He was absolutely dreadful.
Reggie blinker got applauded coming on at ibrox by the home crowd. Rafa was along those lines.
Two other names we’re being linked with.
21 year old Greek attacking midfielder Giannis Bouzoukis
21 year old Ivorian defensive midfielder Ismaila Soro
I know the perils of making judgements on YouTube videos but that Soro lad looks very tidy. He seems to be really good at breaking the play up and is composed on the ball and plays with his head up.
Lennon has confirmed an interest in Soro.
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When Celtic were flying in October and it seemed that even their most peripheral squad players could be called upon to excel at the vibrant, attacking football that was typifying their season, it felt the January transfer window would be more about gentle refinement than pursuing any significantly pointed targets.
The symbolism of two woeful derby performances against Rangers this month will have exacerbated fears around the squad’s quality, but the nominal starting XI itself is still very good individually. The two key issues are both tactical and systemic, which can’t be addressed by a transfer window, and the squad’s depth, which can be.
Through a combination of now underperforming back-ups and the necessity of having to shoehorn in out-of-position players, there are now arguably four positions that should be strengthened over the next month.
Seeing Leigh Griffiths, Vakoun Bayo and Lewis Morgan all toiling in the Europa League group finale against Cluj reinforced the impression that maybe Celtic’s depth and variety of options up front aren’t as strong as initially thought.
Though Griffiths was occasionally incisive in both that game and the subsequent 2-0 win over Hibernian, he still looked off the pace — as he has all season. Morgan’s vaguely positive start as a makeshift No 9 during Odsonne Edouard’s recent injury absence has fallen away and, while Bayo has been granted an extensive settling-in period at the club since signing last January, his desperately poor first touch and uninventive movement is forming enough of a regular pattern to suggest he might not be up to the task as a Celtic striker.
It would be negligent to assume at least one of these three options, as well as the highly rated but entirely unproven teenager Jonathan Afolabi, will come good as a reliable back-up and alternative to Edouard. As underscored in the change of dynamic against Rangers in the Betfred Cup final — when a previously hapless Celtic reliant on hitting it long to an ineffective Morgan found a solid out-ball upon Edouard’s arrival from the bench on the hour — a reliably fit and competent support to (and, pessimistically but plausibly, a replacement for) the Frenchman is imperative to the next six months and beyond.
Naturally, as Neil Lennon admitted in October, the club are “possibly” looking to explore signing another striker in the winter window. The club have already been linked with Slovan Bratislava striker Andraz Sporar, though Lennon rubbished speculation on that topic in early December.
Celtic will have already made advances in determining targets, with Lennon revealing after the Hibs game a fortnight ago that “we have got a meeting on Tuesday and we’ll have a look at the options we have available there.”
It’s positive that the club are being proactive in this striker search; as is their mooted interest in Israeli club Bnei Yehuda’s Ivorian defensive midfielder Ismaila Soro, which implies an interest in bringing in a back-up to, and potentially a long-term replacement for, captain Scott Brown.
The Brown issue is one that has simmered for a few years, though its gravity has been softened by the captain’s defiance of the normal laws of nature controlling a player’s regression with age. His Indian summer seems everlasting but will have to come to an end at some point. Even if the 34-year-old maintains form and fitness at the same rate of games — already at 36 for this season — into next year, the stark truth is that nobody in this squad can perform his role. No one can break up play, screen the defence and calm the tempo quite like Brown does.
There has been some clamour to see Brown rested for a handful of domestic home games, with Ryan Christie dropping back as a No 8 alongside Callum McGregor and either Tom Rogic or Olivier Ntcham as the No 10. While that would allow the midfield three greater freedom offensively, Brown’s skill set remains essential for more arduous fixtures. If he were to suffer even a short-term injury tomorrow, there’s nobody who can step up.
Eboue Kouassi, signed from Krasnodar three years ago, was originally planned as Brown’s successor as the nominal defensive midfielder. But a run of bad injuries and a grouping of uninspiring performances — as well as the most telling hint of rarely making the match-day squad — mean he no longer looks like the heir apparent.
That defensive midfielder, the No 6, is possibly the position in greatest need of addressing next month. That and a secondary striker are the most crucial areas to recruit in, but there are two other positions that could feasibly see reinforcement.
The first of those is centre-back.
While Nir Bitton, fresh off a new contract until 2023, has been fine as a back-up, his status as likely Celtic’s third-choice in the middle is concerning from a strategic standpoint given he is a natural defensive midfielder. The nominal right-back, Hatem Elhamed, can also put the proverbial shift in if moved inside, but similar to the situation with Bitton, it’s better forward planning to consider them both as fallback utility men rather than the immediate successors to the two main centre-backs.
Christopher Jullien and Kris Ajer are categorically Celtic’s best options at the position and are delivering the performances, and exhibiting the attributes, that attracts attention from elsewhere. This might mean any acquisition in January needs to align with the profile of that pair. They will need to be solid in defending’s basics, but adept in carrying the ball forward and accurate in distribution — and to maintain the club’s recent successes with a buy-low, sell-high transfer strategy, they’ll need to be bought during the appropriate upswing of their development cycle.
Given their past records, Jack Hendry and Jozo Simunovic can’t realistically be considered long-term options and the club should looked to move them on in January or the summer.
The second minor position to evaluate is the right wing.
Again, Celtic are strong here on a first-team level. James Forrest, for all he’s not explicitly excelled in the past few weeks, is still having a terrific season overall and is an invaluable starter. It was hoped Marian Shved would act as competition for Forrest, but he’s barely featured since an excellent goal away to Nomme Kalju in July’s Champions league qualifying stroll. Lennon has repeatedly suggested the Ukrainian’s mysterious absence has been down to a protracted adaptation period to Scottish football, with the latest assertion on this case only at the end of November. But similar to the back-up striker problem, it’d be strategically negligent to assume he’ll acclimatise and make an impact soon.
The other options on the right are inlaying Christie — who operates out wide admirably but in doing so loses the intensity of forward pressing he exudes in central midfield — and Daniel Arzani, the once hotly-tipped Australian on loan from Manchester City. Arzani ruptured an anterior cruciate knee ligament on his debut against Dundee in October 2018. He came on as a substitute in a reserve game against Hibs in September but has rarely featured since. So Forrest is ostensibly the only natural right-winger Celtic can consider an option.
Even accounting for the disastrous showings against Rangers, as a collective starting XI, this is possibly the club’s most talented crop of players since the Martin O’Neill era; and one not yet fulfilling its potential. However, from a recruitment perspective, it has become increasingly apparent over the past few months that the squad’s depth isn’t as uniformly strong as in areas such as full-back and No 10.
There’s no urgent cause for alarm, but to continue building on the team’s solid foundations in the long term, to sustain the pace of the title challenge and to pursue immediate inroads in Europe, Celtic need better-equipped back-ups and prospective replacements for key players this January.
What celtic need is a couple of upper middle class epl cloggers. Lennon is too thick to realise this.
Surely a few extras fro the likes of Villa and Watford will get them over the line
The cunt is near on 90’ and funds abortion .
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The last thing we need.
It’s exactly what Martin o Neill did. It’s exactly what rangers have done.
Celtic have notions of being some kind of European super club. Celtic are, first and foremost, all about beating rangers. Anything else is just icing.
Neil lennon is a vauxhall conference level manager for a start. Celtic will always win an odd game against a big team in Europe but the current squad and manager won’t win a European competition. They might knock over votizlava bratz on Thursday night on channel five bur that shouldn’t give them notions.
They need to win the spl and like I said, the tried and trusted method is, ironically enough, a few Neil lennons and a Scott brown or two.
Ah Flatty.
Martin O’Neill was 20 years ago. The world has changed a little. The huns had two players with EPL experience at the weekend. Celtic had one. It had no bearing on the result.
I’d far rather win the Europa League than the SPL by the way. It’s not even close.
I just want to beat the huns, but I’m not right in the head.
If you think lennon will win the Europa league, I have a bridge for sale.
Rangers are backboned be mid table epl/championship level cloggers
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Karol Fila, a Polish right back is linked today in the Polish media apparently. Probably the last position we would be looking to strengthen you would think.
Also French reports of an interest in Moussa Sissako, a 19 year old central defender from Mali currently with PSG.
Brown was done 18 months ago, we need a proper midfielder brought in
We should break the bank and buy Jack Byrne
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Wanyama.
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Joey Barton.
Tino Kadewere has overtaken Sporar as the most frequently linked striker. He plays for Le Harve and has 17 goals in 19 games in Ligue 2 this season.
Scott Sinclair is on his way to Preston it seems.
Plenty of chat on social media about Sinclair being badly treated but I totally disagree. His first season was fantastic and that’s not up for debate. But his performances / form began to deteriorate in the second season and he was a passenger by the third. The squad is bloated and he’s one of a few that should be moved on.
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He was a coward.
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