ALL the top clubs in the world use high-tech, state-of-the-art data analysis to sign players.
At Celtic, it’s like their transfer policy is scribbled down with a bookies’ pen on the back of a cigarette packet.
Forget Hearts’ Jamestown Analytics and the like.
Scotland’s reigning champions seem to have a system in place that could be sponsored by Benson and Hedges.
If it happens, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain may yet turn out to be a great addition to their squad.
We’re talking about a Champions League and Premier League winner, after all.
Someone who has 35 England caps, and at 32 should still have a lot to offer.
But how on earth has it come to this?
How can Celtic, with all their millions piled up in the bank, be scrambling around after the transfer window has closed to sign a free agent who hasn’t kicked a ball in anger for NINE MONTHS?
If Oxlade-Chamberlain was a player they really wanted, why didn’t they do it weeks ago?
For me, it’s just such a haphazard move.
It reeks of a desperate bid by the Hoops board to appease fans with a big name after an underwhelming window.
I repeat, Oxlade-Chamberlain has been a top-class player throughout his career and COULD show he’s still got it in a Celtic jersey between now and the end of the season.
It reminds me a bit of Aaron Ramsey coming into Rangers in the January of 2022.
A guy who’d only started one game for Juventus that season who came to Scotland to get playing again.
But surely the Celtic support had a right to expect a bit of money being spent in January, given the funds there.
As it turned out, the club spent more appealing Auston Trusty’s red card against Hearts at Tynecastle than they did on actual transfer fees.
I just think the men in charge of Celts want a name, someone with a profile, to make it look like they have pushed the boat out.
It would only have looked like a bold move if they had signed Oxlade-Chamberlain on January 1, not at the beginning of February.
Clearly he was waiting on Arsenal offering him a contract, having been training with his old club for long enough.
But if he ends up at Celtic it will just underline they don’t really have a proper policy in place.
They could yet win the title, and they are definitely in a stronger position now than they were less than five weeks ago when Wilfried Nancy got sacked.
I certainly haven’t written them off from being champions again by any stretch of the imagination. Far from it.
If they do, though, it’ll be in spite their strategy, not because of it.
They are making things up now as they go along and that’s simply no way to run a football club.
The fact that all five of their signings in January were loans says everything about the mess Celtic have created.
OK, they signed a striker in Tomas Cvancara, but there were other areas of the team they neglected.
They should have been looking at a new goalkeeper, an experienced centre-back, and a better option at left-back to cover for Kieran Tierney.
Instead they brought in one risky signing after another, and left most of it to the last minute when they had played eight games through January.
I even heard a rumour about Falkirk’s Calvin Miller being close to returning to Celtic, but that never materialised.
Then there was also the story of Nottingham Forest’s interest in Arne Engels.
I have to be honest and say that whole situation had me scratching my head.
Because I find it hard to believe they rejected £25million for the Belgian midfielder.
They got that kind of money for Matt O’Riley, who was tearing up Scottish football at the time.
I can’t quite fathom why they would have knocked back the same kind of cash for a player who hasn’t done half as much.
Sean Dyche also needs players who are willing to roll their sleeves up and scrap for everything they can get in the Premier League.
That’s one thing Engels hasn’t done while he’s been here.
But if it’s true and the money was on the table, and Celtic did say no, then that doesn’t make any sense regarding their transfer model either.
It’s yet another example of a real lack of agility to react to situations when they develop.
They may also be left with a player who is extremely unhappy to have missed out on an opportunity to treble his wages down the road.
I would just love to hear Celtic’s chief executive, Michael Nicholson, come out and explain all these decisions.
Maybe if he did some interviews from time to time there wouldn’t be more questions out there than answers.
Then again, maybe if he did break the habit of a lifetime, he’d be forced to admit it’s been a shambles.
It’s like Celtic have hit the self-destruct button this season and are now in deep crisis mode.
They have been sitting back smoking big cigars for years — and now they are surrounded by a huge cloud of doubt.