The Scottish summer transfer window has been open for almost four weeks, and Celtic have one new signing to show for it.
Camilo Durán is a welcome addition. He appears to possess qualities Celtic need, and supporters should be excited to see what he can offer. His arrival, however, cannot be allowed to disguise the wider failure of the club’s recruitment operation.
One new player is nowhere near enough for a squad that already required substantial improvement and could become weaker if further departures are sanctioned.
It is not proactive squad building. It is not evidence of careful preparation. It is another example of the paralysis that appears to grip Celtic whenever a transfer window opens.
It is an absolute dereliction of responsibility.
The timeline Celtic cannot ignore
The dates make the board’s lack of urgency impossible to excuse.
Monday, June 15: The Scottish summer transfer window opened.
Friday, July 10: Celtic finally announced Camilo Durán, their first new signing of the summer.
Sunday, July 12: Celtic remain on one new arrival, 27 days after the window opened.
Monday, August 3: Celtic begin the defence of the Premiership title against Dundee at Celtic Park. The Champions League play-off draw also takes place that day.
Tuesday, August 18 or Wednesday, August 19: Celtic play the first leg of their Champions League play-off.
Tuesday, August 25 or Wednesday, August 26: The second leg is played.
Thursday, September 3 at 5pm: The Scottish transfer window closes.
Celtic have already squandered 27 days and have 53 days remaining before the official deadline.
The board will undoubtedly look at those 53 days and convince itself there is still plenty of time.
There is not.
The real deadlines are the opening league match and the Champions League play-off. Celtic do not need a completed squad on September 3. They need a strong, settled and properly prepared squad before the competitive campaign begins.
This European tie has not suddenly appeared on the calendar.
The board has known for months that Celtic would enter the Champions League at the play-off stage. It has known roughly when the fixtures would be played, how much qualification could mean financially and which areas of the squad required strengthening.
Targets should have been identified months ago. Negotiations should have started early. Several new players should already have been working with Martin O’Neill and their new teammates.
Instead, Celtic are once again drifting towards crucial European fixtures with obvious weaknesses unresolved.
We have seen this before.
Celtic wait, hesitate and haggle. The important matches arrive before the squad is ready. Players are then signed late in the window, and the board behaves as though the recruitment operation has eventually delivered.
It is no use signing the correct players after the fixtures that could define the season have already been played.
Why do Celtic wait for departures before acting?
The familiar pattern is that Celtic appear to wait until players leave before accelerating their own recruitment.
That does not mean Celtic need to sell before they can buy.
They clearly do not.
The club has the financial strength to bring in the players required before allowing important members of the squad to depart. Celtic could act proactively, strengthen early and then consider outgoing offers from a position of control.
Bring the replacements in first. Give them time to settle, understand the manager’s system and build relationships with their teammates.
That approach would also provide Celtic with far greater bargaining power.
When another club knows Celtic have already strengthened, there is no urgency to accept an inadequate offer. Celtic can set the valuation, reject attempts to force down the price and walk away if the deal does not suit the club.
There would be no pressure to sanction a sale simply because a replacement still had to be found.
The current approach achieves the opposite.
Celtic appear to delay recruitment until a departure has either been completed or is close to completion. That weakens the squad unnecessarily and risks leaving the club scrambling for replacements after the season has already started.
This is not financial necessity.
It is a deliberate policy of excessive caution.
Celtic have the resources to strengthen before selling. The fact that they repeatedly choose not to do so is another failure of ambition and planning from the people running the club.
Celtic have not even made a meaningful net investment
The board may attempt to present the Durán signing as evidence of ambition, but even that requires proper examination.
The money brought in through the sales of Luis Palma and Hayato Inamura appears to have covered most, if not all, of the expenditure required to complete the Durán deal.
The exact payment schedules and transfer structures are not publicly available, so nobody outside Celtic can calculate the net position to the final pound. However, the broader picture is clear.
Celtic have sold players and used that income to cover their only new arrival.
The club has not yet made a significant financial commitment to improving the squad.
It has recycled transfer income.
That is not pushing the boat out. It is not the behaviour of a board determined to learn from last season. It is the minimum possible level of activity while several areas of the team still require reinforcement.
The squad is weaker, important players may yet leave and there remains no visible sense of urgency.
Where is Michael Nicholson?
Where is Celtic’s chief executive during all of this?
Michael Nicholson has become the Scarlet Pimpernel of Scottish football.
They seek him here. They seek him there. Celtic supporters rarely see or hear him anywhere.
Nobody expects Nicholson to discuss private negotiations or publicly identify transfer targets. That would be absurd and could damage potential deals.
Supporters are still entitled to hear from the man responsible for leading the club.
What is Celtic’s strategy?
What are the club’s footballing objectives?
Why does every deal appear to become a prolonged and exhausting process?
Why do glaring weaknesses remain unresolved until the final weeks or days of transfer windows?
Why does Celtic repeatedly approach important European fixtures without a complete squad?
Most importantly, who is held accountable when the same failures are repeated?
Celtic’s communication is dreadful. There is a vacuum where leadership should be.
Nicholson occupies one of the most important positions at the club, yet the support receives almost no sense of his authority, ambition, personality or vision.
A chief executive cannot remain virtually invisible while the football operation appears trapped in permanent malaise.
Four minutes from disaster
The most unforgivable aspect of this summer is the apparent failure to learn from last season.
Celtic were around four minutes away from losing the league title.
Four minutes.
That was how close the club came to a catastrophic failure after the board allowed the squad to weaken and failed to address obvious deficiencies properly.
Winning the title should not have erased those failures.
It should have forced a period of serious reflection inside Celtic Park.
How did the club find itself in that position?
Why had the squad been allowed to deteriorate?
Why were the considerable resources available to Celtic not used more effectively?
Why was Martin O’Neill forced to take responsibility during such a critical period?
A serious and competent board would have treated that experience as a final warning.
Recruitment plans would have been completed early. Targets would have been prioritised. Deals would have been prepared, and the manager would have received several new players for pre-season.
Instead, the eventual title success appears to have allowed those at the top to convince themselves that everything worked out.
It did not work out.
Celtic survived the board’s incompetence.
No meaningful lessons appear to have been learned. The same people are producing the same delays, the same uncertainty and the same lack of communication.
It is amateur.
Why does Dermot Desmond have the final say?
The most important question surrounding modern Celtic is why Dermot Desmond appears to have the final say over almost every major football and business decision.
Desmond is Celtic’s largest individual shareholder and an enormously influential figure.
But he is a shareholder.
He does not hold a day-to-day executive position at Celtic, yet the impression remains that important decisions eventually arrive at his door for approval.
Why has so much authority become concentrated around one man?
Where are the directors prepared to challenge him?
Where are the strong executives willing to argue that Celtic must become faster, more modern and more ambitious?
There should be experienced specialists making decisions within their own areas of expertise.
The best recruitment professionals should run recruitment.
The best football executives should shape football strategy.
The best commercial people should lead commercial development.
The best stadium and infrastructure experts should plan the future of Celtic Park.
Instead, Celtic too often look like a club governed by personal relationships, familiarity and loyalty.
It resembles jobs for the boys rather than a relentless search for the best possible people in every department.
Desmond’s power is not driving Celtic forward.
It is increasingly holding Celtic back.
A billionaire who puts no visible personal money into Celtic
Dermot Desmond is a billionaire, yet there is no evidence of him personally funding Celtic’s football operation.
Celtic should not require reckless personal spending from any shareholder. The club generates substantial revenue and should remain financially sustainable.
However, Desmond’s influence could be used to authorise and encourage genuine long-term ambition.
He could support a major investment programme across recruitment, infrastructure, training facilities, the supporter experience and Celtic Park itself.
With one wave of his pen, Celtic could begin planning £100 million worth of improvements across the club, funded responsibly over a long-term period.
That could include squad investment, training-ground development, academy facilities, sports science, stadium modernisation and a far better experience for the supporters who fund the operation.
Instead, Celtic often appear paralysed by the fear of spending money the club has already earned.
For someone with such influence, Desmond is remarkably distant from the support.
He is rarely seen publicly engaging with supporters and offers no regular explanation of his ambitions for Celtic.
I am sure Dermot Desmond considers himself a Celtic supporter.
However, if I possessed his wealth and his level of power at the club, my priority would be making Celtic a genuine force in Europe.
I would ensure every major position was filled by the best person available, exactly as I would in any other successful business.
I would not tolerate mediocrity because somebody was familiar, loyal or part of the established circle.
What Celtic could become
Imagine what Celtic supporters could be discussing during a regular Sunday review.
Imagine a proper plan to redevelop the Main Stand and increase Celtic Park’s capacity towards 80,000.
Imagine modern concourses, improved toilets, better catering, enhanced accessibility, family areas and facilities worthy of one of the best-supported clubs in European football.
Imagine an elite recruitment department with several options prepared for every priority position and the ability to complete deals quickly.
Imagine a clear five-year football strategy aimed at making Celtic genuinely competitive in Europe.
Imagine sustained investment in the academy, scouting, analytics, sports science and training facilities.
Imagine improved social media, professional digital content and regular communication from those running the club.
Imagine the support being treated as an essential part of Celtic rather than an endless source of guaranteed income.
These would all be positive stories.
Celtic supporters want to discuss ambition, stadium development, European progress, academy graduates, modern facilities, excellent recruitment and the future of the club.
Instead, we are left discussing silence.
Nothing.
A void.
There is no visible long-term vision, no meaningful communication and no sense that those in control share the urgency felt by the support.
Late signings will not excuse early failure
New players cannot simply arrive immediately before major fixtures and be expected to perform at their best.
They require time to settle in Glasgow, move their families, become familiar with their surroundings and understand what the manager expects.
They need training sessions with their teammates.
Defenders must build partnerships. Midfielders must understand one another’s movement. Attackers need to learn the team’s patterns of play and how chances will be created.
Every day Celtic waste reduces that preparation time.
This is why recruitment cannot be judged solely by the condition of the squad when the transfer window closes.
A player signed at the beginning of September may still prove to be an excellent addition, but he will have been no help during the crucial matches played in August.
Celtic’s recruitment must be judged against the fixtures the club needs to win.
One new signing is not adequate preparation.
It is negligence.
The supporters will not tolerate another farce
The Celtic board should not confuse the loyalty of the support with unlimited patience.
Supporters continue to buy season tickets, merchandise and match tickets. They travel throughout Scotland and across Europe. They invest emotionally and financially in Celtic.
The support has done its part.
The people running the club must now do theirs.
If the board turns this transfer window into another farce, the reaction from Celtic supporters will be off the scale.
People are tired of the same excuses.
They are tired of deals taking weeks to complete.
They are tired of Celtic waiting for departures before acting.
They are tired of watching the club approach crucial European fixtures understrength.
They are tired of the silence from Michael Nicholson and the seemingly unchallenged authority of Dermot Desmond.
Most of all, Celtic supporters are tired of a board that appears to view ambition as an unnecessary risk rather than the entire purpose of running a great football club.
The clock is already ticking.
Celtic have signed one new player and have yet to demonstrate any meaningful net investment in the squad.
Michael Nicholson must emerge from hiding. The recruitment operation must accelerate, and people inside Celtic must finally find the courage to challenge Dermot Desmond’s dominance.
Desmond’s days of exercising this level of control should be numbered.
His outlook is detached from the modern support, his model is hopelessly out of date and his power is no longer protecting Celtic.
It is holding Celtic back.
