Celtic shopping in narrow gap before profiles rise

Oliver Burke made all the headlines two years ago with a big money move from Nottingham Forrest to Leipzip but progress since has not gone to plan.  He has played 46 minutes of league football for West Brom in the Championship this season, so has lots to do to recover his early promise at Celtic.

Brendan Rodgers has James Forrest in the form of his life this season, while Scott Sinclair is back in the team and scoring goals, but Forrest clearly tired before the winter break and, apart from Sinclair, options on the left are limited.  Burke will fill the role hoped for Daniel Arzani, before his injury at Dundee.

Of more strategic interest is the potential signing of striker Vakoun Issouf Bayo, who plays for Slovakian club, Dunajska Streda.  The Ivorian, who will be 22-years-old later this week, has played 32 games since leaving Africa, where he managed just nine starts in Tunisia.  This is where Celtic now have to operate, in that narrow gap between when a player shows enough form to interest, but before his profile attracts the attention of others.

This has worked well for us before (van Dijk) but will inevitably have a high variance of success.

Although 18-year-old Timothy Weah has appeared in only six senior games, he will be more of a known quantity than Bayo.  Celtic have experience of the French youth teams, in particular, Weah’s club PSG, from where they acquired Odsonne Edouard.  Still, Weah and Bayo will both need plenty of support to settle.

If both deals go through we will have four strikers for the run in, a vast improvement on hoping Edouard can give us 20 minutes for key away games at Pittodrie and Ibrox.

This is all a bit early in the window for Celtic to be this busy.  Unsettlingly so.