Strengthening squads with new signings during the January transfer window is always crucial for Scottish football clubs regardless of where they are situated in their league and what level of the pyramid they compete at.
Increasing their manager’s options can be the difference between winning the title and finishing runner-up, qualifying for Europe and missing out on a place in continental competition and staying in a division and suffering the ignominy of relegation come May.
The arrival of a few fresh faces can give a side a physical as well as a psychological lift at the halfway stage in what is always a gruelling season by increasing competition for places, providing cover for injuries and suspensions and improving quality.
Celtic, who are six points behind leaders Hearts in the William Hill Premiership table with 16 games remaining and only ahead of Rangers on goal difference, desperately need to get bodies in during the next fortnight for all of the aforementioned reasons.
Landing a striker, or strikers, remains their top priority. If the defending champions had converted all of the scoring chances they had created up front during the past five months or so they would, even with the catastrophic Wilfried Nancy experiment, be comfortably ahead entering the run-in.
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But there is another motivation for the bean counters at Parkhead to free up funds for Martin O’Neill to spend – doing some decent business in the transfer market will help to quell the unrest in the stands which has made the first half of the 2025/26 campaign so challenging.
Professional footballers will always, publicly at any rate, say that supporters’ chants, banners and protests don’t affect them on the field of play. However, they very much do.
Neil Murray, the former Rangers midfielder, stressed as much earlier this month as he looked back on the epic Old Firm victory which the Ibrox club recorded over their troubled city rivals in the East End of Glasgow on January 1, 1994.
“Sometimes off-field unrest can filter through to the players,” said Murray. “People think it doesn't or it shouldn't and it probably shouldn't. But it actually does. They were suffering a little bit that day.”
The situation at Celtic at the moment is by nowhere near as grave as it was 32 years ago. Just two months after that infamous encounter, Scots-Canadian businessman Fergus McCann flew in and rescued his childhood heroes from the brink of bankruptcy. The rest is history.
Yet, the unhappiness among their legions of supporters is every bit as great just now as it was back then. With very good reason. It is not just underwhelming recruitment which has angered those who cheer on the first British club to lift the European Cup. They have a raft of justifiable grievances.
Their governance, transparency, accountability, public relations, football strategy and fan engagement all leave a great deal to be desired. The besieged hierarchy have actually conceded as much. They have admitted that “a strategic review” is underway and predicted it will facilitate a “process of change”. It will be interesting to see what they come up with.
They could do far worse than look 20 miles or so along the M80 and see what Falkirk have achieved as a direct result of getting their fans onside.
The Forth Valley club were in a dire predicament on and off the park just a few short years ago. Their followers were distrustful of the board and there were protests on match days. They were haemorrhaging money and the threat of administration hung over them.
But, as their chief executive Jamie Swinney revealed on these pages earlier this week, being “open and honest” with their supporters has completely transformed their fortunes. The have won League 1 and the Championship in the past two seasons, are currently sitting in sixth spot in the Premiership and have posted a £600,000 profit.
Forging a constructive working relationship with their fans will not be straightforward for Celtic. Indeed, the words and actions of those who have been agitating for change in recent weeks suggest it may be impossible.
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When the ban on the Green Brigade was extended at the start of last month due to, in part, head of safety and security operations Mark Hargreaves being threatened and intimidated by two of the ultras group’s members at the AGM in November, the move was branded “vicious and vindictive” by the Celtic Fans Collective. Nothing on the threats and intimidation then?
When Peter Lawwell stood down as chairman a week before Christmas due to “intolerable abuse and threats” which had “dismayed and alarmed” his family, they posted a picture of him on social networking website X with his eyes scored out next to chief executive Michael Nicholson and finance director Chris McKay under the headline, “One down, two to go.” So abuse and threats are okay?
It is little wonder there are many who, despite sharing their concerns about the direction the Hoops are heading in, choose to distance themselves from the group.
Rangers have a pretty partisan element among their fanbase as well. But they still set up a Fan Advisory Board back in 2023. Since then, its seven members, who were drawn from a broad cross-section of society, have provided regular input and guidance on a range of issues and helped to shape their future. It is exactly how a modern, progressive football club should function.
It is imperative that Celtic land new signings in January. Even a living legend like O’Neill will struggle to retain the Scottish title without them. But they need to start behaving like Bairns as well.
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