The jury is very much still out for Celtic’s winter transfer business.
But in the eyes of many Hoops fans, the signing of five loan players hasn’t done a great deal to alleviate concerns.
Martin O’Neill hasn’t given too much away on the players he has signed, and he dipped into the free agent market after the window for the signing of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
O’Neill’s return just days into January coincided with the departure of Head of Football Operations Paul Tisdale, leading to a makeshift recruitment team overseeing the January business.
And in these circumstances, ex-Celtic player pathways manager Darren O’Dea thinks that people aren’t realising one key factor.
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Darren O’Dea on Celtic recruitment factor
The signing of Julian Araujo was completed under the watch of Tisdale, and O’Neill’s only acquisition before Deadline Day was Tomas Cvancara a fortnight later.
Deadline Day saw Junior Adamu, Benjamin Arthur and Joel Mvuka all join Celtic on loan.
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The prioritising of loan deals has come in for a fair amount of criticism, despite three of the signings including options to make the moves permanent.
O’Dea, speaking on the Go Radio Football Show after recent experience, defended the club’s approach.
He said: “I think on that with loans… it can be hit or miss.
“The reality is that there’s two ways of looking at it: Celtic don’t know who their manager is going to be next year.
“So I think there will probably be a small element of not knowing if we want to sign this player, for X amount, that the next manger might not fancy.
“The second thing is that the recruitment has been well-documented. There’s been loads of changes in that. So there won’t have been loads of work.
“I think Martin O’Neill and Shaun Maloney will have touched on that. There was a lot of fast work having to be done when they came in the second time.
“And then the last bit, that people maybe don’t think of too much: top players probably won’t sign, knowing that they don’t know who the manager is after this season.
“So I think it always pointed to loans. I think that was always going to be the case.”
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Celtic’s season of change
Tisdale was mainly dismissed due to his ties to Wilfried Nancy, having led the ill-fated appointment of the Frenchman from Columbus Crew.
Brendan Rodgers abruptly resigned as internal tensions exploded in October, with assistant John Kennedy following him after a three-decade-long association with Celtic.
Peter Lawwell’s resignation was another seismic change at Celtic in what has been a truly remarkable season.
O’Dea had previously been Celtic’s B team manager but was poached by Swansea, whilst head of scouting Jay Lefevre also made the same move. Elena Sadiku left her role as manager of Celtic Women to join BK Hacken.
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