Peter Lawwell’s Celtic statement just not good enough and I’m simply not buying transfer excuses – Chris Sutton

Peter Lawwell didn't have anywhere to go with Celtic's interim report. He knew it, everyone knew it, he basically admitted as much and a fair few of his comments didn't cut it for me.

I’ll be honest, I’m not sure there were enough satisfactory answers in there to key questions. Mainly, the disappointment of failing to further add to the squad. Collective responsibility was taken, but it doesn’t change anything and the big question is why were these mistakes made? Who is to blame? If funds were available, there’s a culpability somewhere and, although they’ll never actually say, that’s the point and it leaves Celtic wide open to criticism and speculation.

Identified targets were unavailable. Well identify more or some alternatives. Because, quite simply, are you telling me there wasn’t a single left-back out there available as better cover to Greg Taylor than Alexandro Bernabei? Come on. Also, I’m not entirely sure what transfer activity being at its lowest in England for 10 years has to do with Celtic. Regardless of happenings in England, given Brendan Rodgers talked about needing to be braver in the market, would they have spent big to buy from the Premier League down south anyway?

In any case, what about the summer that really mattered for Celtic. Odin Thiago Holm, barely kicked a ball; Marco Tillo; gone. Kwon, gone; Hyun-jun Yang, project; Gustaf Lagerbielke, told he could have gone in January; Maik Nawrocki, now behind Stephen Welsh in the queue.; Luis Palma, done okay but has faded and needs to get fitter; Nat Phillips, been and gone; Paulo Bernardo, took time to get going and lost his place in the side when he did.

The reason Celtic were scrambling in January is because of those mistakes last summer and the two