Is Celtic’s Board up to the standard required to support an elite manager?

In partnership with

The Celtic Star

·26 de julho de 2025

Is Celtic’s Board up to the standard required to support an elite manager?

After years of bloated squads and too many misfiring signings, Celtic’s 2025 summer transfer window has seen the club finally close in on the long-awaited objective of clearing the decks…

Peter Lawwell, Brendan Rodgers and Michael Nicholson (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

The process, which has spanned multiple windows, appears to be nearing completion as players who either never featured or failed to make an impact have now been moved on. This clear-out, long overdue, you would hope is a necessary step in shifting from reactive squad management to strategic, forward-thinking recruitment.

Vídeos OneFootball

Several senior players and fringe figures have departed, with Celtic showing a quiet but effective decisiveness in moving them off the wage bill.

Among the notable exits, Scott Bain joined Falkirk on a free, while Greg Taylor left for PAOK under similar terms. Daniel Cummings moved to West Ham, and Gustaf Lagerbielke made a £2.2 million switch to Braga. Nicolas Kühn’s £16.5 million transfer to Como represents the most profitable sale. Maik Nawrocki has been sent on loan to Hannover 96 in a deal that could still lead to a permanent move, and Kwon Hyeok-kyu has gone to Nantes for around £300,000.

Further departures are likely, with Marco Tilio expected to join Rapid Vienna and Stephen Welsh was nearing a move to Mechelen, though an injury may have stalled that transfer.

Celtic player Kieran Tierney iin action during the pre-season friendly match between Celtic and Newcastle United at Celtic Park on July 19, 2025. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

On the incoming side, the business has been more understated. Kieran Tierney returned to Celtic from Arsenal in a deal widely seen as inevitable given his situation and ties to the club, he admitted as much himself. While officially a free, the full cost of the deal including wages and bonuses is understood to be around £4 million.

The club also secured goalkeeper Ross Doohan from Aberdeen, Callum Osmand from Fulham’s U21 side, for a cross-border compensation fee believed to be around £300k, and Benjamin Nygren from Nordsjaelland for a very smart £2 million fee. Shin Yamada arrived from Kawasaki Frontale for £1.5 million and is viewed as a prospect with the kind of profile that could suit Brendan Rodgers’ system well. Hayato Inamura was another low-cost acquisition at just £250,000, and he’s shown up well in the near no contact nature of pre-season football.

Benjamin Nygren of Celtic Ajax v Celtic, Como Cup Pre Season Football, Football, Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia, Como, Italy – 24 Jul 2025Como Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia Italy. Photo Shutterstock IMAGO

All in, the club sits on a positive net spend of around £15 million—not including any windfall from Jeremie Frimpong’s recent transfer and the sell-on clause Celtic wisely retained.

The financial housekeeping is impressive, but it’s also where scrutiny sharpens. Celtic have shown they can move players out. The challenge now is bringing the right ones in.

The real test of this summer isn’t simply in reducing numbers but in shifting the club’s transfer strategy to one built on proactivity. For too long, the club has operated in reaction—plugging gaps after sales or scrambling to offload players who never fit.

Celtic FC coach Brendan Rodgers looks on before the Como Cup match between Ajax and Celtic FC at Giuseppe Sinigaglia Stadium on July 24, 2025 in Como, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)

This window must mark the beginning of a new phase, where planning is smarter and more precise, and where every window is about refining the squad, not overhauling it.

With the decks now close to clear, Celtic can finally move with purpose. The question is whether they’ll take that opportunity—or fall back into old habits.

What Celtic can’t afford now is for this clearing of the decks to simply make way for another round of “projects” who, in two or three seasons’ time, will need to be moved on all over again. The squad has been stripped back, the wages trimmed, and the groundwork laid. That work would count for little if the spaces created are filled with players who lack the pedigree, readiness, or resilience to step into the side and contribute meaningfully within the next six to twelve months.

This is not a call for big-name, big-fee signings just for the sake of spending. It’s about the right profile—players who are already proven at a strong European level, preferably with Europa League or higher experience, and who possess the mentality and ability to raise the group standard immediately. Brendan Rodgers doesn’t need promise alone—he needs players who are ready to impact now, and whose trajectory can be guided upwards toward Champions League level, not carried there over two or more years of intensive coaching.

Stephen Welsh at Tannadice, Dundee Utd v Celtic, Sunday 22 December 2024. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Celtic are, realistically, three first-team starters away from being ready to roll, whilst the loan market can be used to ensure we have cover for the injured Jota, or the fifth defender we’ll need should Stephen Welsh head to Mechelen – and he does need to go.

The manager has made clear he wants a left-sided attacker, a right-sided attacker, and a central striker ideally with proven European credentials. These players can still be young, in their early 20s with scope for development and resale, just like Benjamin Nygren. But crucially, they must be ready now. Not players stepping up from leagues similar in standard to the Scottish Premiership, without international or continental experience.

This summer’s transfers can’t be about potential that might pay off in two seasons. It needs to be about building a side capable of challenging in Europe this season—and peaking next season. The bridge from promise to pedigree can’t be long. Rodgers needs players who can cross it quickly, with him, inside a six to twelve-month window.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers is seen during the pre-season friendly match between Celtic and Newcastle United at Celtic Park on July 19, 2025 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

That is the difference between another cycle of frustration and a genuine leap forward for the club.

The question now is whether Celtic can actually conclude the sort of deals that matter—deals that define ambitions, not just tidy up past mistakes. The kind of signings Brendan Rodgers has spoken about in recent days—players with proven quality. Players who are wanted by other clubs with serious European aspirations don’t just fall into your lap. These are transfers that involve competition, pressure, and real intent.

Can Celtic win those battles? Can the club move decisively in negotiations, meet serious demands, and show a level of professionalism that matches the stature of clubs we aspire to stand alongside in Europe? It’s one thing to talk about ambition—it’s another to show it, and to act on it when it matters most.

There’s a lot to like about the outgoing business this summer. It’s been well handled. But it’s hard to offer unreserved praise for simply clearing players we arguably should never have signed for this manager in the first place. The incomings so far—perhaps Tierney aside—haven’t been particularly complex. Celtic have had a clear run at the players they’ve brought in. There’s been little real competition. No high-stakes bidding. No major test of the club’s operational sharpness.

Peter Lawwell, Brendan Rodgers and Michael Nicholson (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Now that changes.

This is the moment where scrutiny really begins. It’s easy to tidy up yesterday’s mess. It’s harder to build something that matches the expectations of today—and tomorrow. The next few signings will be a measure not just of strategy, but of whether Celtic’s executive leadership is up to the standard required to support a top-level, elite manager. And if they’re not—if the structure above Brendan Rodgers cannot deliver what’s needed—then the same urgency shown in offloading underperforming players must be applied to the deal brokers too.

Because ambition doesn’t just apply to players. It has to apply across the football operation. And if Celtic truly want to compete again—not just domestically, but at a meaningful European level—then everything about how this club functions must meet that moment.

Peter Lawwell, Brendan Rodgers and Michael Nicholson. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

That includes the people doing the deals.

The squad is almost where it needs to be. The manager knows what’s missing. The fans know what’s required. The window has reached its decisive phase.

Now, we see what this football club is really made of.

Niall J

Read this – The backstory to Celtic in the Eighties by David Potter

Thank you to everyone who has already pre-ordered the late David Potter’s last ever Celtic book, Celtic in the Eighties, which will be published on the fifth day of September by Celtic Star Books. The link to pre-order your copy is below…

Celtic in the Eighties by David Potter, out 5 September 2025. Available to pre-order now.

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