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‘Alarm bells’… Michael Stewart is already seeing huge warning signs with £3m Celtic player

Patrick Sinat

Mon 5 February 2024 9:45, UK

Celtic’s draw against Aberdeen at Pittodrie really has set the cat amongst the pigeons this weekend.

Failing to beat a managerless side struggling in the Scottish Premiership just about sums up Celtic’s season so far.

And whilst Brendan Rodgers‘ side continues to flounder and scrape results, the focus will never shift from the club’s recruitment over the past two windows.

Whilst there is a lot of anger over the lack of transfer business in January, it was £3m summer signing, Gustaf Lagerbielke, that had Michael Stewart in a spin over the weekend.

The BBC pundit was highly critical of Celtic’s recruitment process and said that the situation of the Allsvenskan’s Defender of the Year should had ‘red flags’ written all over it.

Stewart said [], “And when you look at the likes of [Gustaf] Lagerbielke that they’re trying to offload a window later, that in itself tells you that that’s not a successful transfer.

“Because that is just ludicrous to bring somebody in in the summer and try to offload them in January.

“That is you can understand from a fan’s perspective, has red flags and alarm bells all over it and he’s not alone.”

Gustaf Lagerbielke’s situation at Celtic is ridiculous

How the club can sanction £3m to be spent on a player who is now deemed not good enough just six months into his Parkhead career is simply baffling.

Lagerbielke didn’t have the best of starts at Celtic. A defensive injury crisis meant that he was thrown into an untested partnership with Liam Scales for the first Glasgow Derby of the season.

After a stuttering start, Lagerbielke eventually found his feet and Celtic won the game 1-0.

However, after being red-carded in his Champions League debut, Lagerbielke has since struggled to rescue his career at Celtic.

Quickly deemed not good enough by Brendan Rodgers, the 23-year-old was told he could leave Celtic and did seem to be on his way out in January.

Again, another injury picked up by Cameron Carter-Vickers meant that a proposed move to Lecce was curtailed by Celtic and Lagerbielke was told he had to stay.

To make matters worse, the Swede didn’t even make the bench for the trip to Pittodrie with the sought-after Stephen Welsh being preferred as the backup centre-back.

It really is a curious situation Lagerbielke finds himself in and with Celtic also offloading Marco Tilio and Hyeokkyu Kwon on loan, serious questions are now being raised into Celtic’s summer business that the club will need to answer.

In other news, ‘Unworthy of the jersey’… £3.75m player told he is not good enough for Celtic and will be sold soon