MY LONG-SUFFERING missus would most assuredly endorse the fact I have not been blessed with a superabundance of tolerance.
Alas, I am from the school of: “God give me patience…and give me it right NOW!”
There are occasions, though, when I realise you have to take a deep breath and calm your jets. Brendan Rodgers appears to have adopted the same thought process with 18 days to go until the cheque books are put away and the transfer window is closed.
I can well understand the cacophony exuding from the Celtic fans demanding new faces as swiftly as possible, but in moments like this you really have to keep yourself in check and refuse to take the plunge until you are convinced there are no sharks in the water.
Buying for the sake of it is a massive no-no, as the club have learned in the past. Kenny Dalglish was sold to Liverpool for a-then British transfer record £440,00 in August 1977. There were no ready-made or adequate replacements at the club at the time.
ON THE MOVE…Celtic legend Kenny Dalglish wasn’t adequately replaced when he left for Liverpool in August 1977.
The great Jock Stein, who clearly had an eye for a player, spent £60,000 on Dundee United striker Tom McAdam the following month. The club had not planned ahead for the departure of their star performer which was a bewildering lack of foresight from the Hoops hierarchy at the time.
It was hardly a surprise when Dalglish quit for Anfield. I was chief sports sub-editor at the Daily Record back in the day and I knew he would be on his way. My card had been marked weeks earlier as I was sworn to secrecy.
The information being garnered by our sportswriters was coming from well-placed insiders and the Record was first with the exclusive news on the evening of August 10 1977, as CQN have previously reported.
The pressure on McAdam was intolerable. It was evident to all the new Bhoy had not been gifted the qualities of his predecessor and comparisons were ludicrously unfair. He collected a respectable haul of 25 goals in 14 months and it was Billy McNeill who recognised his skills as a central defender and the best days of McAdam’s Parkhead career were in this position.
The point is that Celtic were forced to take a header into the market to buy someone to cover the main striker’s role and, despite the best efforts of a capable footballer, McAdam was not the answer.
There are similar tales of woe littered throughout Celtic history. A conveyor belt of duds has passed through the east end of Glasgow with exasperated supporters wondering how some fairly incompetent individuals ever got past security at the front door.
JANUARY ARRIVALS…Kyogo Furuhashi, Yuki Kobayashi, Tomoki Iwata, Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda.
Undoubtedly, the eagle-eyed among you will have noticed the lack of haste this month as opposed to the previous two January windows during Ange Postecoglou’s reign. There is a fairly simple reason for that. Availability.
In the first window, Kyogo Furuhashi, Reo Hatate and Yosuke Ideguchi were signed. At that stage, the J-League was done and dusted. Matt O’Riley arrived from MK Dons with the English third-tier club unlikely to resist a £1.5million bid for the midfielder.
This time last year, Tomoki Iwata arrived on an initial loan and once again the league programme in Japan had reached a conclusion. Same story with Yuki Kobayashi. It was an identical situation with South Korean striker Oh Hyeon-gyu and the K-League in his country.
The MLS was also taking a breather when Alistair Johnston was signed for £3.5million from CF Montreal following his impressive displays for Canada in the winter World Cup Finals in Qatar.
You can be certain Rodgers, Mark Lawwell and the recruitment team will be working diligently until the eleventh hour to introduce quality recruits this time around.
Patience, after all, is a virtue, my friends.
So my missus reminds me on a daily basis.
‘DILEMMA FACING CELTIC,’ SUTTON’S BLUNT WARNING