Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers spoke confidently about the business he was hoping the club would complete for him during the January transfer window, but unfortunately for us it turned into a little bit of a damp squib as we only saw one permanent arrival in the shape of Nicolas Kuhn, and Adam Idah.
This was clearly not what the 51 year old gaffer wanted when he returned to Parkhead for a second time and looked to repeat his initial success.
Right now, Celtic are struggling – we all know that, something is missing and it is not clicking in the way it should and it is not as easy as finding an app for the answers – and the reasons for those could well be laid at recruitment issues, and Rodgers himself might need to shoulder expectation and complacency problems, as should the first team squad themselves, because we have drawn too many games already that should have been victories had we properly pushed on and killed them off.
Whilst we continue to debate what other moves we could have made in the January window, one player has actually become a stand out now, but not necessarily for the reasons you would think.
The former Aston Villa, Everton and Ajax player is currently a free agent following a falling out with German Bundesliga side Mainz over a message on social media expressing support for Palestine. After a bit of toing and froing, ultimately the club cancelled his contract.
With the latest display by the Green Brigade showing support for innocent Palestinian’s caught up in the ongoing battle between Israel and Hamas, the 28 year old two capped Dutch international winger offered to play for the club for free for the remainder of the 2023/24 season, but whether or not Brendan Rodgers and the club thought that this might be a goer, FIFA rules have slammed the door on a deal being concluded before the start of the summer.
El Ghazi did have a pretty impressive spell with Aston Villa, and whilst he does have his limitations as a wide man, he more than played his part in them gaining promotion from the Championship, and then a role in them staying there and beginning to push up the table, and he created, or scored, some very important goals for them during that period. In his one season with PSV Eindhoven in the 2022/23 campaign saw him contribute eight goals in 24 appearances for them, so even with limitations, once of his main strengths for Celtic could well have been his eye for goal and his ability to play through the middle as a straight goal threat.
His background in the English Premier League certainly peaked the interest of a number of Hoops fans, particularly in light of the ongoing media speculation and the rumours that surround the potential future of Israeli winger Liel Abada given the current, hugely unfortunate, circumstances.
The US Major League Soccer option seems to be the favourite likely destination for the player if the rumour mill is to be believed, especially as clubs in America are still able to sign overseas players until April 23 – however, current rules stipulate that El Ghazi could not be a like for like replacement this term.
As unfortunate as it is for El Ghazi, who effectively sees his career stalled for a few months, he made a three minute cameo for PSV in the Eredivisie before securing the move to Mainz, and his two appearances for them means he ticks the box that stipulates whilst a player can be registered for three clubs in a single season, they can only play official matches for two of them.
He will not be the first player to fall foul like this, and nor will he be the last unless FIFA tweak their rules, but if Celtic do have an interest, a proper deal could be negotiated at Parkhead come the summer and the end of the season. If El Ghazi was effectively ‘happy to play for free’ – whilst he would not be in first team contention, he could certainly use a portion of the second half of the campaign to settle in at the club, make friends and begin building an understanding with his new team mates, and he would definitely be in the right physical state to hit our next pre season campaign running.
It would simply take an invite for him to train with us, and we would not be the first club to make full use of that.
