BBC journalist Tom English critical of Celtic’s recruitment

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Tom English doesn’t seem too impressed with Celtic’s recruitment as of late. The Hoops were widely criticised for failing to bring John McGinn to the club last summer and also failed in a bid for Aberdeen’s Scott McKenna.

This year’s transfer saga has seen them failing to sign David Turnbull despite having a bid accepted for the Motherwell man. Negotiations with the teenager failed at the contract stage with Celtic finally ending their interest in the midfielder on Tuesday.

That prompted BBC journalist English to add his tuppence worth to the debate, and it’s fair to say he’s not been speaking glowingly about Celtic.

Does he have a point?

On the face of it, Celtic’s failure to capture either of the three young Scottish talents is pretty damning. All three are expected to go on to big things and could have been really useful to the club.

The McGinn stuff has been well covered over the past 12 months. Celtic know where they went wrong and will hopefully learn from that in the future. There were signs that they had learned their lesson despite failing to seal a deal for Turnbull. The fact the club met Motherwell’s £3million asking price for the teenager shows that they were prepared to shell out money.

Celtic were also prepared to spend a healthy fee on Scott McKenna not so long ago. The club reportedly had a £3.5million bid turned down for the Aberdeen defender last summer. The Dons wanted far more money than Celtic were prepared to pay. The club should be cut a little slack on that one.

It also seems hard to blame them for the Turnbull saga. The teenager was looking for a vast wage given his relative inexperience and the club weren’t prepared to pay over the odds. We showed our intent with the original bid and shouldn’t be too heavily criticised for not being prepared to pay an exaggerated wage for a 19-year-old.

Celtic face a tough challenge going forward in the transfer window. Scottish clubs now value their players far higher. They’ve seen the inflated fees going on south of the border and want a slice of the action. The same goes for players and their wages.