Celtic left £9m of talent out of the squad tonight

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Albian Ajeti and Vasilis Barkas weren’t even in the first-team squad for Celtic against Aberdeen tonight.

That’s £9m worth of talent there, and yet it’s not even much of a mystery. Ajeti [BBC] and Barkas [BBC], arrived with confusion rather than fanfare. Unless you were particularly au fait with Swiss or Greek football, these players were unknown quantities.

In Ajeti’s case, you could’ve been forgiven for forgetting that he played for West Ham United. David Moyes wasn’t sure who he was selling to us.

So, how did we get here? We were expecting something from a £9m outlay. Normally, we just don’t spend that amount on two players, and when we did, it looked like we meant business. That the 10 was on, and the club was reaching into its considerable pockets to provide us some real quality.

Here we are in late April, and neither of them even get on the bench. Barkas’ season will continue to confound supporters, because it’s not like he was particularly awful before he was dropped. The Greek stopper had to endure shifting defences and changing set-ups. Never sure how long to distribute the ball, when he was called into action, it felt more like sucker punches than shots he could really anticipate.

Ajeti, meanwhile, is a striker who started hot, but hasn’t shown either the fitness nor the willing to lead the line for the Bhoys. Up front and in goals, there’s been a carousel of options and few are convincing.

Who’s to blame for this particular Celtic mess?

You could easily point at Nick Hammond, but it’s not like he was working alone here. Hammond made recommendations to the board and the coaches about players. He had every right to pick a successful Greek goalie and a striker once worth £8m [BBC], after a prolific series of campaigns in Switzerland.

Anyone saying from the off that these players wouldn’t work either has a crystal ball or incredible foresight. These were signings that looked, for all the world, like they were decent.

Hindsight’s everything, of course. I’m sure that, for example, the club would’ve rather have had Fraser Forster and Ivan Toney, but these players looked like capable options.

But they’re nowhere near the first-team, and there’s genuine concern as to how we move these players on. If we can’t find room for these guys after a significant outlay, then our transfer policy is rotten to the core.

You can point to many problems this Celtic team has had in 20-21. But this kind of outlay with a minimal return is a real, real issue.

READ MORE: What we learned as Celtic snatched a draw against Aberdeen