Celtic were last night facing a furious fan backlash after a woeful transfer window ended without the hierarchy landing the attacking players Brendan Rodgers had repeatedly demanded.
While Hammarby winger Sebastian Tounekti signed a five-year contract in a £5.2million deal, the manager didn’t get the three additional bodies he wanted to refresh his front line.
After top striking target Kasper Dolberg opted to move from Anderlecht to former club Ajax, the Parkhead club sold Adam Idah to Swansea for £7m in the afternoon — despite Rodgers insisting the Irishman wouldn’t be allowed to go until there was a replacement in the building.
With the manager then contemplating the prospect of having Daizen Maeda, Shin Yamada and Johnny Kenny as his only viable options through the middle, Celtic tried to land Chelsea striker David Datro Fofana only for him to choose Championship strugglers Charlton Athletic instead.
As the 11pm deadline approached, Celtic were frantically trying to land long-term target Kelechi Iheanacho from Sevilla.
With the Spanish club eventually cancelling the contract of the Nigeria international, it’s possible that Celtic can still sign the player — who Rodgers worked with at Leicester — as a free agent in the coming days.
Even that, though, won’t appease those supporters who were already outraged at the lack of transfer activity following a humiliating exit in the Champions League play-off to little-known Kairat Almaty last week.
Still to sign a direct replacement for Kyogo Furuhashi eight months after he left for Rennes for £10m, Celtic have only reinvested a fraction of the £16.5m they brought in from Nicolas Kuhn’s sale to Como at the start of the summer.
Reluctant to tap into cash reserves which stood at £65.4m in December, the club signed Benjamin Nygren from Nordsjaelland for £1.7m, Hayato Inamura from Albirex Niigata for £300,000, Shin Yamada from Kawasaki Frontale for £1.5m and Michel-Ange Balikwisha from Antwerp for £4.5m.
Kieran Tierney returned on a free transfer from Arsenal with loan deals for Manchester City’s Jahmai Simpson-Pusey and Boca Juniors’ Marcelo Saracchi also signed off.
With Jota also out with a long-term injury, though, Rodgers could not have made the need for fresh recruits clearer.
Reiterating the point he’d made all summer after another toothless display in the goalless draw at Ibrox on Sunday, he said: ‘It’s been so clear what the team has needed and what’s required.
‘I really hope that in this period we can do that. Celtic’s DNA is around about our attacking intent, mentality and that bit of quality. You arrive into the final third and you’re creating chances.
‘As I said 12 months ago, the dynamism in the team, the speed and the creativity, everything was there. You feel you can go into games and be really dynamic and creative.
‘We’ve had a long time to reinforce the squad.’
Tounekti arrived at the club yesterday just as Yang Hyun-jun’s proposed £3m move to Birmingham broke down.
The 23-year-old Tunisian international was born in Norway and played for a number of clubs including Bodo-Glimt before joint Hammarby from Haugesund earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Idah has revealed that the chance to be the ‘main man’ and reach his Premier League ‘end goal’ were key factors in his move to Swansea.
Despite scoring 29 goals for Celtic, including the winner in the 2024 Scottish Cup final, Idah failed to get the run of games he craved with Maeda often preferred through the middle.
After signing a five-year deal, he said: ‘I want the responsibility and it is one of the main reasons I have come here. I want to have the chance to be the main man, to lead the line and score as many goals as I can.
‘Every striker wants that job, and to come here and try push for promotion; if you can be the main man in that then it is an amazing feeling.
‘I am really looking forward to trying to do just that and score goals.’
Motherwell last night secured a season-long loan for Stephen Welsh with the academy graduate having fallen behind Dane Murray in the pecking order.
vuaabdipu
0
We really loved the idea of bringing in Dolberg but again I don't blame him he chose UCL football