Celtic are facing a big summer transfer window at the end of this season after a disappointing 2025/26 campaign that has seen three different managers in the dugout.
Brendan Rodgers, Wilfried Nancy, and Martin O’Neill have all been in the dugout at Parkhead at various points this term, and the Hoops are currently second in the Scottish Premiership table as a result.
O’Neill is due to lead the team for the remainder of this season as the interim, but it remains to be seen who will be in charge of the club for the first game of next season.
Whoever is in the dugout next term, the recruitment in the upcoming summer transfer window needs to be better and more streamlined than it was last year.
The Hoops made too many mistakes in the previous summer window, which have led to them potentially ending this campaign with no trophies, and they have to learn from those errors.
The biggest mistake Celtic made last summer
Arguably, the biggest mistake Celtic made last summer was that they failed to replace Nicolas Kuhn after he joined Como for a fee of £16.5m.
The left-footed right winger provided goals and assists on a regular basis throughout his time at Parkhead, which meant that his departure left the team short on quality in that position on the right flank.
Celtic, though, reacted to his sale by signing two left-sided wingers, Sebastian Tounekti and Michel-Ange Balikwisha, despite the fact that they already had Daizen Maeda, who scored 33 goals last season, as a left wing option.
It was a bizarre transfer strategy and time has not changed that view. Now in March, Balikwisha has not played a minute of league football, despite being available for selection, since October.
Tounekti has, at least, played 21 times in the Premiership. The Tunisia international, though, has only scored two goals and provided one assist in those 21 appearances, after joining from Hammarby for £5m.
The biggest mistake Celtic made, therefore, was signing two left wingers, when they needed one at most, and not signing any specialist right winger to replace Kuhn, a £16.5m-rated player.
Not only has Balikwisha looked like a poor piece of business, due to his lack of involvement, but Tounekti is yet to prove that he is better than a player Rodgers sold almost two years ago.
The former Celtic flop who’s even better than Mikey Johnston
Celtic paid around £10m to sign Tounekti and Balikwisha to bolster their options on the wings last summer. In the summer of 2024, they sold a player for £3m who is now looking better than both of them.
After loaning him out to West Bromwich Albion for the second half of the 2023/24 campaign, Rodgers allowed the Hoops to sell Mikey Johnston to the Baggies for a fee of £3m in 2024.
The Ireland international scored 13 goals in 93 matches for the club after coming through the academy system, but he rarely got a chance to stake a claim for a place in the XI on a regular basis, starting six Premiership games between the 2021/22 and 2023/24 seasons.
Johnston scored seven goals in 18 Championship matches during his time on loan with West Brom, yet that was not enough to convince Rodgers that he deserved a place in the first-team squad at Parkhead.
Now, the left-sided winger is thriving in the second tier with the Baggies. He has scored two goals, created 11 ‘big chances’, and assisted nine goals in 27 starts in the league so far this season, despite playing for a team that is battling against relegation.
Johnston’s performances for West Brom in the Championship this season have been even more impressive than what Tounekti has produced in the Premiership for the Hoops, making it look like Rodgers got it all wrong when he opted to cash in on the Irishman.
|
25/26 |
Tounekti (Premiership) |
Johnston (Championship) |
|---|---|---|
|
Appearances |
21 |
34 |
|
Goals |
2 |
2 |
|
Big chances created |
3 |
11 |
|
Key passes per game |
1.5 |
1.6 |
|
xA |
4.09 |
7.59 |
|
Assists |
1 |
9 |
|
Dribble success rate |
45% |
52% |
The Scotland-born winger has provided nine times as many assists at league level than the Tunisian forward, whilst they have both rarely found the back of the net.
These statistics suggest that Celtic would be better off with Johnston still in their squad, despite selling him for £2m less than they paid to sign Tounekti last summer.
This is perhaps a lesson that can be learned ahead of the summer as there may be some players who are out on loan now who could return under the next manager and be utilised as quality options, instead of selling them and spending millions more on new recruits.
Celtic leading race to sign the next Kris Commons at Parkhead this summer
Celtic are already looking at to the summer transfer window.
The likes of Maik Nawrocki and Luis Palma come to mind. Perhaps the next manager will want to take a look at them in pre-season before their respective futures are decided.