There is little doubt that Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers - having added Adam Idah to the permanent signings of Paulo Bernardo, Kasper Schmeichel and backup keeper Viljami Sinisalo - is happy with his recruitment so far in this transfer window. Though he wants, and expects, more players to arrive.
He isn’t entirely happy though with the make-up of his recruitment department. The people he does have in place have, he stresses, done an exemplary job in scouring the market and scouting players for his perusal, but the Celtic manager concedes that the structure of that particular part of the club currently isn’t up to scratch.
Celtic are still without a head of recruitment following the departure of Mark Lawwell – chairman Peter Lawwell’s son – in early March, an untenable situation Rodgers believes for a club of their size. It is a vacancy he is keen for the club to fill post-haste as they look to bring their recruitment operation up to the standard expected of a Champions League outfit.
“We need to improve that,” Rodgers said.
“The department and other people here, the people that are here are absolutely fantastic.
“The work they've put in over the course of the summer and going back over the months, being so diligent, covering many games, travelling out to games. So, I've done so much work on that front.
“But it's still an area I think that we can review after the window and see where, like every area, every department, where we can improve it.
“I said it, I think it was last week, that recruitment is - alongside your playing and management and coaching staff - your recruitment department is key at your football club.
“Because as I said, if you don't get that right, they can be very costly mistakes. So, for us, it's a constant look at where we can develop and improve it.
“But the guys that have been here, they've worked ever so hard, going through the various options and availability of players to try and help us.”
An area where Rodgers has been satisfied is in the club’s willingness to speculate a little more money on individual players, such as Idah, with the Celtic manager appearing to be winning a battle of hearts and minds with the board that he set out to take on in January.
“It's just the attitude to risk,” he said.
“It's the level of risk. You can sign a player for one, two million pounds, fine. And you might sell them for £10 million. But you can sign a player for seven or eight, maybe sell them for 30 to 40…it's the same thing, you know.
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“But it's really trusting the process and trusting a team of people that can work very, very hard and then allowing you to get the players in.
“But like I said, the Celtic supporters are deserving of that. What they invest week in, week out to this team, worldwide, merchandise, everything.
“It's a duty here for us to try and get the best team we possibly can on the field, to inspire them to come and watch the team.
“That's what we try to do by the football that we play. But that will always be elevated by the level of player that you have.
“So, that's our notion over these final weeks of the season, to try and look to have a really strong team.
“For example, if you spend £18 million and you spend it on nine players, I would hope there's a possibility to spend £18 million on three players. That’s £6 million each.
“So it's a bit like I've always said, our model is to bring in young players to develop and improve. But you can bring young players in to develop and improve, but at a higher level. And then you know a little bit more of what you're getting maybe, and there's maybe a higher ceiling.
“But you might be able to bring in one more at that level or two more. But as I said, I think we can do that. It's just about getting the right player.”
That point is, Rodgers feels, especially pertinent with the challenge of the Champions League on the horizon, and he feels that the balance between having the quality in his squad to compete and the quantity of top-level players required to sustain that is getting better all the time.
The addition of the likes of Idah and Nicolas Kuhn to the line-up from last season’s Champions League squad, for example, shows where Celtic will be better prepared for that step up this time around.
“If you look at those two players, I think one of the key attributes, or a couple of the key attributes that those [players] possess are power and speed. And at that level, it's very, very important.
“You have all the tactical ideas of the game and whatnot, but certainly at that level, speed and power is very, very important alongside the technique.
“So, that is certainly some of the attributes that we would look at in the players that we bring in.”
