It's been a whirlwind summer for Ange Postecoglou as he reshaped his Celtic squad off the back of their Scottish Premiership title victory - as he fine-tuned the squad until the last seconds of deadline day.
The loan arrival of Oliver Abildgaard from Rubin Kazan was the ninth new recruit in Glasgow's east end with Postecoglou leading a clear out of players while also adding more quality to the Parkhead dressing room. The Australian has clearly not been content with standing still after lifting the Scottish Premiership title and securing Champions League group stage football.
The Parkhead boss could have picked up a few lessons from across Glasgow after watching Rangers business last summer. It was a relatively quiet window for Steven Gerrard's men off the back of an unbeaten league campaign, with John Lundstram becoming the only Ibrox arrival to cement himself in the starting line-up last term. Fashion Sakala has struggled to hold down a regular place in the squad, while Juninho Bacuna was sold to Birmingham after less than six months in Govan.
The longer the season went on for Rangers the lack of summer business seemed to impact on their squad, with the depth of the side stretched to its limits on the road to the Europa League final as their Premiership title ambitions tapered off. Most notably, Joe Aribo had to lead the line in Seville with both Kemar Roofe and Alfredo Morelos sidelined.
That's something Postecoglou clearly doesn't want to see repeated at Celtic, and in line with his "we never stop" mantra it's been a relentless window since it opened in June. He snapped up loan trio Daizen Maeda , Cameron Carter-Vickers and Jota early as he looked to retain the core of his squad from last season.
Greg Taylor had no meaningful competition for his spot at left-back, so Alexandro Bernabei was brought in from Lanus. Postecoglou also wanted to push Joe Hart for the number one spot, so Swiss stopper Benjamin Siegrist was snapped up to battle it out with the England cap.
It was clear last season that Christopher Jullien wasn't in the manager's thinking, so he added Moritz Jenz to the mix with the former Lorient loanee getting off to a positive start to life at Celtic Park. Sead Haksabanovic 's arrival also marks the addition of another versatile forward who can play across the front three.
Just for good measure, Postecoglou brought in playmaker Aaron Mooy for free, before rounding out the squad with defensive-minded midfielder Abildgaard in the final hour of the window. With a whopping 20 players leaving Celtic this summer the squad has a new look this term.
The Australian has made move to strengthen the side while they are on top. However, Gio van Bronckhorst has insisted he was content with his squad ahead of a drama-filled September 1.
With the first derby of the season just around the corner, fans will get their first clue on which boss has the stronger squad to work with a packed fixture list ahead on route to the title.
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