It wasn’t quite a skeleton staff but there were certainly a couple of times this season when Celtic appeared to be down to the bare bones.
The right-footed Josip Juranovic spent his first few months in Glasgow on the opposite flank. Greg Taylor’s injury-enforced absence saw to that. Youngsters Adam Montgomery and Dane Murray were thrown in at the deep end too, forced to swim when they had barely learned to paddle.
There was even a time when Ange Postecoglou had little choice but to field Liel Abada as a centre-forward, with Giorgios Giakoumakis, Liel Abada and the talismanic Kyogo Furuhashi all unavailable.
In the centre of midfield, meanwhile, Tom Rogic and David Turnbull almost picked themselves. Celtic’s inability to replace Ryan Christie, following his summer move to Bournemouth, left Aussie and the Scot with more to do than Santa Claus on Christmas eve.
Turnbull, for instance, started every one of Celtic’s first 18 Premiership fixtures – and five of their six Europa League outings – before succumbing to a hamstring injury.
A few months ago, the prospect of Celtic taking on Rangers in an Old Firm derby without both Rogic and Turnbull was enough to keep even the most optimistic of supporters up at night.
So it’s to the major credit of Celtic’s recruitment team that, with now-league-leading Hoops sweeping their Glasgow neighbours aside at Parkhead on Wednesday night, neither Rogic nor Turnbull were missed for even a single second.
Did Celtic ace the January transfer window?
Matt O’Riley only joined Celtic from MK Dons on January 20th.
But, on his third start for the club, the third-tier import stepped into Rogic’s shoes with startling ease. O’Riley picked apart Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s scattergun backline like a sinister child pulling the wings off a writhing butterfly.
Reo Hatate, meanwhile, continues to prove that Turnbull is not the only midfielder at Postecoglou’s disposal with an eye for goal. He’s scored as many (3) in just four games as Rogic has in 31.
Come the summer, Celtic could have another twinkle-toed playmaker on their books.
French publication FootMercato reported on December 31st that Zinedine Ferhat – named after you-know-you – was ‘very popular’ amongst the Celtic board.
A January move for the Algerian international might not have materialised. It could be a different story in the summer, however. Ferhat is out of contract and showing no desire to extend his stay at Ligue 2 outfit Nimes.
The technically-gifted Ferhat produced six goals and ten assists as Nimes were relegated from France’s top flight last season. If he can muster those numbers in the midst of a relegation battle, imagine what he can do at a scintillating Celtic side brimming with potential and arguably playing even better football than they did during Brendan Rodgers’ heyday.
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