Celtic: 3 biggest transfer mistakes from recent years

Vasilis Barkas

Joe Hart arrived in the summer for Celtic amidst a lot of questions but the English goalkeeper has already answered the doubters, put in some brilliant performances and nailed down his spot between the posts in Ange Postecoglou’s starting XI.

That is a welcome change after a season of no continuity in goal for the Hoops. Scott Bain, Vasilis Barkas and Conor Hazard all got runs in the first-team last season but none of them were able to make the gloves their own.

Barkas was one of the big signings last summer. The Hoops are believed to have shelled out a transfer fee around £4.5 million to bring him to Parkhead from AEK Athens, after they were unable to bring back Fraser Forster from Southampton.

Barkas had enjoyed a great spell back in Greece but it is safe to say that he was not able to find his feet in Scottish football. As a result, it should not come as a huge surprise that the goalkeeper is already being linked with a potential move away from Parkhead in January itself.

Ivan Toney

Another thing that Celtic struggled with last season as well was finding the back of the net on a consistent basis. Odsonne Edouard had filled that role for years but did not have greatest of individual campaigns.

One man who almost could not stop scoring last season though was Ivan Toney. The striker was absolutely sensational after joining Brentford.

According to stats from Transfermarkt, he scored 33 goals in 48 Championship games last season. Those are sensational figures. And since then, he has made a decent, if not great, start to life in the Premier League as well.

He is believed to have been very close to a move to Celtic in the summer of 2020 but ultimately a move did not take place and he joined Brentford. The rest is history and in hindsight, it was a huge miss for Celtic.