Stephen Welsh is one of the first names out of the Celtic door.
The 26-year-old has 12 months left on his Celtic contract, but an early call has been made to terminate his deal so both parties can go their separate ways.
That leaves the champions of Scotland with Cameron Carter-Vickers, who was injured for large parts of last season, Liam Scales, Auston Trusty and Dane Murray as the centre-back options for next season.
Celtic can’t go in with that as the options next season, no matter who the manager is, as Benjamin Arthur, who was on loan from Brentford for six months, needs to be called back.
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First and foremost, you have to question what role Murray will play next season, and whether he is in the same boat as Welsh.
Added to that, while Celtic won the domestic double, it’s not like Scales and Trusty were always at their consistent best; they weren’t. You can’t cover up the cracks of what happened throughout the campaign!
Then you have Carter-Vickers returning after a long time. Once again, whoever is in charge can’t solely rely on him, so some freshness is needed at the back.
That can come in the form of a completely new signing, but also bringing back Arthur, who looked comfortable and at home during his short loan spell at Parkhead.
At the age of 20, this is a player worth investing in, as he proved during his first start against Aberdeen in March and the Scottish Cup win over Rangers at Ibrox.
Arthur’s stats for Celtic
Ironically, Arthur had come in during the winter because Welsh was sent back to Motherwell to complete the rest of his loan spell.
Despite there being so much chopping and changing, as well as a lack of stability in Glasgow, Arthur didn’t seem fazed wearing the famous green and white colours, including being likened to Virgil van Dijk by Frank McAvennie.
He played a key role in the Scottish Cup triumph, given his performances in the quarter-final and semi-finals, before being left out of the matchday squad for Celtic’s win over Dunfermline Athletic.
- Arthur’s Premiership games: 4
- Starts: 3
- Interceptions per game: 1.3
- Tackles: 1.3
- Balls recovered: 3.0
- Dribbled past: 0.3
- Clearances: 7.3
- Total duels won: 82%
- Sofascore rating: 6.88
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