Paul John Dykes has been speaking on the latest edition of the A Celtic State of Mind podcast about all things relating to Celtic after the Bhoys lost the Old Firm derby 1-0.
This led to numerous discussions on many topics, and one issue that Dykes spent a lot of time on was recruitment and, in particular, Nick Hammond’s role.
Since Celtic sold Kieran Tierney on deadline day in 2019, the Bhoys have signed many players; however, very few of them have greatly impacted the first team.
For example, in Neil Lennon’s starting XI against Rangers, only four players signed during the past two windows were present.
So, clearly, there has been a bit of a problem with recruitment, and Dykes blames Hammond for that.
He said: “Think back to the £25m we brought in for Tierney, how many players do you think we have bought since then have been a good use of any of that cash?
“That again goes to the recruitment side of things, and for too long, the people at the head of recruitment – Nick Hammond [has got away with it].
[Hammond] seems to be a kind of buffer between Neil Lennon and Peter Lawwell, or he’s just maybe easy enough for Peter Lawwell to control.
“He doesn’t seem to get mentioned all that often, yet our recruitment has been very, very poor.”
Do you think Hammond is to blame for Celtic's woes?
Yes, he must take some of the blame
No, it is not his fault
TIF Thoughts on Celtic’s transfer business…
Celtic have brought in seven players over the course of the last two windows; some of them like Patryk Klimala have struggled for game time, while others like Shane Duffy have struggled to perform.
So, there have clearly been problems with recruitment, and we think it is good that Dykes is pointing those out.
Hammond has been Head of Football Operations since October 2019, and it seems as if Dykes feels that he is not doing his job properly and if you look at some of the signings Celtic have made over the past two windows, we would be inclined to agree with him.