There’s something about this Celtic transfer window that makes it even better and you may not have noticed it

Brendan Rodgers heads to face Aston Villa still not finished with this term’s Champions League adventure.

But Jota’s January arrival and other key moves says planning is fully underway for next season’s huge summer dates. Games which decide whether their progress is maintained or wasted because, pure and simple, Celtic can’t build further in the competition if they aren’t in it.

Big circles must already be around the 2025/26 qualifiers. The dreaded make-or-break shootouts. Celtic can’t be caught short. They have to be absolutely in-tune when they hit them and Brendan Rodgers, who has been through them all before, knows that fine well.

Jota in, Kyogo out, Kasper Schmeichel’s deal done, arrangements for Kieran Tierney’s arrival. It’s the forward planning that Celtic have stood accused of not doing properly in the past. Rodgers has so far been spared the stresses since his return due to coefficient, but he didn’t have that luxury in his first spell and is well versed on the tests.

He has a 2-1 success rate in those qualifiers, but all three of them brought their own severe issues. Rodgers was left basically without a backline in attempt one as his team got past Lincoln Red Imps and Astana before scrambling past Hapoel Be’er Sheva on a sweaty night in Israel. Relatively-untried Eoghan O’Connell started in Kazakhstan, Kolo Toure drafted in late to face Hapoel.

Campaign two and it was Kristoffer Ajer who had to go into the reshaped backline against Rosenborg to help earn the play-off where Astana were again sunk. The third one was just too much. Celtic came a cropper against AEK Athens with a young Jack Hendry forced into defence as Dedryck Boyata declared himself unavailable and Moussa Dembele wanted out.

Celtic have had Tom