James McFadden has raised fresh doubts over Celtic’s slow progress in the transfer window, with the squad still lacking in key positions.
With the new season underway, the Hoops are still searching for attacking reinforcements, but nothing has come off yet.
Celtic have had three bids knocked back for Danish winger Jakob Breum. Their latest offer, thought to be around £3 million, is well short of Go Ahead Eagles’ valuation of between £5–6.5 million. The long-running chase hasn’t done much to reassure fans that the club is ready to get deals over the line.
Kyogo Furuhashi’s January exit to Stade Rennais also remains hard to understand, especially considering when it happened. The Japanese forward left just after Celtic had secured a Champions League knockout place. He spent only half a season in France before being sold to Birmingham City for about £10 million, the same price he was bought for.
McFadden sees all of this as part of a bigger problem. The former Scotland forward took aim at the way Celtic are going about their transfer business.
He said: (Open Goal), “The thing is they’re not signing the players they need, it’s not even about spending the money or whatever the value, they’re not signing them. They need wide men and a striker. At least a striker, one.
“And they’re not coming in. It’s not about this one’s value, I know the boy, Breum. People are looking and saying why are you bidding low when they want this? It’s not as if they’ve brought players in.
“And they’re getting judged on why are you only spending that on that player? Why are you spending that? They’ve not brought them in, it’s the fact that the point I made in January about Kyogo was right.
“You’ll get the same money from him in the summer. Why would you sell him now? They’ve (Rennes) got their money back on him.”
McFadden’s concerns match what many Celtic fans are thinking, with the club’s transfer work not keeping pace with what’s needed on the pitch. Letting Kyogo go without signing a proper replacement has left Brendan Rodgers light up front, and missing out on targets like Breum is only adding to the frustration.
Celtic still haven’t brought in a marque striker this summer, and they’re short of wide players too. The three bids for Breum show there’s effort being made, but fans are questioning why nothing has been finalised. It feels like important signings are either taking too long or not being pushed hard enough.
The fear is that Celtic might head into the new season not properly prepared, with big European and domestic games coming fast. If new signings don’t come in soon, McFadden’s words could end up being spot on.
