Pundit John McGinley has slammed Celtic’s approach in the January transfer window because of their tendency to miss out on targets.
McGinley appeared as a guest on the latest episode of the Grand Auld podcast and the panel discussed multiple issues involving the Bhoys. One topic of discussion was Celtic transfers and McGinley talked about the players that the Hoops missed out on this month. He believes that while it is a small thing in the context of the season, this type of failure does matter to the fans.
Has Celtic's approach in January been embarrassing?
Yes
No
The Hoops were interested in signing Mark McKenzie from Philadelphia Union, but the American ended up joining Belgian side Club Brugge. They were also interested in former loanee Filip Benkovic, but the Croatian has joined another Belgian club in OH Leuven. Despite being close to signing Ben Davies on a pre-contract basis, they have missed out on him to Liverpool.
McGinley described Celtic’s recruitment to have been ’embarrassing’ this month and he made his frustration very clear.
He said: “The way that situation has developed over the last month with John Kennedy admitting we’re after Filip Benkovic, for him to then move to Belgium, and then Neil Lennon actually saying we wanted Ben Davies in before the deadline after the St. Mirren game last night, and then a day later, he’s off to Liverpool – that kind of stuff’s just not good enough. It’s embarrassing. In the grand scheme of this season, it’s a small issue, but normally that kind of thing would be a big issue for supporters. It’s just embarrassing.”
TIF Thoughts on McGinley’s comments on Celtic transfers…
While Celtic fans would ordinarily be frustrated if the club misses out on transfer targets, considering that Shane Duffy is only on loan, Kristoffer Ajer has been linked with Milan and Christopher Jullien is injured, it would be even more frustrating to miss out on targets like McKenzie, Davies and Benkovic at a time like this when the futures of their current defenders are uncertain.
That shows that the Hoops needed defenders in the January market. They are 23 points behind Rangers anyway, so you could argue the team is in dire need of a refresh. Therefore, it is easy to understand why McGinley described Celtic’s approach to transfers as ’embarrassing’.