bosmans sighted in paradise

Under MON, Celtic never signed players on Bosmans. That led to criticism from some of the support. Under WGS, Celtic do sign players on Bosmans and guess what, some of the support still complain.

Celtic managers; damned if they do, damned if they don't.

What has become clearly evident during the January transfer window is the lack of cash available to WGS compared to MON. Before people start unfavourably comparing WGS's record in the transfer market with MON's they should bear in mind that you are not comparing like with like. Mon spent approximately £25m in his first 18 months in charge. WGS will only get a fraction of that. Mon also inherited a team that already included players of the calibre of Larsson, Petrov, Lambert, McNamara, Mjallby and Moravcik. WGS didn't inherit a team with six players of that quality.

WGS is having to pretty much rebuild the Celtic first team from scratch on a greatly reduced budget compared to MON and in my opinion, despite the humiliations against Artmedia and Clyde, is doing not a bad job.

Being 10 points clear at the top of the league is impressive evidence of that. If, come May, he manages to steer Celtic to the title, in what many of us viewed as a season of transition, he will deserve all the plaudits he gets.

The January signing of Mark Wilson, along with the acquisitions of Gary Caldwell and Kenny Miller on Bosman pre-contract agreements, is further evidence of his willingness to embrace change. These signings will also go a long way to lowering the average age of the first team squad. Add the three mentioned above to Marshall, Wallace, Maloney, Beattie, McGeady and Virgo and you could conceivably have a first team next season where more than half the players are Scottish or Scottish born. Whether that is a good or bad thing will obviously depend on how well these players perform.

With regard to the signing of Kenny Miller, while I initially had reservations based on my belief that he wasn't Celtic quality, I have increasingly come round to the idea that he could, hopefully, turn out to be an excellent acquisition. He is not Henrik Larsson (who is?) (that Swedish guy who plays for Barcelona - over-literal Ed) but while I think his first touch isn't great, he is quick - a trait which Strachan seems to admire in a player - and he can score goals.

Given that WGS doesn't have a lot of cash to spend, picking up a proven international goal scorer for nothing on a Bosman should be viewed as a good piece of business. This is made even more impressive if the press reports are true about him turning down Rangers who apparently made a last minute attempt to sign him. What does it say to you if a former Rangers player spurns his former team and chooses Celtic - imagine the press spin if this happened the other way round and a former Celtic player chose Ibrox ahead of Celtic Park? You'd never hear the end of it.

Cast your mind back to the summer when the likes of Darryl Broadfoot in the Herald was gleefully reporting that the signing of Fanfan by Rangers was Alex McLeish delivering, 'the first psychological blow against Strachan.'

Other psychological blows we have had to suffer in recent years as an assortment of players have chosen Rangers ahead of Celtic include Dariusz Adamczuk (finally escaped from Ibrox claiming to be suffering from clinical depression), Nacho Novo (by the looks of him he's heading the same way) and Russell Latapy. What a swoop he turned out to be.

If only they'd persuaded Stephane Henchoz to sign for them as well.

For that tiny minority among the support who think Celtic shouldn't have signed Kenny Miller because he once played for Rangers can I just say, 'Get a Life.' The only thing that should ever matter is whether a player is good enough. His colour, religion, nationality and past employment record should be completely irrelevant. Ability is the only thing a player should be judged on.

Most Celtic supporters at the end of last season believed the team needed revamped. WGS is trying to do that. Under WGS it is definitely a case of, 'Out with the old, in with the new.'

Whoever followed MON was going to have a very difficult job. The success we enjoyed under MON will be very hard to duplicate. WGS deserves credit for having the courage and willingness to begin to undertake what is a mammoth challenge. Fingers crossed that Celtic under WGS will equal if not indeed emulate the achievements of Celtic under MON. Time will be the judge of how successful he is in that task. He should have the best wishes and support of every Celtic supporter as he undertakes that imposing task.

Welcome to Celtic Kenny. As somebody quite famous once said, 'There is more rejoicing in the Kingdom of Heaven over one sinner who repents...'

GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE