Celtic have undoubtedly strengthened in the January transfer window, with five incomings in O’Riley, Guchi, Hatate, Maeda and young Johnny Kenny.
We have had no major outgoing and anyone who leaves to go elsewhere on the final day of the window tomorrow will be those players surplus to requirements, such as Barkas, Soro and Ajeti, and the youngsters who will be going out on loan to get game time, such as Montgomery and maybe a couple others.
Ange already said a couple days ago that he ‘wouldn’t expect anyone else’ to be coming in, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
A lot can change in the last day or two in the transfer window. players suddenly become available for loan or a permanent transfer if clubs haven’t been able to get the price they wanted for a player and feel they need to sell last minute to get some money in.
Another factor is Ange said this before the Dundee Utd game. He may have seen something in the game to make him change his mind and make him decide that he does in fact need to strengthen in a certain position. Who knows?
Many didn’t feel we needed another midfielder when we were going after McGree and then bought O’Riley in, but it’s proven due to injuries, international call-ups and the fact O’Riley is a top player, that it was absolutely the right decision to bring him in.
We now have a very strong squad, albeit still light currently due to injuries and international call-ups, but Maeda and Rogic will be back soon so we probably don’t need any more attackers or midfielders, unless McGregor is going to be out for a number of months as well as Guchi, then Ange might feel he needs one more in there.
Probably left back is our only real area that could do with strengthening. But it would have to be a player who is better than both Taylor and Scales, and that may be hard to get in the last day of the window, and maybe Ange feels he doesn’t need to strengthen in that area.
Whatever happens tomorrow, and I don’t for a second think we will sell any of our top players, so I’m not worried about that in the slightest, but if we don’t bring anyone else in, I am still extremely happy with the business we have done in the window. And it’s not often as a Celtic supporter I’ve been able to say that!
So a lot of credit has to go to Michael Nicholson and Ange Postecoglou.
You are wrongly assuming that Soro is surplus to requirements.
This fellow is an extremely good player and worth his place in the squad.
All this crap coming from news papers gerrard 16th in the world . That makes our manager no 2 just behind jock Stein. The rubbish their supporters say they are better than Celtic aload of crap we have won European cup and we have been in4finals no wonder the sewage department are trying to hide the shite they talk