How do we improve next season?

Assassinate Willie Collum

 

Fixed

 

Ange Postecoglou is already looking ahead to the summer transfer window and insists that Celtic must continue to recruit to maintain the high standards set at the club.


The cinch Premiership champions will make the short trip to Paisley this afternoon to take on Stephen Robinson’s St Mirren and do so in fine form, having won 23 out of their previous 24 domestic matches.

Postecoglou has overhauled the squad since taking charge at Parkhead in the summer of 2021, signing 27 players in that time, and the Glasgow side strengthened again in the most recent window by bringing in Alistair Johnston, Yuki Kobayashi, Tomoki Iwata and Hyeon-gyu Oh.


With the exception of Oh, the latest arrivals’ moves were concluded early on in the window – a staple of Postecoglou’s approach to recruitment – and the Greek-Australian has no intention of changing the way he operates anytime soon, despite his team’s outstanding form of late.

“We are always trying to improve and as you say the results have been outstanding,” Postecoglou said. “As importantly, so have the performances. We are really strong and are getting stronger.

“That is always our focus. Sometimes the performances are not always there even when the results are but we have kind of married the two this year for the most part which has been great.






“We want to continue that until the end of the year and be strong. We are constantly looking at how we can be stronger for next year.

“I think if you look at every window since I have been here we have strengthened and we are already doing work to make sure we come out of the next window even stronger than when we enter it.

“That has got to be our ambition every time we enter this process.

“Getting them in early has worked well for us. It has allowed players to come in and settle and contribute straight away and we will continue to do that.”

 

Every team we play against targets our left side, they see Taylor and starfelt as a weakness they can exploit, both have been fantastic, domestically but looking back to the cup final last week, Rangers managed to get into dangerous positions on that side, fortunately they didn’t have the quality to hurt us, but in Europe that is a major problem.

I would start with replacing those two and bring in a goalkeeper that is good with the ball at his feet. We lack athleticism in the middle of the pitch, Hatate and iwata the only two, that have any sort of pace, this needs sorted, quickly, if we are going to progress in Europe. Lastly I’d say that the squad needs a left footed winger, with pace as we don’t have one of those and potentially another striker, if I’m being greedy to allow to rest and rotate.

I expect we will receive bids for a good few of our players, O’Reily, Abada, CCV, starfelt all been mentioned as having serious interest in them.

We are Still hanging on to some deadwood that are either out on loan or still at the club. Ajeti and McCarthy are the two that won’t be easy to shift. I expect Welsh to leave for the good of his career. Turnbull whilst good technically, isn’t athletic enough to play in our midfield and with a year left in his contract, now is the time to get rid and upgrade that position.

Our aim should be to progress in Europe, if we don’t upgrade key positions and add more Athleticism and physicality and become more press resistant in possession, then nothing is going to change.

 

It’s a fair point but in the latter case literally you could take anyone from academy give them a squad number and there would be no difference

 

Really feels like Ange has completed his stage 1 Celtic team. Strength and depth all over the pitch. The biggest factor could well be any offers that come in from our exsisting players, which seems certain to happen. If we could keep our core key players of CCV, McGregor, Hatate, Jota and Kyogo that gives us a real solid foundation to kick on and make strides in European competition. General idea of stage 2 is to upgrade our good first team players and replace them with excellent players, with the current first team boys moving on or becoming part squad rotation. For me that would mean looking to upgrade Maeda, Mooy, Taylor, Starfelt and Hart probably in that order. Now a couple of those upgrades might already be here with the likes of Abada, Haksabanovic and O'Reilly in the squad. Key point from us will be to strenthen from a position of strength and target quality over quantity. Wonderful opportunity for us to kick on here and create a very special team.

 

This is my thoughts on the likes of McCarthy who are home grown but not providing anything on the park. I would rather see the likes of Summers come into the squad than give McCarthy minutes.

If we lost Welsh at CB the question will be could Lawal replace him or Montgomery etc come into the squad as an option elsewhere.

It is a challenge the home grown stuff I think particularly to the likes of Turnbull who I would surprised if he signs a new deal so may move on in the summer. Vata is another who we will have an eye on replacing Forrest longer term as a home grown player.

I think in a couple of years we will be fine but the time it takes for players to come through may well take time and that’s where McCarthy, Welsh and Johnston may be kept for their contract duration.

The only issue with that is whether the latter two want to stay with very little to no game time as I do not think they will make it with us.

 

If we start next season as strong as we are now, i would be very happy tbh. The players we already have, do have potential to become even better. The worry i have is that it will be hard to keep hold on CCV as the offers will fly in for him, and if that happens it would be Very, very hard to find a player as good instantly. So i would be delighted if we are as strong come next season.

 

Lawal will not count as homegrown until the 24/25 season as he was only signed in 2021 and they need to have been at the club 3 years between 15 and 21, same for Dawson. Players that might make an impact for next season that are homegrown, Anderson, Summers, Letsota, O'too, Vata. Probably not though, I'd imagine there will be some loans for them next and then maybe we will see the season after

That is why we need a reliable talent pipeline setup, we can't really count on signing players from Scottish clubs but we should be cherry picking the best of Scottish talent to feed that.

 

Sorry I was meaning for a couple of years down the line with Lawal and also for some of the others to come through.

I would agree on loans for the bulk of those guys, Summers is possibly the one of Turnbull went I wouldn’t mind seeing given a go as one of our attacking midfielders. Not first choice but if we had Hatate, Mooy, O’Riley (or a replacement), then Summers as a fourth choice wouldn’t be out the question or even if we signed a replacement then using him as a 5th choice because you also have play Iwata deep and McGregor as an 8 being an option.

 

Lawal can be on the b list next season though as he would have been at the club for 2 years.

 

Aye they can qualify on the b list next year as that only needs 2 uninterrupted years between 15 and 21 but we have a requirement to have 8 homegrown and list b players don't count to that

 

I suppose it’s a question whether we are comfortable for Lawal to take Welsh’s place and this is a call for the manager as I don’t think any of us have seen enough of Lawal at a high enough level to gauge that.

Where as the manager and coaching staff will see him training with the first team and will have an idea how capable he is.

What I have seen of Lawal he looks very good on the ball, stepping forward which probably isn’t surprising given he was a centre midfielder to start.However, he looks a bit suspect at defending at times, particularly his positioning which again may be down to being a central midfielder before.

Again that decision may be taken out of Celtics hands if Welsh wants a move for game time. Granted Lawal isn’t then one of the 8 but we maybe just have one short in our total squad and use the B list.

 

This, 100%. I’ve been banging the drum for this for ages on here. Good to hear someone else acknowledge it (other than @McChiellini.. who I’m sure has raised it a couple of times).

Would honestly add so much balance to the attack.

 

Maeda acts like a left-footed winger on the left wing, and Abada prefers to shoot with his left.

 

Careful now, you’re not allowed to point out our left hand side being identified as a weakness by the likes of Carlo Ancelotti and Marco Rose.

 

Improvements for next season.......A new GK(Hart has been very good for us but we need an upgrade). More physicality in the squad(but who are still good on the ball). A credible alternative to Taylor at LB(Bernarbei has some ability but isn't a defender).

 

Your not required to, you just can put more than 17 non home grown. A club can put out a squad of 17 if they want. The problem is are any of our b list ready?