It has been a busy winter period for Ange Postecoglou in the transfer market.
The Celtic boss has brought a number of new faces to the club, which allowed several players to depart – the latest being Giorgos Giakoumakis.
But, after a busy few weeks of transfer action, the Celtic squad now appears to be set for the rest of the 2022/23 campaign.
As we have come to expect from the 57-year-old, the Hoops were quick off the mark in January, signing three players before the window was even open.
Both Yuki Kobayashi and Alistair Johnston joined the club during the winter break in November and go straight into training in December.
At the end of 2022, they were joined by a further addition, this time for Yokohama F Marinos, as J-League player of the year Tomoki Iwata made the move to Glasgow.
Finally, a few weeks later, the Bhoys made their fourth and final signing of January, bringing Hyeongyu Oh to Parkhead after a long chase.
These four arrivals – particularly the signings of Johnston and Oh – allowed a couple of key members of Postecoglou’s squad to depart.
Josip Juranovic and Giorgos Giakoumakis, who only officially secured his move yesterday, moved on to pastures new after a successful 18 months in Glasgow.
Although sections of the support may have been disappointed to see the duo go, it gave us our first glimpse of the next stage of Ange Postecoglou’s transfer strategy.
The former Socceroos boss is looking to be ruthless in the transfer market. He let go of two players who are approaching their 30s and brought in two much younger options for a fraction of the price he sold Juranovic and Giakoumakis.
Of course, there were also a couple of more low-key transfer departures in the January window, with Oliver Abildgaard and Moritz Jenz’s stay being cut short and Yosuke Ideguchi completing a loan move back to his homeland.
Celtic youngsters such as Tobi Oluwayemi (Cork City), Johnny Kenny (Shamrock Rovers), and Adam Montgomery (St Johnstone), also secured development loans for the next few months.
Ultimately, after the departure of Giorgos Giakoumakis on Wednesday afternoon, it now feels like the incomings and outgoings at Celtic in the winter of 2023 are officially complete.
He would have had an idea heading into the transfer window, but Ange Postecoglou now officially knows what his squad will be looking like for the second half of the campaign.
The Celtic boss is stacked with quality options to select from in defence, midfield and attack after building a strong squad over the last four windows.
There do remain some players who are likely to have question marks over come the summer, such as Conor Hazard or James McCarthy.
But, it appears that everyone who is at the club currently will be seeing out the 2022/23 campaign as the Bhoys eye up further trophy success.
Here’s hoping they can all continue to contribute when called upon, and we are going to start seeing the best of some of our new additions in the coming weeks!
In other news, The VAR situation at Celtic Park this weekend as SFA announce Monday “double draw”.
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