Journalist Rodger Hannah has echoed the growing unease among Celtic fans as the club’s summer transfer activity continues to frustrate, with just days to go before the new Premiership season kicks off.
As the current Celtic players are put through their final paces ahead of the new league season kicking off this weekend, they have just one active rumour regarding incomings, and that involves Jakob Breum.
Celtic have submitted three bids for the Go Ahead Eagles attacker, the most recent believed to be worth £2.6 million – still well short of the Dutch side’s £6.5 million valuation.
Hannah, appearing on Clyde 1 SSB, admitted that in years gone by, he wouldn’t have batted an eyelid, but this year is different, he explained. There’s an added element this year – Rodgers is entering the final year of his contract, surrounded by uncertainty about what will happen next summer.
“Normally, I would sit here and say to you, come on, a wee bit of patience and everything will be fine. I actually thought Celtic would move quicker this summer for a number of reasons. Number one, I thought they got caught a wee bit at the end of the last window.
“They signed Engels, Idah and Trusty, and I think the feeling was they probably paid a wee bit too much for the three of them simply because it got to the end of the window and they had to spend the money to get the players in the door. I didn’t think they would want to be caught in that predicament again. I also thought they would spend, because the Nicolas Kuhn money came in, £17 million.
“You take it in isolation, a wonderful piece of business from Celtic for a guy who was bought for £3 million. And the third reason I thought they would move earlier was because the manager is clearly frustrated at the lack of activity so far and the manager’s got one year left in his deal. If you were trying to push the boat out to persuade the manager to extend his time at the football club, then now’s the summer to get the business done early.”
As the transfer window edges closer to its final month and only one live target remains publicly active, the pressure is now firmly on the Celtic board to act decisively or risk entering another season with regrets already building.
Fans are voicing their concern on social media, but it’s having no effect. Anyone brought in now might be ready in time for the Champions League qualifiers, but they won’t be in the lineup for Sunday against St Mirren.
