Charlie Nicholas fears the delay in Celtic appointing Ange Postecoglou has already cost them in the transfer market.
The Hoops have applied for special dispensation to give the Australian the job despite him not holding the relevant UEFA coaching license.
And if that is successful, Postecoglou will then have to quarantine for ten days after arriving in the country.
That means it could be another two weeks before he’s officially in the Celtic Park hot seat and plotting their assault on Rangers’ Scottish Premiership crown.
It also means he definitely won’t be on the training pitch when the majority of the Celtic squad report back for pre-season training.
With a major rebuild required at Celtic, Nicholas believes the time wasted up until now will be costly and has already obilterated Celtic’s hopes of successfully exploiting the free agent market.
He wrote in his Daily Express column: "Ange Postecoglou looks set to become Celtic manager - but how many top targets will he have missed out on by then?
"It has taken the Celtic hierarchy so long to get a new boss in place.
"We had the Eddie Howe disaster but now they look to be finally in a position to land Postecoglou.
"There is no doubt that Neil Lennon and Nicky Hammond would have put transfer targets in place before they departed.
"The issue is that for a lot of the better ones there will have been competition and if they are Bosmans chances are they will already have agreed deals.
"Postecoglou will also inherit a squad where Odsonne Edouard and Kris Ajer both want out and Olivier Ntcham will also be looking to engineer his exit.
"Celtic need to get on and make an appointment. Pre-season starts in a few weeks and Postecoglou will need to self-isolate before he can even get to work.
"I think a lot of Celtic fans are so disillusioned by what has happened they will just be pleased to see somebody in post."
