Ange Postecoglou has compared his Celtic recruitment planning to a game of Jenga as he braces himself for interest in his key men.
The Hoops gaffer believes it will be the first transfer window that the big guns will come calling to try and prize away his top assets. Plans are already in place if something was to happen to ensure that another piece of the puzzle is in play so that the squad stays strong.
Over the years the model at Celtic has been to buy low and sell high with the likes of Moussa Dembele, Odsonne Edouard, Kristoffer Ajer, Josip Juranovic and Jeremie Frimpong all in that category while academy player Kieran Tierney also netted a huge fee. The current crop of talent that have been impressing and talked about includes the likes of Reo Hatate, Matt O'Riley, Liel Abada and Kyogo Furuhashi amongst others.
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Part of his job is to always be prepared for every single scenario - including bids for key men that the club simply couldn't turn down. He was able to prepare for the exits of Giorgos Giakoumakis and Juranovic and bring in Alistair Johnston and Oh-Hyeon-gyu as replacements - but the summer throws up a different ball game.
The Celtic boss said: “It’s not a precise science. I was trying to be predictive with the January window.
"We kind of knew Jura[Josip Juranovic] and [Giorgos] Giakoumakis would go. We are losing two very good players who had contributed greatly to our success.
"We thought Oh [Hyeon-gyu] and Alistair [Johnston] both already looked like good players, they are younger than the guys who left, so potentially could have a higher ceiling if we got it right. That’s always the challenge.
“This is the probably first window where we’ll really get tested on some of our key players by other clubs. Our planning is in place, so if that happens, it’s like the Jenga puzzle, before it all collapses we’ll hopefully already have a piece in place to ensure you can take one out and still build strong. I like that Jenga analogy!"
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