It remains to be seen how things will play out for Celtic in the remainder of this summer transfer window. So far, it has been quite the struggle, let's just say that. Yes, the additions of Kieran Tierney and Benjamin Nygren have been good ones but other than that, nobody else has been brought in that looks ready to contibute to the first-team right now.
In fact, there have been question marks about how much say Brendan Rodgers had when it comes to certain signings like Hayato Inamura. Whatever the transfer plan was going into the summer, it has not worked out. Or perhaps it was a bad plan in the first place.
In October of last year, Paul Tisdale was appointed by Celtic as their head of football operations. Nicknamed the 'Football Doctor', expectations were set high, but they have not been met so far.
Chris Sutton is pretty clear that things are not working out, at some level. He wrote in his column in the Daily Record:
"What’s happened to the so-called football doctor in all of this?
Paul Tisdale came in last October but so either the recruitment department has failed to find the replacements the team needs or the club failed to get the deals done.
Something isn’t working.
Rodgers’ comments about Hayato Inamura before the game were incredible. If he’s not up to the job then why was he signed – and by who?"
'Failed' - Chris Sutton openly criticises Celtic official
To be very honest, it is not like Celtic have not been linked with some highly-rated talents in recent times. But they have moved painfully slow when it comes to getting deals done and have seemed pretty reluctant to meet the transfer valuations that have been set for these talents.
As a result, we have seen plenty of clubs swoop in and sign players ahead of them. In other instances, the rumours have just faded away.
It is hard to figure in which area the failure is taking place. It is most probably more than one. That does not matter, what matters right now is finding a way to get deals over the line before the summer transfer window closes and then having a look at the entire structure and figure out where the issues lie, and fixing them.