s, inability to take running this football club seriously when the Champions League money goes up in smoke.

They spend the money, they lose the plot, and the support is left to watch the consequences sitting in the stand.

Sad, but true.

The big question is whether we’ll get to see what he’s capable of before he is sent out on loan.

If he’s sent out on loan.

Your guess is as good as mine…

Choose Read Celtic as a ‘Preferred Source’ on Google News for quick access to the news you value.