CELTIC’s summer transfer window of 2025 will be remembered for one thing above all else… what might have been.
The Hoops missed out on Danish international striker Kasper Dolberg after a last-minute change of heart and that blow was on the back of being eliminated from the Champions League by Kairat Almaty.
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Many fans were calling for more new signings ahead of the play-off tie against the Kazakh minnows but it seemed the club were confident that the squad was good enough to qualify regardless.
That didn’t prove to be the case and days later Michel-Ange Balikwisha came in, making his debut against Rangers at the weekend.
The Parkhead club signed a second winger in Sebastian Tounekti on deadline day but the big takeaway was Adam Idah being allowed to leave despite the fact an immediate replacement wasn’t lined up.
Dolberg chose to return to Ajax instead of going to Celtic and on Tuesday the Hoops are understood to be trying to sign free agent Kelechi Iheanacho – they need to register him to play in the Europa League by 11pm TONIGHT.
With this in mind, SunSport’s Ryan Rowe and Robert Grieve look back at a whirlwind 24 hours for the Premiership champions – and the transfer window as a whole
Celtic are WORSE than they were at the start of the window
Robert’s word to describe the transfer window…
I would say it’s SHAMBOLIC.
What a window for Celtic, from their point of view. I was there pre-season with them in Porto and Italy, with Brendan Rodgers, and the whole conversation throughout those weeks has been about the transfer window, and here we are, it’s closed and Celtic are in a WORSE state than they were when the window opened.
They’ve lost key players, they’ve let key players go, since Kyogo left the club, they haven’t signed a new striker, they’ve let Nicholas Kuhn leave for big money, a great deal from Celtic’s point of view but they let him go, and obviously Jota has an injury.
“They have not done enough to get replacements in, and understandably for me, the Celtic fans are up in arms.”
Tic tock
Celtic are trying to sign Kelechi Iheanacho on a free transfer to replace Adam Idah – but will that be enough?
Celtic will sign a replacement, I think there is business going on right now, conversations happening as we speak, it’s going to be someone who’s out of contract.
Iheanacho is someone who could potentially still sign for Celtic but that has to happen before 11pm tonight if the player, or whoever it is, is going to be registered to play in the Europa League.
And would he be an upgrade on Idah?
It’s a hard question to ask whether he’s even a better option than Adam Idah, he certainly wouldn’t be one I’d take over Dolberg.
If you’re talking about Dolberg, for me no doubt about it, if Celtic had got Dolberg in that would have been a fantastic signing.
When his name was first mentioned you’re thinking that’s a player of quality, but it’s not happened, but flip it on the other side, Adam Idah was the player in the building, as you say Brendan Rodgers spoke about it at the time, about how Celtic wouldn’t let him go but they have, they’ve not got Dolberg, that’s fallen on its face, so it’s a real problem there for Celtic.
The Dolberg situation would have been fantastic for Celtic had it happened, but I still don’t think that would have had the Celtic fans celebrating, they would have been still up in arms this morning about how poor this window’s been.
I also think it’s such a bad look, when you’re a club the size of Celtic, and you’ve got such a huge resource in terms of recruitment, allegedly, and if they do it, you end up getting a player who basically the manager’s got on speed dial.
You’ve got to be better than that.
I just find it quite baffling that when push comes to shove, if it happens, and it’s not happened yet, but that’s going to be the shakedown of this, that he’s a player that the manager’s worked with before just like Jeffrey Schlupp and Kieran Tierney.
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Rodgers rage?
The Hoops boss was adamant Idah wouldn’t be allowed to go without a replacement but here we are…
He has not made his feelings a secret in the last few weeks, he’s been loud and clear about what he has felt has to happen.
I would love to be a fly on the wall in his office this morning, he is going to be livid, I don’t think there’s any doubt about that, but at the same time I think for the here and now, I think he has to temper that frustration.
I don’t see Brendan Rodgers leaving Celtic any time soon, I think there is maybe a feeling if you look on social media, maybe fans wondering if this whole situation maybe does push him towards the exit door sooner rather than later, I don’t think that will happen.
But he has to almost put his frustration to the side, because it’s the situation he’s facing, and it’s what he has to deal with, so
yeah, I think there’s no doubt in my mind whatsoever, he’ll be furious about what’s happened, or what hasn’t happened, but I think he just has to park it for now.
Not the first time Celtic have paid over the odds
New signing Tounekti cost £5.5m after joining Hammarby six months ago – waiting until the last week of the window doesn’t always pay off
It seems as though Hammarby had Celtic where you don’t want to be in terms of that deal getting done, so again they’ve been backed into a corner with that one, they’ve had to get it done, they’ve probably paid over the odds for the player.
But that’s a situation that Celtic have found themselves in recent windows, it happened last season with Auston Trusty, it happened with Arne Engels, it happened with Adam Idah, where they’ve had to get deals done at the last minute, and paid over the odds.
That’s not Tounekti’s fault, he’s come in, another player that arguably is a player who could be a good player, but yeah it’s not a good look for Celtic right now.
Early standouts?
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Of what we’ve seen so far, Nygren looks like the clear winner here
In fairness to him, I know he wasn’t particularly good at the weekend against Rangers, but I’ve been relatively impressed with Nygren.
I was in pre-season camp with Celtic both in Portugal and in Italy, for me he played well, there were real signs there that Nygren could be a good player for Celtic.
I think the problem is he’s moved around a little bit, I don’t think that’s helped him at all, as you would imagine any new player going to a new club.
It’s probably impacted on some of his performances, but yeah, the one thing Celtic have been good at in the last few years is getting players out and getting money back for them, that’s one thing that they have been pretty astute at but several of these names have come in who are squad players.
Inamura came in, looked fantastic in a couple of pre-season games and had the Celtic fans going, this could be the next big thing.
But Brendan Rodgers very quickly nipped that in the bud and was very quick to try and calm the talk down on him.
Shin Yamada’s the same, he’s another player who’s come in, I remember speaking to Brendan Rodgers about it when we were in Italy, again he trying to calm it down, saying he’s not maybe for the here and now.
Jahmai Simpson-Pusey’s not even played yet, we’ve not seen him.
So there have been signings made but I wonder also if that’s been part of the messaging from Brendan Rodgers.
He’s saying yeah these guys have come in, but these aren’t guys who are going to take us to the next level, and that’s very much what he was after.
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In summary…
Robert’s verdict on the window as a whole
Nowhere near good enough.
If you’re a Celtic season ticket holder, if you are someone who follows the club home and away, I was in Kazakhstan last week, a long, long trek to get there, there were 300 or 400 Celtic fans there. You know, guys have paid really good money to get almost to China, to watch a team, a long trek, planes, trains and automobiles to get there.
If you’re someone like that, or someone who’s going to Celtic Park every week, who’s paying your money and your merchandise, who’s going to be asked to pay for Europa League tickets when you were expecting to be paying for Champions League tickets, and this has happened, I can really understand why you’re so angered, upset, frustrated.
I mean people talk about the Celtic board, Peter Lawwell, Michael Nicholson, even Dermot Desmond, about being risk averse, for me it’s the OPPOSITE.
The fact that they’ve got themselves into this position is because they’ve been so prepared to take a GAMBLE.
They should have done this work months ago.
Now I understand and appreciate that it’s not always easy to get deals done and over the line.
Celtic I think thought Dolberg was done, at the last minute he has a change of heart, he decides not to come.
But to get yourself into that position is really, really poor work from the guys behind the scenes there.
And I think that comes down to the risk that they’re willing to take.
I just think they’ve backed themselves into such a bad corner, I can really understand why Celtic fans are up in arms.
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