{"id":262951,"date":"2026-09-16T17:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T17:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/16\/6m-wasted-why-celtic-got-it-all-wrong-signing-the-modern-day-barkas\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T17:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T17:42:11","slug":"6m-wasted-why-celtic-got-it-all-wrong-signing-the-modern-day-barkas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/16\/6m-wasted-why-celtic-got-it-all-wrong-signing-the-modern-day-barkas\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a36m wasted: Why Celtic got it all wrong signing the modern-day Barkas"},"content":{"rendered":"

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From signing the likes of Albian Ajeti or Vasilis Barkas in the recent past, the shift into the Ange Postecoglou era was a welcome one in terms of recruitment at Celtic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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For a time, it felt like the Aussie just couldn’t miss with regard to new arrivals at Parkhead, securing a string of bargain deals for the likes of Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate and Matt O’Riley.<\/p>\n

Under Postecoglou’s guidance, it really was a golden period for the Glasgow giants in terms of transfer business, with the squad overhauled so ruthlessly and so swiftly in order to turn the Hoops into a truly dominant domestic force again.<\/p>\n

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To say that momentum has continued since his exit would be incorrect, however, with it only really looking like this summer where Celtic have begun to turn a corner again in that sense.<\/p>\n

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\n How Celtic’s recruitment drive fell apart after Postecoglou’s exit<\/strong>
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It would be wrong to suggest that every deal paid off across that two-year period, with for every O’Riley there having been an Oliver Abildgaard, or for every Hatate a Yosuke Ideguchi.<\/p>\n

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The key thing was that there were far more hits than misses, however, something that can’t be said of life under his successor, Brendan Rodgers.<\/p>\n

Of those signed in the summer of 2023, Yang Hyun-jun is the only player still at the club, albeit even then, Rodgers had been happy to sell the South Korean to Birmingham City just over a year ago.<\/p>\n

Maik Nawrocki and Gustav Lagerbielke were barely given a look-in, with the same also true of Marco Tilio and Hyeok-kyu Kwon, the pair likely to be the answer to a Celtic quiz question, such was their fleeting time in the first team.<\/p>\n

Nicolas Kuhn, signed in the January, was a rare success story, but again, the summer of 2024 wasn’t overwhelmingly positive, despite the capture of Arne Engels, with the decision to fork out over \u00a39m<\/a> for Adam Idah having seemingly backfired.<\/p>\n