Speaking exclusively to Football FanCast, former Celtic striker Frank McAvennie has slammed the club’s recruitment last summer as “garbage”.
Neil Lennon made just three permanent signings ahead of the new season in Greek goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas, young Scottish midfielder David Turnbull and West Ham reject Albian Ajeti following his wretched spell in east London.
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Meanwhile, Mohamed Elyounoussi’s loan from Southampton was extended, whilst experienced defender Shane Duffy came in from Brighton and Uruguayan Diego Laxalt from AC Milan as Celtic went in search of winning 10 Scottish Premiership titles on the bounce.
But whilst Elyounoussi is the Hoops’ second top goalscorer having scored 15 times in all competitions, Ajeti has found the net just six times and Barkas, Duffy, and Laxalt have all been in and out of the side.
Midfielder Turnbull has had the biggest impact at Paradise, contributing to 14 goals throughout the season, and has been a regular under both Lennon and caretaker manager John Kennedy, starting Celtic’s previous 19 league matches.
However, McAvennie has slated the club’s transfer business last summer and said too many player were signed that simply aren’t Celtic quality.
He told Football FanCast:
“There’s players out there that you might not know, from foreigners, you think ‘bring them in’. Let them flourish, they’re destined to go to the Premier League because that’s where the money is.
“But bring them in here for a couple of years and let them shine, Celtic used to do that all the time. I don’t get where all this rubbish is coming from, I can’t say it any clearer than that, they’ve brought in some garbage!
“Not good enough for Celtic. Every manager brings in one or two, but there’s too many players that haven’t been good enough at Celtic. And it’s a shame.”