Former Celtic midfielder and assistant manager John Collins has beamed about the quality of Ange’s signings and the Celtic squad in general.
Collins was on punditry duty on the Celtic Pass to Paradise last night, alongside former Bhoys striker John Hartson. The duo were left mightily impressed by what they saw, as the Hoops ran out 2-0 winners after goals from new striker Daizen Maeda and a penalty from Josip Juranovic.
Reo Hatate, formerly of Kawasaki Frontale, ended the game as Man of the Match. Yosuke Ideguchi came on late, but looked eager to win the ball in midfield and advance it into dangerous areas. Daizen Maeda, of course, made an instant impact, scoring after 3 minutes and change to put Celtic ahead.
Former assistant John Collins was left talking about the title, as well as suggesting that Celtic had bucked something of a trend for January signings.
Collins said [Celtic TV]:
“You don’t win a league with a team. You win a league with a quality squad.
“I think now with those three additions, now we can start talking about saying we’ve got a quality squad. Sometimes you worry about bedding players in, in January. It’s never a great time to sign players.
“But [they] hit the ground running. They looked very relaxed out there.”
John Collins excited about Celtic potential, balance of squad looks just right
It’s hard not to get excited after last night. John Collins has summed up the general feeling around Celtic Park here. Especially in the context of what could be achieved this season.
After all, with something of a threadbare squad, Celtic have already secured silverware in 21-22. That alone speaks volumes.
However, with four new additions, counting Johnny Kenny, the balance of the squad already looks far better. Hatate, alone, showed enough for Celtic fans to believe our midfield has more quality in it now than it did a few weeks ago. Maeda made a goal-scoring impact almost straight away.
As for Ideguchi, he’ll get starts, but he showed promise in a deep-lying midfield role.
Key January signings can make or break a title hunt. Especially when they’re signings designed to make an immediate impact in the first team. Done correctly, it can tilt the pendulum in your favour, as we’ve seen in seasons before.
And again, without getting too excited, John Collins is right. It’s a squad game. And Celtic have undoubtedly improved theirs with some really smart recruitment, from a market Ange Postecoglou knows intimately.
You talk about hitting the ground running; Collins has summed it up entirely. Really, we couldn’t have asked for much more from any of Hatate, Ideguchi or Maeda on their debuts last night. As introductions to Celtic go, it’s not exactly a slow start.
We can say it, indeed; we have a quality squad.
Read more: Video: The hilarious moment when James Forrest tells Celtic new Bhoy what he’s won
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