Celtic’s shambolic transfer window has been a huge bugbear for the Parkhead support.
With a Champions League qualifier to prepare for, Celtic fans and Brendan Rodgers were keen to get new players in quickly to give them the best chance possible to reach the £40m group phase.
As it was, Celtic stuttered their way through the summer making lowball offers to clubs for players like Jacob Breum and Kasper Dolberg.
A late deadline day scramble saw Celtic add just one player in Sebastian Tounekti with Kelechi Iheanacho’s arrival completed 48 hours later.
However, journalist Michael Gannon has let slip when Celtic ‘could have’ signed the Tunisian and this update is likely to anger the Parkhead support even further.
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Celtic ‘could have’ signed Sebastian Tounekti ‘a month earlier’
Tounekti impressed Celtic fans on his debut in the win over Kilmarnock at the weekend as he showed what the Hoops forward line has been missing.
And Gannon says Celtic could have signed the international winger well before transfer deadline day.
Gannon told Hotline Live, “Celtic are kind of snookered because if they go and play really well and the new guys hit the ground and play superb fast flowing football, that’s another club to beat the board with.
“These guys should have been in the door early. I mean Tounekti, for five million quid, they could have had him a month earlier. Never happened.
“Balikwisha, trying to buy him for 18 months. I don’t think he’s had a great start right, but you’ve got to give the guy a chance to settle in.
“Saracchi, again a left back, a good performance at the weekend. I thought he looked pretty good. He looked pretty tidy but Celtic needed a left back for the qualifiers because Kieran Tierney couldn’t play 90 minutes.
“All things that are done after the event and the ship has sailed. So the anger is not going to go away with fans.”
Why Celtic fans will be angered at Sebastian Tounekti update
If Celtic had the chance to sign Tounekti at the end of July or the beginning of August, why didn’t they?
The winger would have been in place for the two legs of the Champions League qualifiers against Kairat Almaty and well bedded into the team for the first Rangers game of the season.
Whilst there is no guarantee Celtic would have won any of those games, Tounekti proved against Kilmarnock that he has the ability to take on defences and create chances.
Chances that were sorely missed in those three crucial games where Celtic failed to score a single goal. This is another reason the Hoops hierarchy are under fire and fan anger is likely to increase further after hearing this.
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