Celtic fans are starting to show some real frustration in this transfer window.
With just under a month to go, Brendan Rodgers has added, in reality, just one real signing that improves the Celtic first-team starting lineup.
Benjamin Nygren looks the real deal as fans remain impressed with the Celtic new Bhoy but with eight additions made this summer, only the Swede appears to be impressing Rodgers.
Hayato Inamura and Shin Yamada are two players who impressed during Celtic’s pre-season but neither were anywhere to be seen as the Hoops beat St Mirren last weekend.
What is also telling is that all the summer recruits, so far, have cost Celtic in the region of £3m and Martin O’Neill suspects that’s the route Dermot Desmond wants to go down moving forward.
Martin O’Neill believes Dermot Desmond sees Celtic ‘going forward in a different light’ from Rodgers
O’Neill is the man who revolutionised Celtic under Desmond when he arrived at the club in 2000. The success he brought as he helped bury Rangers is still being felt by fans to this day.
However, it seems that the days of spending big on players like Arne Engels and Adam Idah may be over as O’Neill shares how the Celtic majority shareholder could now take the club down a different transfer road.
When asked if Desmond has the same goals as Rodgers, O’Neill told the Daily Record, “Absolutely no question about it.
“Dermot will have a vision of the football club but as a club owner or as a major shareholder and the person who’s making the decisions, he might see going forward in a different light than the manager.
“Seriously, he might not always think that spending £14m or £15m pounds on a player is necessarily the way to go. And we’d have to say that in terms of the dealings in recent times, he might be right.
“Now, I don’t know what players Brendan’s looking for. He’ll be looking to improve the team. And I’m quite sure, honestly, I’m quite sure he’ll do that.”
What Brendan Rodgers previously said about Dermot Desmond and Celtic ‘myth’
Fans are frustrated with Desmond with many tagging the majority shareholder as an ‘absentee landlord’ due to his lack of appearances at Celtic.
However, Rodgers moved quickly last December to dispel that notion and here is what he said about Celtic’s majority shareholder.
Rodgers said, “His passion, his energy and enthusiasm for Celtic, it’s unswerving. His commitment to the club is incredible,” the manager said.
“Yeah, he’s not one that wants to be out there. And rightly so, he’s not going to be out there. You don’t see his face all the time, but that should not mean that he’s not interested.
“Because I can tell you from myself, having worked here twice, I know the passion and the love he has for Celtic and his club and as a supporter. So, yeah, these types of things sometimes come up if the team loses a game.
“But it’s all a myth. He’s so unswerving in his commitment to Celtic, everything he gives to it. And obviously, the support I’ve had from him over my two spells has been absolutely incredible.”
Let’s hope all that Rodgers says here is true and that commitment starts to show as an investment before the transfer window closes on the Celtic manager this summer.
Because if Desmond’s thoughts are that he no longer wishes to spend big in the transfer market moving forward, Celtic fans may well have to put up with continued project signings for windows to come.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
