Brendan Rodgers will likely be feeling anger, says Graeme McGarry, after the 'huge' 24 hours he had hoped for in the transfer market on deadline day yielded just one signing, and his Celtic squad is now undoubtedly weaker than it was a few short months ago. Could he walk away from the club, and would anyone blame him this time around?
When Brendan Rodgers came back to Celtic, he made it clear that he would be at the club for the full duration of his three-year contract.
Eager to build bridges with the support after his previous mid-season exit to Leicester City sparked fury, it was an understandable tack. He doubled down on that promise recently when asked if he would consider leaving if the club didn’t back him appropriately in the summer transfer window.
"Absolutely no chance," Rodgers said.
"We've done that before, it didn't go down well!”
Even the most fervent critics of his departure last time around may well understand if the Celtic manager jacked it in now, though. As a truly abysmal window came to an end for the club, there can be no doubt that his squad comes out of it weaker than it went in.
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The reports drifting out around half an hour before the window closed that they were exploring a move for Kelechi Iheanacho conjured images of Rodgers himself in his office at Lennoxtown deep into the night, being left to thumb frantically through his own little black book.
Sevilla, rather unsurprisingly given the Nigerian’s paltry contribution – scoring three Copa Del Rey goals in 11 games and just one in 15 when sent out on loan to Middlesbrough last season after knocking back the chance to go to Celtic – aren’t exactly standing in his way. They tore up his contract just to get him off the wage bill, in fact, allowing him to sign for Celtic after the deadline.
Why do Celtic do this, leaving themselves so much to do on deadline day, year upon year, window after window? Paul Tisdale, once famously hailed as a ‘football doctor’, was brought in last season to help breathe new life into Celtic’s recruitment operation. But the patient is dead.
This last-minute bargain-hunting approach can’t simply be down to there being an outdated belief in the boardroom that the best deals are done on the final day, can it? As the last summer window deadline day had clearly shown, with the club overpaying for Arne Engels and Auston Trusty, that is absolutely not the case.
At least last year they took a punt, mind you. This time, the only outlay was the £5.2m spent on left winger Sebastian Tounekti from Hammarby, when a right winger and at least one striker were the clear priorities.
After sending Rodgers out to face the media all summer to explain that a plan was in place and lots of work was going on in the background while they themselves have remained as silent as the shadow they operate in, the Celtic board have hung their manager out to dry.
This is not the way that a big, serious club conducts its transfer business. Or, as CEO Michael Nicholson once promised they would be in all their dealings, a ‘world-class’ operation. Sure, the executives will point to the spreadsheets and the bottom line and the fact they again made a profit again for the umpteenth window in a row, but where is the evidence of this prosperity on the field?
In losing Kyogo Furuhashi, Nicolas Kuhn and Idah from their frontline, Celtic are down 73 goals contributions from their team of last season. And Kyogo left in January.
If it wasn’t obvious already, the need for ploughing at least a little of the £34m or thereabouts they commanded for that trio into those attacking areas was writ large over the appallingly feeble threat that Celtic carried at Ibrox. They were the first team this season not to seriously test a Rangers backline that had conceded an average of over 12 shots on target in their three previous matches against Motherwell, Dundee and St Mirren. Celtic managed two. And they were powderpuff, at that.
Their failure to properly invest in the attacking areas of their team is a staggering, self-inflicted wound that may even open the door to Rangers, if they can get their act together, and Hearts, who are currently second in the table only on goal difference, to mount a serious title challenge.
Just as with their abysmal and costly Champions League exit to Kairat Almaty, that is a risk Celtic simply didn’t need to take.
Now, the fans are faced with the dismal prospect of watching their team muddle through to January with an out-of-sorts Daizen Maeda through the middle, when Jota will hopefully be back on the flank. Maybe only then, if there is a real emergency and Celtic are in danger of ceding their title, will they dip into their vast reserves of cash. It is all so unnecessary.
It will be interesting to see what the reaction of the supporters will be beyond the outpouring of fury online. Many have already left the Home Cup Ticket Scheme in an act of protest, and I wonder what the uptake might be when the club releases their Europa League ticket packages.
You couldn’t blame the fans for withholding their cash and voting with their feet. And I don’t think even his harshest critic would now blame Rodgers, this time around, if he reneged on his promise to see out his contract.
