25 Jul 2026 23:54:06
@ Ayrshire
No, we're still light.
We still don't have the strength in depth that we need.
Especially if Souttar has been told to find a new club.
Sterling isn't someone we can rely on over a full season and, if the rumours are true, he'll hopefully be away before the window closes.
Bajrami looks like he's been told to move on.
Aasgaard is already being linked with a move.
Gassama – I've no idea what Derek McInnes thinks of him yet.
Is Curtis staying to get minutes with the first team, or is he heading out on loan as some have suggested?
What's happening with Cameron? Is he staying or going?
There are still too many ifs & buts and question marks over this squad.
Can players who know they're likely to leave really be relied upon to give 100% when the competitive games start?
We're still light in a number of areas, with several players potentially on their way out.
Until those situations are resolved and replaced where necessary, I don't think the squad is complete.
26 Jul 2026 01:04:23
Someone posted a list of the first team squad.
It is nowhere near good enough.
Still time before the window shuts, but it's getting serious now.
Just looked at Celtics first team squad.
We need a lot of work done right away. Even with the names we've been linked to, hate to say it, but they're way ahead. Again.
26 Jul 2026 01:32:13
They're way ahead? Why, what's better in their squad than ours. Start with the keeper and go through it if you don't mind. There's been a few posts now about how they're better, but when asked how they don't answer. 🤔 What have they done pre season that we haven't done?
26 Jul 2026 01:39:21
Celtic's first team squad is basically the same as last season! They've signed 1 player so far. Their 'squad' is piss poor! Decent starting 11 (if they're fit). But, looking at their full squad, it's the worst Celtic squad in decades, they're there for the taking if we can step up!
26 Jul 2026 01:43:46
The squad is far from complete, Stiggy, think that obvious to everyone.
I agree that if certain players have been told they can go, we can't rely on them as they'd be worried about injury etc.
More to the point about the squad not being complete, but more about have we even upgraded in terms of quality, because for me we certainly haven't at all.
26 Jul 2026 02:05:10
Jim, once again, how many league games have we played? How can you seriously say that about the squad? I may be wrong, every player we have signed are international players?
26 Jul 2026 02:26:18
Nope, wrong again, 12th man, they ain't all international players and since when does playing international football equal quality?
If you think this squad is stronger, that's your opinion, but from where I see it, we haven't upgraded at all. In fact, I'd say so far it's a downgrade.
26 Jul 2026 06:56:28
Looking at us vs them currently, our defence needs strengthened asap - big McCrorie gives me the fear if we need to depend on him for full season - creativity from mid is a must, as well as a true goal scoring wide man.
Priority is to feed the forwards with quality service on regular basis - scoring for us should not be an issue if we get right creativity in, but it's keeping them out at other end that concerns me even at this early stage. 🤔
26 Jul 2026 07:11:31
Blue-Floyd3, I absolutely agree our strikers will score goals with the correct service, mate. 👍 We all know we badly need a right winger who can create for our strikers and get somewhere near the numbers Cerny hit for us in his season long loan deal, ie. I think he scored 18 goals and something like 13 assists, which were terrific numbers for a winger.
👌 🇬🇧 I also am of the opinion, like a lot of us, that Aasgaard has the talent to be so important for us this season and absolutely can hit double figures in goals and assists. 🤔 But we just don't know if we'll sell Aasgaard with definite interest in him. 🤔
26 Jul 2026 07:25:39
BbJ, I agree. Defence isn't better, marginally worse. GK could be improvement, time will tell. McCrorie has played for Scotland, but didn't make World Cup squad. Ralston is a head of him in that. 🤦♂️ No creativity in the team, still. Looks like we will be relying on Curtis out wide.
If this is where our board wanted to be, with a few days to go till 1st game, then they haven't a clue.
Remember, we finished 3rd last season. We should have been buying quality, but looks like it's quantity again.
International players don't always = good players.
26 Jul 2026 07:50:18
How is it that Bajrami looks like he is going? Been included in most of pre season games. Not saying that means he is staying, but not sure how it makes it look like he is going either. 😕
26 Jul 2026 08:32:12
On the back of one of our worst ever seasons, coming 3rd, we've signed 3 defensive mids, reduced our defence from 9 to 5, and lost one of our creative players in Moore, and not replaced him. How u can think that is stronger? The only part that's strong is up front and cm.
26 Jul 2026 08:33:04
imo, going through our additions to the squad.
Pandur is an upgrade on Butland.
Godfrey, too early to say, but he was a £25m player not that long ago.
Devlin an upgrade on Barron.
Shankland was a no brainer. He will get goals.
Dragojevic... watch this space.
Neil again too early to judge but looks more than capable.
McCrorie more physical and mobile than Tav,
which makes us defensively stronger.
The squad is shaping up nicely. 3 or 4 real quality additions, guys that are first team starters, *Dahl & Cerny would be 2 imo, and we'll be challenging.
26 Jul 2026 09:12:28
Think we're all forgetting about one of the most important signings we've made that in my opinion makes us stronger than we were last season. The Manager!
26 Jul 2026 09:13:14
It's a huge concern, Storm, especially with league being a week away and Euro games the week after. It would be embarrassing for us to go out of the EL so early due to bad recruitment again.
Feel we have prioritized the wrong positions to fill early. Of course, adding Shankland is fine as he isn't replacing any striker, but like for like elsewhere, I feel it's either the same or less quality than what we had last year and we finished 3rd.
Seen comments about this being the worst Celtic team in decades, and for me it was worse last season, yet they still won a double while we are over here twiddling our thumbs yet again.
26 Jul 2026 09:32:36
Foolmonty, who said Pandur is an upgrade? A team who get promoted and sell their number 1 keeper obviously don't fancy him as good enough for the Prem, so who knows what we are getting there.
Godfrey, who cares how much he once cost. The problem is it's another who isn't an improvement on Djiga and his recent career has been nothing short of woeful, just another hope he finds his best form eventually.
Barron and Devlin are the exact same player, and Barron couldn't really get a game for us too much, so not an upgrade, as both are below the quality needed.
Neil, who knows, same with Drago.
Shankland isn't replacing any member of the strikeforce, so is an improvement I guess, but is too immobile for me.
McCrorie might be more physical and, even though I said Tav should have left years ago, we can't deny his goals and assists are not going to be replaced easily. Tav was our 2nd top scorer last season and contributed 20 G/A's.
26 Jul 2026 09:41:06
BbJ, correct these people may well be right worse Celtic team in years, but as you say they still won the double so what does that make us? We had people on here trying to tell us our squad was better than theirs and that we were clueless for thinking otherwise. 🤦♂️
26 Jul 2026 09:41:33
Hull City had to sell Pandur BbJ. 🤔 They had to get money in quickly to appease the governing body, my friend. 🤔
26 Jul 2026 09:51:45
Bigbluejim, they needed to sell someone straight away or docked points, check out what the Hull fans were saying about him.
26 Jul 2026 10:07:15
They didn't have to sell Pandur, they could have sold anyone! I'm well aware of their predicament, but they chose to sell him.
Star, I couldn't give a monkeys what fans say about him, as look how divided we are as fans about players.
Some folk on here were saying Barron is our best midfielder, so take fans opinions with a pinch of salt.
Until Pandur has played for us, then I withhold judgement as if he is an upgrade.
26 Jul 2026 10:27:01
Bigbluejim, Hull didn't have much of a choice but sell him. How many players have they got that they would receive his fee? They needed it instantly.
26 Jul 2026 10:34:38
I would say that our squad is far from light and we're probably still carrying more first team players than we would like.
It's definitely unbalanced, in many ways, but that's something that was never going to be addressed in 1 window.
I think the current squad is in good shape to start the league campaign. However, Europe is a concern.
26 Jul 2026 11:04:26
I'll be real honest. I think Djiga improved massively under Rohl & did have a shocking end to the season, but think I'd have him over 28 year old Godfrey, who we hope returns to form from 5/6 years ago now. We're in the exact same place as last season as we lack numbers in defence.
I'd say Pandur is an improvement on Butland, as Butland has been awful towards the end of the past 2 seasons & had games this season where he didn't save a single shot. Hull wanted Premier League experience as their number 1 keeper.
McCrorie is an improvement simply cause Tav is past it in terms of the physical side, he still got goals & assists last season, Sterling is always injured & imo isn't as good as some think, just pace, & that's why he's always injured.
Midfield is like for like so far & imo what we need is a goal scoring mid & a creative mid. Neil might be one, but looks like he'll play 6 instead of 8. People can say Devlin is better than Barron, but to me they do the same & both lack in the same department. Barron did have good set piece delivery last season.
Overall we are in the same place or a little worse than last season. I think there is a bigger problem that some do see, & that's there is too much change all at once again. We'll be weak at the start again, but hopefully a better start than Martin, because it was mainly him who messed it up.
26 Jul 2026 11:05:24
Ok bbj believe what you want. 🤔
26 Jul 2026 12:18:35
Hull had to sell, but according to Pandur himself, he was told they would be signing someone for the Premier League, so he wanted to leave. Still think he'll be an upgrade tho.
26 Jul 2026 12:32:04
Hull didn't need to sell the keeper, they could have sold another player if they were willing to lose them, but they weren't. In what world was the GK the only player they could sell? 😂 Anything to try and get a positive out of it.
26 Jul 2026 12:57:27
If you read the Celtic Rumours site, you will see that they are even more unhappy than us and certainly don't see themselves as ahead in the squad building stakes.
26 Jul 2026 13:31:14
Big Blue Jim, how can you say you hold judgement when it's a player being better but you can judge now on players being worse? Surely you hold judgement either way if that's the case?
26 Jul 2026 13:39:38
5 weeks until window shuts, never going to have a full rebuild done, especially in a World Cup summer. Just need to do enough to pick up points in league until we get more in and more out.
26 Jul 2026 14:27:17
Devlin is a seasoned internationalist, BBJ, and has bags more first team experience in the SPL, for me, that's an upgrade. As for Pandur, Hull had to sell one of their few assets.
Butland, meanwhile, was a scare every 2nd game, distribution poor, clean sheets. Pandur's career is on the up while Butland's career is on a downward trajectory. So it's an upgrade, imo.
26 Jul 2026 14:38:11
Coops, what are you on about, believe what I want? I knew Hull's case as it was all over the place, but again they could have sold anyone but chose their keeper, maybe because they thought they'd get top dollar, but sure they have a few players they could have sold.
Wishy, do you still have your knickers twisted from my comment yesterday? It's simple, Neil, Drago, Pandur I haven't seen play, so I don't know if they're an upgrade. The rest I have, so I can give an opinion about, pretty simple.
EHL, not sure how it's in good shape really. 1 bad injury early to any defender leaves us scrambling as no cover, 0 wingers that McInnes fancies by the looks of it, but hey we have enough Cms to fill in the wide positions I guess. Also if it's not going to be addressed in 1 window, why have so many players able to leave in 1 window?
Storm the copium at times here hits some weird levels.
26 Jul 2026 14:39:43
Hull did not want to sell Pandur. Initially, it was supposed to be Kyle Joseph to Middlesbrough for £5m, but that deal hit a snag. West Ham wanted Pandur, but Hull opted to do a cash plus swap with us for Butland. That was the only interest at that time in their players, and with a tight deadline to make up the PSR, Hull had to sell quickly.
In fact, if you read reports, the Pandur deal was done just hours before the PSR deadline. So, no, Hull could not have just sold anyone.
26 Jul 2026 14:39:45
I would love hearing these other players Hull could fee for his fee, bigbluejim.
26 Jul 2026 14:40:09
Squad valued under 80m.
26 Jul 2026 15:27:07
B2B, I direct you to Kaisers comment. They had already informed him they planned on bringing in another keeper, even addressed this publicly, so they chose to sell him.
Star whatever, go look at their squad and see who you think would sell for £7m. Not once have I said he's terrible, but can't be called an upgrade just yet.
Also, just so you know, TransferMarket values ain't comparable to what player are actually valued at.
Foolmonty, the same Devlin that played a grand total of 0 minutes at the WC and has a grand total of 5 caps. What a seasoned international we have brought in. Wow.
26 Jul 2026 15:35:05
According to Pandur himself, he was told the club wanted a new No.1 for Prem. The deadline may have pushed it through quicker, but they still wanted to replace him.
26 Jul 2026 16:11:10
If we're comparing, they have signed 2 lads who I actually think will do well for them, esp Hogh. Other than that, I'd say they are weaker, esp losing Maieda, so unless they make several signings over this next week, I'd argue we're better off for starting this season than they are.