Celtic recently announced new deals for James Forrest, Liam Scales and Luke McCowan.
It drew an interesting reaction, with some of it negative because of Celtic’s current situation and what has unfolded during the past 12 months.
Frank McAvennie suggested the current situation is ‘not what the fans want to see,’ but he went a step further, admitting he is genuinely ‘scared’ that Dermot Desmond won’t actually put the required money on the table for a proper squad overhaul at Parkhead.
“Do you honestly believe nine or ten players are going to come in?” questioned McAvennie. “There is no way Dermot is giving that kind of money out – I am scared, to be honest with you.”
What would you say to Dermot Desmond about Celtic’s transfer model now?
Frank McAvennie dismisses suggestion Celtic will sign up to ‘ten players’ this summer
The first thing the powers that be at Celtic need to address is who will be the club’s new manager.
Many have questioned why give the likes of Scales and McCowan new deals when the new manager isn’t even in the building yet, that’s of course if Martin O’Neill leaves, as expected, at the end of the season.
But clearly, someone, somewhere, is making these calls, even if McAvennie isn’t a fan of it, as he told Let Me Be Frank podcast.
“Don’t start with me about all of that,” responded McAvennie on the new Celtic contracts. “That’s not what the fans want to see.
“No disrespect to them, that’s not what fans want to see, they want to see players coming in.”
Simon Houston: “However, I did read a piece, which I thought was rather interesting, along the lines of, there is going to be an absolute complete rebuild at Celtic over the summer.”
McAvennie: “Obviously not when they are signing these.”
Houston: “If you are potentially talking about nine or ten players coming in.”
McAvennie: “Do you honestly believe nine or ten players are going to come in? There is no way Dermot is giving that kind of money out.”
Houston: “I am not talking about nine or ten players all at £10 million. The squad is absolutely threadbare, as you say every week – how many players do Celtic need?”
McAvennie: “I am scared, to be honest with you. Celtic can win the double, and they aren’t playing anywhere near how they could play. The chairman just says, ‘Look, we don’t need players. We will just keep the players we have.'”
Which positions do Celtic need to address?
On one hand, Celtic having quite a few players on loan will be simple to deal with because you just don’t permanently sign the players that you don’t want, such as Joel Mvuka and Junior Adamu.
But on the other hand, you have a load of players who will be returning to Glasgow from their loan deals, and someone needs to deal with that mess.
Either way, putting aside players who will leave or ask to leave, such as Daizen Maeda, these are the areas that Celtic need to address in the summer.
- Centre-back x 2
- Defensive midfielder
- Central midfielder x 2
- Attacking midfielder
- Wingers x 3
- Striker x 2
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