Celtic’s Joel Mvuka has played less than 90 minutes of football for the club, but already looks like an absurd signing.
A right-winger was near the top of Martin O’Neill’s wishlist for the winter window, but that winger wasn’t Mvuka, given how many targets the club worked through before the deadline.
Jocelin Ta Bi was initially pursued under the watch of Wilfried Nancy and Paul Tisdale, but the player joined Sunderland after issues with his Parkhead medical, and is already injured at the Stadium of Light.
O’Neill then all-but admitted that Fares Ghedjemis and Damir Redzic were both targets, but neither agreed to moves, leaving Mvuka as the final option.
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Celtic signings like Joel Mvuka are here to stay
This agent-led approach to signing players has been at the heart of Celtic’s model for years, and will remain so until the model changes.
Clearly, the club showed a commitment to changing the model in some way by committing to the vision of Tisdale.
READ MORE: Martin O’Neill refuses to celebrate Celtic’s Ibrox win during Jim White debate
The trouble with that was that Tisdale appeared underqualified with the role of Head of Football Operations at the time of his appointment, and what followed back that scepticism up.
Tisdale oversaw a baffling summer transfer window in 2025 which saw the arrivals of Michel-Ange Balikwisha, Jahmai Simpson-Pusey, Hayato Inamura and Shin Yamada.
One window later, only Balikwisha is still presently part of the squad, though he hasn’t been used since a poor showing against sixth-tier Auchinleck Talbot in January.
With the Tisdale role now vacant, Shaun Maloney has been fronting a makeshift recruitment team in the absence of a director of football, head of recruitment or permanent manager.
The club choosing to hire a new manager in the absence of a senior football operations figure (director of football or otherwise) would be a clear sign of what’s to come: more of the same.
This is a club with the cash and pedigree to attract top operators with a proven track record, but the appointment of Tisdale doesn’t fill you with any hope that this will happen.
And whilst doing things off the cuff without a long-term strategy can get you by in a one-off window here or there, you simply won’t get away with it over any significant period in modern football.
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Joel Mvuka’s Celtic performance at Ibrox – pundit verdicts
Pundits discussing the game were troubled by what they saw from Mvuka, a player who was due to be signed permanently for a £4 million fee until his medical flagged issues with his heart.
Tam McManus wrote on X: “Mvuka like a competition winner. Wow.”
Alan Hutton, working as a commentator for Premier Sports, said that Mvuka had “looked really erratic, especially defensively.”
In response, ex-Celtic manager Neil Lennon said: “I think really erratic is putting it lightly…”
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