Celtic delayed announcing the arrival of Sebastian Tounekti (23) from Hammarby until the moment the transfer window closed. This felt like a tacit acceptance that supporter expectation would not be satisfied if the announcement came earlier in the day, and no others arrived in the evening.
Brendan Rodgers let us know he had a veto on the departure of Adam Idah and would not agree to his move to Swansea until a replacement arrived. You and I could reasonably expect Adam’s move was confirmation a replacement was on his way. We were wrong (and I am not prepared to get enthusiastic about out of contract players).
Let’s look at the substance. Celtic signed 10 players in the summer transfer window, eight on permanent contracts and two defenders on loans. Tounekti was the most expensive at £5.2m. The Norway-born Tunisia international spent only six months at Hammarby, in which time his transfer fee quadrupled. Our fee feels high.
Sebastian joins Michel-Ange Balikwisha (24), who arrived for £5m from Royal Antwerp. Thrown in at the deep end on Sunday, Michel-Ange did well enough for a player who hardly knew anyone on the field.
Our most important signing so far is Benjamin Nygren (23). Benji has already scored three league goals, times runs into the box and shows real purpose defending and on attack. He is clearly not a winger and will hopefully only be seen wide in emergency circumstances, or when we are trying to close a game out.
Kieran Tierney (28) returned to great fanfare. KT is the best player to emerge from the Celtic youth setup in 15 years. His engine allows him to get up and down the field and he is the best crosser at the club (that we know about). He has yet to reach full fitness and will continue to improve as he gets there.
We signed a striker!!! Shin Yamada (25) arrived from Kawasaki Frontale for £1.4m. I expect Shin was recruited as a player we could develop over the season. That plan may now be reconsidered, post Idah departure. Callum Osmand (19) joins the front-line options from Fulham, but we have yet to see him in competitive action.
Left-sided defender Hayato Inamura (23) came in from Albirex Niigata. Last month Brendan Rodgers suggested the player was not ready for Celtic action and may be sent out on loan. Plans change, I suppose. Ross Doohan (27) arrived back at the club to fill the role as third choice goalkeeper.
Two defenders came in on loan: left back Marcelo Saracchi (27), the Uruguayan international, who joins from Boca Juniors, and central defender Jahmai Simpson-Pusey (19), who came in from Manchester City.
Out of the building went Nicolas Kuhn (25) to Como for £15m. This departure so early in the window was inexplicable. Greg Taylor (27) left on a free and is already missed by many in the support.
Braga paid £2.4m for Gus Lagerbielke (25), Rapid Vienna paid £1.2m for Marco Tilio (24), while Ligue 1 side Nantes took Hyeok-kyu Kwon (24) for £200k. The development of Kwon, like Gus and Marco, will be interesting to watch in the season ahead. I’m thinking Oh, but we will discuss that particular player later this week.
As well as the aforementioned Idah (24) leaving for £7m to Swansea, Scott Bain left for Falkirk. Luis Palma (Lech Poznan) and Maik Nawrocki (Hannover 96) went out on loan.
I have seen new Celtic arrivals mistakenly written off too many times to fall into that trap, but we are on safe ground to say this transfer window was poorly conceived and terribly executed (the former resulted in the latter). The possible arrival of an out of contract striker will change this, I would rather we did nothing and develop Shin and Johnny Kenny instead.
Lots to say about the Kasper Dolberg fiasco tomorrow. He encapsulates our poorly conceived window and why we ended up as we did.
305 Comments- Pages:
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Chairbhoy on 2nd September 2025 12:23 pm
GlassTwoThirdsFull @ 12:10 pm,
If we can play Nygren as a false No9 in Europe, we may just get a few results.
Lots of development needed in lots of players though, Brnji included.
==========================
Agree. Given the resource constraints there are some fascinating tactical options to be considered together with intensive player development. Great challenge for the coaches.
RC I think you have a urine infection.
2ND SEPTEMBER 2025 12:02 PM
Poorly conceived and terribly executed window
Brendan’s fault aye?
And a couple of others.
I must admit , that on reading today’s piece, and then rereading after your posts, I take this as a total go at the execs. Paul clearly has history in digs at Brendan, but I don’t see it on this occasion.
Lots of posters on here don’t like Paul’s take on Brendan, and I think, therefore see it even when it’s not there. I even took the inference that Idah left in spite of Brendan’s intervention.
Indeed – I thought it was a polite way of saying the exec performance was an omnishambles and clusterf*€¥
BR let us know he had a veto on Idah leaving
—-
This is a lie. He did not have a veto – otherwise Idah would be here.
BR tried to publicly hold the board to account in an attempt to force them to do the right thing and replace Idah.
Haven’t read the comments yet.
I enjoyed your leader Paul but it was sobering.
I’d neglected to tally up.
10 players signed. Jeez.
Another example of the Celtic paradox.
We’re too many and not enough.
BTW Paul, I’ll also keep a (not close) eye on Kwon and Gustaf …. but not Marco.
I wish you well kid and no offence.
There might be a beach footballer or even mid-level footballer in there but not a top-level footballer.
Of course the fee is high ffs….at least 2 million too high …same as Engels same as idah …..see if you wait to the last day and get desperate…that’s what happens
We are going to get a fairy story regarding Dolberg ….when anyone with half a brain cell knows we ain’t paying 10 million for a 27 year old!!
We low balled ( again) …knowing full wellnit would be knocked back…..player himself said…..I don’t think they’re serious!….its all bsht ….sick of it …and going by social media …I’m calm
I’m convinced we’ll be told we had a gentleman’s agreement with Dolberg – similar to Howe & Forster.
Keep the schoolboy excuses and resign. We need a higher degree of competence in executing these deals.
Nick @ 12:39 pm,
Yes, really hope BR&CO see it that way and rise to the challenge, it can still be a good season.
Hail Hail
timo nails it.
great rational blogger.
https://youtu.be/xiNtSOsRGZI
TURKEYBHOY on 2ND SEPTEMBER 2025 11:28 AM
Burnley,
Just piss off.
” I want Brendan to exit positively next season for an easy transition.The league is vital.”
How condescending is that.
Not any sort of condemnation for the shit show his cronies have just foisted onto the majority of the fans.Perish the thought.
Tosser.
—————————-
Steady old Bhoy – Have a Raki 🤣
You fell right into the honey trap of the ‘Blog Agenda’
“ I want Brendan Rodgers to exit positively and allow us to transition next summer.” Now I wonder where that came from?
Fake pomposity, all we can hope is that it doesn’t degenerate to more porky pies?
HH
An absolute omni-shambles. We should be progressing, not climbing then crashing. From top to bottom the complacency is breathtaking: players ducking responsibility, a manager I’m rapidly losing faith in, and a mess entirely of our own making. The buck stops with the head of the organisation. This is all under Nicholson, and he should be utterly embarrassed. Hard questions need to be asked about how a team can be this unprepared to wear the Celtic jersey. This season already looks grim.
Our first offers for Dolberg was reported to be less than half the asking fee. It is our board’s style. They will then say they tried when nothing comes of it.
Everton told rangers the fee for Chermiti is 8 million plus adds on (approx 10 million). They pay it. Likewise they pay Girona the asking fee for Miovski. I think both will do ok, maybe better than ok. Even if they don’t, at least their failing manager was backed by his board. No messing around.
We still try to play hardball on every possible transfer, to mess clubs and players around as if we hold all the aces. To miss out on 30 million CL revenue to save a million here and there and get a pat on the head from Desmond.
We are an absolute shambles.
CHAIRBHOY on 2ND SEPTEMBER 2025 12:39 PM
You really are not seeing it are you?
I see the “quality”players we sign and try to sign and fail. It’s about who’ll come and who will be good enough.
Saint Stivs on 2nd September 2025 12:54 pm
That guy spoke very well. Is he a CQNer per chance?
BSR. Aye. Fake pomposity, false piety, and Uriah Heep style hypocrisy are all hallmarks of the dry bedders.
So our deadline day looked like:
Gone into the day looking to bring in Tounekti on the wing and Dolberg up top, with maybe an extra winger (the Palace boy) and striker (Bowie?).
Tounekti signed. But Palace boy knocks us back. Yang supposed to be going to Birmingham so we sort a loan for Benson – around 10 appearances for Burnley in the past two seasons. Birmingham pull out (because Nicholson won’t answer their calls?) and we dash off Benson.
Ajax come in for Dolberg so we turn attention to Fofana and Mara. Fofana chooses Charlton over us while Mara chooses Auxerre. We turn our attention to Iheanacho in the last hour of the window, and Sevilla free him because they want rid and we can’t do a deal in the 30 mins or so we left ourselves.
We end the day with more or less the same squad we had on Sunday, with the only changes being Idah and Welsh out and Tounekti in.
So over the course of a year we’ve gone from having Kyogo and Idah up top to Maeda, a project in Shin, and some kids in Kenny and Osmand as our striker options.
We’ve made a c£10m profit (closer to £20m if sell on fees added) in the window, spent a day embarrassing ourselves chasing agent punts that ended up rejecting us only to end up going for a guy who preferred Middlesbrough in January and who may yet choose someone else, and don’t really have any assets which will bring in £10m+ in future years (maybe Nygren and Maeda but beyond that?).
Glad we stuck to the strategy and didn’t repeat the mistakes of last summer eh?
Perhaps agents and their clients asked about the Head Coach and who is coming in if he’s not staying, what quality of Manager/Head Coach is going to replace him? If he is staying how long for, as you’re asking us to commit for4/5 years. Just perhaps, por cierto.
SPIDEY101. You nailed it. Such incompetence or negligence deserves dismissal, but of course there appears no mechanism to do so.
And the incompetents will stay quiet and no doubt award themselves another whopping rise in salary.
Que faire?
I suspect Paul Tisdale will be the sacrificial lamb a couple of months from now. The antics around this window must surely put to bed the idea that faffing about on the last day of the window is just plain wrong.
It’s not written in the stars that we’ll be crap this season , we need to get the finger out , and raise our game. Brendan is a good manager and he’ll need to pull the squad together and push on.
On the bloke we’re after today seems a more likely target gif a Turkish team who throw money at this type of player.
HH
Hot Smoked on 2nd September 2025 1:09 pm
Saint Stivs on 2nd September 2025 12:54 pm
That guy spoke very well. Is he a CQNer per chance?
—————–
Timo – host of the celtic exchange podcast, imho the best one out there, sensible grown up chat with mome of the hysteria that other platforms have, highly recommended.
https://thecelticexchange.com/
Celtic40me @ 1:06 pm,
Look, we are talking about good recruitment under Ange.
Players getting experience in Europe and winning domestically.
Players being developed under BR&CO, savvy signings to backfill departed Players.
More European experience at the highest level.
If you throw that out of the window you don’t suddenly get it back.
Take Brugge
Last year an uncharacteristic rush to the head from CCV meant we drew with them at Celtic Park when we should have won.
They have sold Players, brought in replacements in a timely manner, qualifued for the UCL again and are now head and shoulders above us.
That’s all happened in less than ten months – if you throw your hard work down the drain you don’t get it back with a click of your fingers.
We beat Barca’ under Lenny thirteen years ago.
After that we downsized, it took us thirteen years to get back to that standard.
You think we’ll get back there by having a new manager?
Also, our co-efficient working against us, we automatically qualified for the UCL three times in a row.
The money, experience and kudos garnered has been lost – we will not automatically qualify again for the foreseeable future.
Then we will have serial qualifying rounds, we are piss-poor at qualifying.
That’s if we win the leagues, the Americans will not be as docile as all the other recent owners at Ibrox, we’ll have our work cut out there too.
No, we looked a gift horse in the mouth and kicked it in the teeth, I’m afraid.
Hail Hail
Regarding Paul’s Leader this am….
I would guess that he needs time to figure out what he really wants to say. Or what the ‘party line’ is going to be from our chairman.
It is hard (for me) to believe that the suits wanted the window to be like this. Sure, they wanted to make money, but they would have wanted SOME really good acquisitions, if for no other reason that they could claim THEIR success, while leaving any criticism for Brendan. Unfortunately, (for them), Brendan has been calling them out throughout the process. Example: ‘The board are unhappy that Brendan spent all that money on Idah etc and they are not performing’.
We all know that Brendan doesn’t decide transfer fees. So he cut them off at the pass with his ‘Quality’ statements. Making sure that WE understood who was responsible for that part of the process.
So, it will take Paul some time to find the crosshairs that he needs to make this a Brendan issue.
In the meantime, among the silly wee comments on this blog (and others), there are some very thoughtful discussions going on. What will become of these ideas, who knows. However, I get the sense that elements of the Celtic support are exercised to a level that we haven’t seen for many a year.
Finally, it would be helpful if folk would understand Coexisting Truths. As in, ‘The window was keech’ and ‘Rodgers tactics were keech’.
These two ideas can be both true. It’s not either/or.
I hope that we can spend today focusing on the Window. Fill this blog with your best stuff. Paul might read some of it, and he might see (some of) the light…..
Cheers,
Weeron
Never mind, we need just one of these bargain basement signings to have a good season so he can be sold for much more than he cost and grab a tidy profit. The football itself? nah, don’t worry about it. It’ll be okay.
Spidey101 on 2nd September 2025 1:14 pm
Good summary. Painful that it is….
Weeron
the annual report will be published before our next home game.
when is the agm ?
CHAIRBHOY on 2ND SEPTEMBER 2025 1:28 PM
“Look, we are talking about good recruitment under Ange.”
I’m not. Im talking about good recruitment right now. We’re unable to attract good “new” players, we’ve tried throwing money at it and it hasn’t worked.
We need smart, hungry players who can be turned into a Nic Kuhn and a coach whos keen to develop them, not a cheque book manager who wastes precious time dreaming about players who don’t want to come
“Lots to say about the Kasper Dolberg fiasco tomorrow”
Fair enough Paul … but I’d make one observation
I don’t know whose plan Dolberg was (I assume Brendan’s), nor do I know whose job it was to get him (I assume some suit) … and, at this point given he’s not our player i don’t really care.
But I do have some sympathy for those involved.
Enter Sunderland AFC ….
Sunderland buy Ajax striker for £20m plus two days ago.
Two decades ago?
The Ajax player: “Sunderland? Who the f*** are you? I wouldn’t wipe my ar5e !”
Ajax the club: “Don’t you know who we are? Four times winners of the big one. We’re offended by your approach. We’re not going to waste our time even informing the player. Beat it !”
Now?
Kerching !
Sunderland sign Ajax striker for funny TV money …..
…. creating a gap at Ajax ….
which they fill by signing the striker we want.
Pecking order.
We’re big and we’re small.
Celtic is a big, docile fulmar … having to wait behind starlings on speed.
No one at Celtic … Brendan or the suits … has any control over this.
Celtic did not do well in the transfer window.
As a business they failed to meet their own objectives and expectations. Like any other business that failure lies at the door of the decision maker who exercises the power to make decisions. That would be Mr Desmond. Like everyone else he makes mistakes and we are seeing the results of some of those mistakes.
To remove Mr Desmond from Celtic would cost something between £200M and £300M. Until we can come up with that sort of money there is little that we can do to change the course of events at Celtic.
Even if we did come up with the money to remove Mr Desmond there is no guarantee that his replacement would be any better at the job than he is. Much of the success Celtic have enjoyed can be claimed by him as the result of his good decision making.
Any member of the board below Mr Desmond is a well paid employee. They have influence over his opinion, but have no ability to make decisions contrary to his wishes.
We supporters of Celtic have limited market power individually or collectively. There is a long waiting list ready to fill your seat any time you feel like leaving Parkhead in protest.
Collective cohesive action might obtain some token results and, if the bright and football/business savvy among you are able to impart your wisdom to Mr Desmond in a manner that is palatable to him, some positive changes might be obtained.
The fact is however that we have too little skin in the financial game.
Until we change that, nothing will change at Celtic.
BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL on 2ND SEPTEMBER 2025 1:49 PM
With respect :) we have control over the sort of player we look at
It would be foolish not to imagine a scenario where Dolberg might have a more attractive offer.
As it turned out it wasn’t a dissimilar situation as ours with KT, he had four very happy years there so once they came in he was never coming.
It will happen again, it’s just football
Celtic40me @ 1:43 pm,
What is that about?
Who developed Kuhn?
Same guy who developed Matt O’Riley and made lots of money.
Same guy that took an average SPL left back who was going out to Aberdeen and made him a very effective CB.
How much has that saved us
Same guy who brought in Kasper Schmeichel on a free and is developing a quality understudy in Sinisalo.
Same guy who stopped James Forrest going out the door and gave him an extended contract.
What a valuable squad player he’s been.
Same guy who improved Maeda into a UCL player.
Watch Dane Murray, Colby Donovan, Shin Yamada, Benji Nygren etc etc improve this season.
Modern managers don’t do that, Lenny never, Ange never, they don’t see that as their role.
120,000,000.00 brought in on player sales since Ange left.
How much did we bring in under Ange.
No, this Board had a very good window of opportunity and threw it away, spite, incompetence, who cares, what is done is done and no manager without a time machine is going to undo it.
Hail Hail
What we should do is be mindful of the likelihood of it happening again and think seriously about the sort of player we can attract.
There’s not much more I can add to fire of anger from good Celtic fans. We are a complete laughing stock of a club right now, on and off the field. How can a club that has been so successful of late, operate in such a badly prepared manner. I thought that as fans we were taken for granted many years ago, but seems like nothing has changed. The lack of communication from our club is ridiculous. I had this idea of writing something about us all coming together, but right now we are past that point.
Keep the faith seems so hollow rightnow my friends.
Sean
Chairbhoy on 2nd September 2025 12:23 pm
You are talking sense
But forgive me if I can’t get enthusiastic i’m still in shock/mourning
My head needs to look forward but at the mo I can only see pathetic chaos behind me
Give me time
67ECW
CHAIRBHOY on 2ND SEPTEMBER 2025 1:57 PM
Celtic40me @ 1:43 pm,
What is that about?
Who developed Kuhn?
Same guy who developed Matt O’Riley and made lots of money.
Great, so let’s do more of it, not less. It’s what he’s good at not cheque booking his way to mediocrity like in the past.
Gonna be a long season
Saint Stivs on 2nd September 2025 12:54 pm
timo nails it.
great rational blogger.
https://youtu.be/xiNtSOsRGZI
_____
Yep. The boy speaks really well, as always. Some of our other bloggers are similar, Paul John Dyce, Alan Morrison and a few others. Would love to see these guys unite the support and come up with some innovative ideas for how to force through the change that is required. Those in ‘charge’ need to remember, we have the power. We’ve done it before and we’ll do it again 🎵
See a pattern?
Brendan Rodgers (2)
“We are clear on where we need to improve, and for whatever reason we haven’t been able to. There’s only so many ways that I can dress up that we don’t have the players here. It was pretty clear.”
Ange Postecoglu:
“Maybe I wasn’t clear enough, I don’t know. I think I’ve been pretty consistent in saying we need more players in. Obviously I haven’t done a good enough job convincing people we need to bring people in. I’m not going to shy away from it. I’ve tried to be as forceful as I can”
Neil Lennon:
“There was a lot we wanted to do in the summer, but the financial reality and club strategy meant you can’t always act as quickly as you’d like. Sometimes it feels like the process is just too slow.”
Brendan Rodgers (1):
“We have a recruitment model here. I can only work within that. We identify the players we want, but there’s often a delay in negotiations. By the time a deal goes through, the market has moved on. That’s always frustrating.”
Ronny Deila:
“We had players we wanted to bring in, but things take too long. Negotiations drag, and by the time we get them, the market has moved on. It makes it difficult to get the squad together quickly. That’s frustrating because it slows down preparation for the season.”