American baseball icon Yogi Berra once said, allegedly, “It gets late early around here.” He could have been describing The Hoop’s handling of the January transfer window for the past decade or so, for the most part. With the exception of the two winter windows under former manager Ange Postecoglou’s watch, the Celtic hierarchy have waited until late in the month to close the deal on any incomings. Even outgoings have tended to wait until the 11th hour.
The Full Scottish
This time around, two players have left—the mysterious Hyeok-kyu Kwon, on loan to St. Mirren, and Yosuke Ideguchi, to Vissel Kobe. Neither had been seen around the first team for months.
Midfielder James McCarthy is also out in the cold, with only two appearances with the B team since October 2022. Current manager Brendan Rodgers said in August the Glaswegian Irish international’s time at the club was, sadly, up. And yet, he remains.
As of this writing, no new signings have been confirmed, though reports suggest winger Nicholas Kuhn is on his way from Rapid Vienna.
With wingers Daizen Maeda and Yang Hyun-Jun, midfielder Reo Hatate and striker Oh Hyeon-gyu all away on Asian Cup duty, the Bhoys will be thin in the attacking third when they return from the winter break, for Scottish Cup play, on Sunday.
Even with those players, they could use more depth at forward/striker and left back. Long term, goalkeeper is a need, what with Joe Hart nearing the end of the line. And yet…
If this sounds familiar, it should. It appears that the early-window signings (Hatate and Matt O’Riley, for example) seen under Postecoglou, now at Spurs, were an aberration: Celtic have returned to the old way of doing business, by doing their business late.
Will it be too late to get vital business done?