IF you know the history, you’ll be all too aware of Celtic’s fabled biscuit tin.
The mythical box was a light-hearted metaphor for the alleged tight-fistenedness of Parkhead boards in a bygone era.
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Fast forward to the summer transfer window of 2025 and the Hoops hierarchy have, well, taken the biscuit.
Some would applaud directors who can swell the coffers — already with £70million in reserve — by another £13.6m in one window. And that’s before add-ons from the sales of Jeremie Frimpong and Ben Gannon Doak.
Chocolate biscuits all round on the boardroom table.
But the deals or, more precisely, the LACK of incoming deals have left anything but a sweet taste in the mouths of Celts supporters.
Hoops great Chris Sutton yesterday tweeted: “The most remarkable window of all time. Celtic have come out of it weaker.
“At least Celtic are doing everything they can for there to be a title race this season.
“Going into a season with great expectation and excitement, after a few weeks the feeling now is utter deflation.”
And Sutton’s words simply reflected the feelings of a fanbase which craved new recruits.
A fanbase which has seen Kyogo Furuhashi, Nicolas Kuhn and now Adam Idah disappear down the Celtic Way.
A fanbase which has been asked to stump up for new kits, glamour games not on the season ticket — and soon a four-game Europa League package.
It’s a far cry from pushing Bayern Munich all the way in February with Daizen Maeda, Kuhn and Jota as a jet-heeled frontline.
It will soon by Red Star Belgrade, Braga and Sturm Graz with Michael-Ange Balikwisha, Sebastian Tounekti and Yang Hyun-Jun, now back in Glasgow after the collapse of his move to Birmingham.
If they sold blazing pitchforks in the superstore, Celts might make nearly as much as they did from the transfer window.
But who’s to blame for this “utter deflation”?
Paul Tisdale is Head of Football Operations, the man tasked with finding the players to replace the likes of Kyogo, Kuhn and Idah.
A one-time gaffer at Exeter, MK Dons, Bristol Rovers and Stevenage, he must now unearth a much higher standard of footballer.
If he’s not delivering a lengthy list of legitimate targets to Brendan Rodgers, there’s a problem.
Then there’s Michael Nicholson, a chief executive with such a low profile he could be hired by MI5 to sneak undetected behind enemy lines.
In isolation, the deals he brokered to sell Kyogo, Kuhn and Idah were great pieces of work.
Kyogo wanted away, he was the wrong side of 30 and Celts tripled their money on him.
Kuhn was also eager to take the next step in his career and grabbing £17m from Como for a player signed just 18 months earlier for £3m was a terrific deal.
Idah’s time was up just a year after the Hoops overpaid for him in a £9m deal from Norwich City.
Even getting back £6m-plus from Swansea was astute business. But where Celts have dramatically failed is to recruit adequate replacements for them.
If any of that is down to Nicholson’s negotiating skills, there’s a problem.
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Rodgers vowed just the other day that it wouldn’t come to this.
He said: “There’s interest in Adam but, obviously, no one can leave here unless we get players in to replace them. It’s as simple as that.
“There’s been negotiations and chatter around it, but I have to have players in here before I can consider letting anyone go.
“I just think it’s logical and it’s common sense.
“We’re really light in that area of the field.
“I’m pretty sure there would be a number of clubs that would want some of our players but there’s absolutely no way we can move anyone out unless we have absolute guarantees that there’s going to be people to come in to replace.”
If you think Sutton’s upset, wait until Rodgers speaks again on the eve of the trip to Kilmarnock after the international break.
Now in the final season of his three-year deal, he’s spent the entire summer publicly pleading for reinforcements.
Yet he faces the push for five in a row, the defence of the Premier Sports Cup and a second-tier Euro campaign down on quality and quantity.
Speaking this summer, the boss said: “A coach will always want the players in.
“I think it’s arithmetic — it’s purely counting.
“We’ve lost players and we want to replace those players with quality.
“We want to replace those as quick as we can in order to keep developing. My over- riding feeling is I want to help the club to continue moving forward.
“I’m not the type of manager to just maintain something, I’m not the right guy to have.
“I need to build, I need to work with players, develop individual players.”
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Developing Johnny Kenny, Shin Yamada and Callum Osmand might not have been at the forefront of his mind when he made those remarks.
And yet, if anything was to happen to Maeda this autumn, that’s more or less where Celts would be stuck.
It makes you wonder that if Rodgers hadn’t promised to stay for three years — another ‘if you know your history’ moment — whether he’d be considering his position today.
But will he name names if the blame game currently being played by fed-up fans spills into the public arena?
And what of the man who gets the best biscuits — Dermot Desmond.
It’s believed he was stung by Celts having to overpay £25m for Arne Engels, Idah and Auston Trusty last summer.
Hoops sources vowed never again to be stung late on.
You’d have thought it would injected an urgency for early deals so they could relax as the window gently closed.
Yet once again they almost got their fingers caught in the window as Tounekti — who cost more than Celts’ failed bid for Jakob Breum — was unveiled AFTER the 11pm deadline.
Read more on the Scottish Sun
If Desmond, the man who ultimately writes the cheques, had any negative role in this “most remarkable window of all time”, there’s a problem.
And if the season ends with anything less than a fifth straight title, you won’t be able to squeeze all those problems below the biscuit tin lid.
Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page
