Celtic’s loss to Lazio has put the club’s transfer business firmly back in the spotlight.
The club have been heavily criticised by the Celtic supporters for strengthening key positions that Brendan Rodgers had, apparently, said he wanted to fill this summer.
The supporters saw last night that if you buy project players, you get project quality and sometimes projects fail. And with the money Celtic have in the bank, they can afford to purchase players who can make an instant impact in Celtic matchday squad.
Now, it’s too early to say if Celtic’s latest batch of summer signings have failed but it is fair to say that the two Champions League tests that they have come up against, they have not passed.
Pat Bonner believes Celtic will spend in the transfer market
Investment is required in the team. It sounds incredible to say. Especially after eight players were added in the summer. But it’s the quality and impact these signings can make at first-team level that is concerning.
But the former Celtic keeper believes that after last night, all that could change very soon.
Bonner said [BBC Sportsound], “Players have got to have nerve, they’ve got to have the ability, they’ve got to have the technique and they have got to the bravery that they talked about before the game.
”And get everybody looking for the ball, not just one or two. Everybody is giving the option to the player on the ball, and that’s how Brendan builds his teams.
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“We’ve seen it in the past and I think that’s going to continue. And if he needs better players to come in to do that, I think that will probably happen in the future.
“But he needs to get the best of these players also.”
And I’m sure Rodgers will do exactly that. Get the best out of the players he has. But what if, ultimately, their best is just not good enough? What then?
Does the transfer model change and Celtic start to buy good experienced players? What a disaster that would be when you look at what £4.6m gets you in the shape of Kyogo Furuhashi.
More money needs spent. If they just spent the money they recouped on Jota then that would at least be a start.
Because if the Celtic board doesn’t, nights like last night will become all too commonplace at Paradise. And that’s something nobody at the club wants.
In other news, ‘Not human’: Lionel Messi highlights one Celtic player’s Champions League display as ‘the best’ he has ever seen