The departure of Paul Tisdale at the start of January threw a spanner in the works for Celtic.
Not in the sense that Celtic fans weren’t happy that Tisdale was gone, but who was running proceedings behind the scenes now, relating to transfers?
Tisdale was Head of Football Operations, and whilst he did a woeful job, whatever he and Wilfried Nancy were planning needed to be thrown out.
Whilst Martin O’Neill is front and centre in the media, Shaun Maloney and Celtic’s backroom staff are also playing their role in bringing players in.
With a week to go, rate Celtic’s transfer window so far out of 10…
How Celtic are going about their transfer work behind the scenes
The January transfer window slams shut on Monday evening, and so far, Celtic have only added two new faces to their squad.
Julian Araujo was signed under Nancy, whilst new striker Tomas Cvancara made his debut against Hearts last time out.
But new faces are needed, as Maloney told his Celtic press conference that nobody is watching more players than O’Neill right now.
Maloney explained everyone is ‘chipping in’ when looking at players and who to sign, as O’Neill is the one who has the ‘final say.’
What’s also interesting is that Maloney stated that ‘the process’ of how Celtic are going about signing players has changed, not ‘the recruitment team.’
Gordon Duncan: “Martin landed you in it a few weeks ago, telling us all that you have taken a big role in recruitment. What does that role look like?”
Maloney laughs and adds: “Not as big as what Martin (made out). It’s just working extremely hard with the recruitment department. The recruitment analysis. The board.
“I think Martin underplays his own efforts in it because I don’t think there is anyone else in this building who watches more players than Martin. You have all the staff doing the same. We are kind of chipping in at this stage. Just working extremely hard on it.
“I wouldn’t say that’s just me. I would say that’s quite a few people.”
Duncan: “Is that you taking people to Martin O’Neill for him to have the final say? Or are you part of the final say once it gets to that stage?”
Maloney: “Definitely, Martin, that has the final say. Once it gets to the stage of the list of players. I wouldn’t say I am taking the players to that list. That’s definitely the recruitment team.
“I think, as in most clubs, you generally get sent quite a few players or certain players that you think are specific or could do a certain thing for us. There are loads of ways we are definitely trying to change parts of the recruitment team. Maybe the process. Not the team.
“I have been really happy with the two guys who have come. I think Julian and Tomas are types of profiles that we haven’t had. Then it’s really specific in the types we want to bring in. We feel we have got a few that could sort of do the things that we need, particularly on that right side.
“Then, hopefully, we can get them in.”
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