Celtic have done quite a bit of business over the course of the summer transfer window, bringing in nine new players in total. Seven have arrived on a permanent basis while two have been brought in one loan. Out of them, only one is more than 23 years of age, Nat Phillips of Liverpool, who will spend the season at Parkhead.
There was a lot of speculation when Brendan Rodgers was reappointed as manager that Celtic were ready to take things to the next level. There were rumours that they were ready to shatter their transfer record and had handed the Northern Irishman a transfer budget of over £30 million.
It is quite clear that that has not turned out to be the case. Those rumours were quite clearly wide of the mark even though they might have made sense on paper back then.
Rodgers himself has given his take on the matter. As reported by The Scotsman, the Celtic manager said:
"“There was a story written when I first arrived that there was now going to be £10million and £15million players. But that’s a story created outside of the club and certainly myself. The club has a model that is sustainable and they’ll work to that model. That’s where it’s at and it’s proven to be successful.”"
Rodgers calls out media over Celtic rumour
Of course, Rodgers will be very familiar with how Celtic work. He grew up as a fan of the club and has already had a successful stint as their manager.
The second one has not been off to a good start though. They are already out of the Scottish League Cup, have dropped points in the league just three games into it and look like shadows of their treble-winning selves from the previous campaign.
It must be remembered that Celtic have suffered a lot of injuries. They have also seen two very important players leave in the form of Jota and Carl Starfelt. And the players were always expected to take some time to adjust to Rodgers’ brand of football, which is different to that of Ange Postecoglou. It might be too early to panic about the situation.