So today sums up Celtic’s operating method. We’ve got our first signing in place for the game tomorrow, a right back on loan. But nothing sums up the overriding ethos, mentality and failure at Celtic more clearly than this: Hearts got their transfer business done before us.
How can an Edinburgh club look more professional, more prepared and more ready to hit the ground running than the biggest club in the country? Why do we look flat-footed and slow while others move early and decisively? Why does it feel as if Hearts understand the stakes of this title race while Celtic still behave as though time is an unlimited resource?
None of us can know in advance whether a signing will succeed or fail.
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Football never offers guarantees. However, that uncertainty misses the point entirely.
Hearts acting early matters because it shows intent.
It shows clarity. It shows a club that understands where it stands and what it needs.
Perhaps this should not even impress us. Perhaps it should represent the bare minimum.
After all, Hearts lead a title race and want to strengthen at the moment when reinforcement matters most. They have identified targets, moved quickly and brought players in without hesitation. Whether those signings succeed will become clear later.
Right now, Hearts have demonstrated purpose.
By contrast, most Celtic supporters carry the same sinking feeling.
We expect the club to drag its feet. We expect negotiations to crawl and for key deals to drift into the middle of the month, if we are lucky.
If we are not, we expect everything to go to the final day, where the club will once again play Russian roulette.
In another time we might have been encouraged by the club moving to bring in a signing two days even, even one on loan.
But that Hearts have done several pieces of business already shames us. We could have had lined up a couple of signings to be ready to go; as it is we will struggle to get the one we have signed onto the park. Araujo is unlikely to be fully fit. He hasn’t played in a while.
This is another version of Russian Roulette.
Other deals may or may not get done quickly. We all fear that the key one – the striker – will take weeks.
By that stage, desperation will be leaking out of every pore at Celtic.
Options will shrink to nothing.
Selling clubs know it. Agents know it. Fees inflate accordingly. Suddenly, a player costs one or two million more simply because the buying club left itself no room to manoeuvre. At that point, Celtic either pays up or walks away looking ridiculous.
None of this is necessary. Leaving business to the last moment would be absurd.
But we’ve done it, and we could do it again. Look across European football and tell me there are no strikers out there who would score more goals than Johnny Kenny. Look again and tell me none of them fall within Celtic’s financial reach.
The club sits on around £70 million in the bank. That alone demolishes the affordability argument. Celtic has room to operate. Celtic has scope to act. Therefore, if the club is not already active on all fronts, something is badly wrong.
As I said in the previous piece, this board has relied on alibis for years and all they have done is feed their own perception problem. They repeat the same excuses window after window.
January is difficult. Deals are complicated. Timing matters.
Yet this is the window where every one of those excuses could collapse like a house of cards.
Either the board produces a decisive, professional transfer window or it exposes its own mythology as nonsense.
We already know the truth.
Ange Postecoglou proved it in his first January when Celtic signed two first-team starters and had them integrated before the window even closed. January can work when people know what they are doing.
Now Hearts have shown us again what commitment looks like. They did not wait. They did not hesitate. Their recruitment work likely started months ago. They identified their needs early. They planned. Then they executed.
Those players could not play until 1 January, but they were able to talk with their team-mates. They were already learning systems.
On Saturday, they will be able to step straight in.
Meanwhile, Celtic head towards a match against the Ibrox club with the same forward line we have struggled with for months. There is no footballing reason for that. With urgency and intent, Celtic could already have a deal agreed.
Players could already be training. Conversations with the manager could already be happening.
But that would require foresight. It would require vision and work. It would require effort at a level this board has consistently shown it does not wish to reach. Right now, Celtic looks pathetic. Worse than that, Celtic is behaving pathetically.
How long has this striker issue existed? Kyogo left last January.
Even before that, everyone knew his departure loomed. What exactly has the club done since then? Who has it identified as his replacement? Those names should already sit on a piece of paper. If they do, why has no one acted on them?
There is no reason to wait. Every reason exists to have moved before the window was open.
The only explanations for delay are laziness or miserliness. Either the board refuses to work hard enough or it refuses to spend enough. Instead of asking whether a player can improve the team, it asks whether an AI algorithm approves the fee.
In short, this board knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
This is still a title race. A close one, although how much longer it stays that way depends on a number of factors which we all know about.
Hearts appear to understand that reality far better than Celtic does. When an Edinburgh club shows more hunger, more urgency and more ambition than the biggest institution in the country, questions answer themselves.
That is why so many supporters want these people gone. When Hearts demonstrate more intent to take the title than Celtic shows to defend it, excuses evaporate. Second chances disappear. Alibis collapse. What remains is naked incompetence.
In any serious organisation, someone would pay for that with his job.
