Ange Postecoglou’s Big Celtic Rebuild: Left Backs | OneFootball

Ange Postecoglou arrives as the Celtic manager with an enormous rebuilding job ahead of him. Celtic were poor on all fronts last season and the Australian will know that he needs to hit the ground running in order to regain all three trophies and achieve Champions League football. The 55-year-old has won titles in Australia and Japan as well as the 2015 Asia Cup with Australia but he will know how important it is that he gets his recruitment right.

Yesterday, we looked at the goalkeeping position with Mat Ryan supposedly being considered by the club as a number one candidate along with Vasilis Barkas. Today, we will look at left-backs.

Boli Bolingoli-Mbombo was embroiled in a scandal at the beginning of last season after the former Rapid Vienna full-back spent his days off in Spain and then breaching COVID-19 by returning and failing to isolate. The 25-year-old was then sent out on loan by Neil Lennon with Istanbul Basaksehir offering the Belgian an escape route as he became a villain in the eyes of the media. Boli suffered a knee injury that finished his season and leaves him in the balance as to whether he will be fit for pre-season. Despite the indiscretions of last season, Bolingoli is better than Greg Taylor as well as his replacement, Diego Laxalt. He should be offered another chance at Celtic before any decision on his future is made. Especially considering the double standards in punishments and reaction to punishments that were witnessed in Scotland last season.

Greg Taylor is currently away with Scotland at The Euros, the 23-year-old will likely miss the beginning of pre-season under Postecoglou. In Taylor’s defence, he has started both of his campaigns at Celtic as second choice – firstly to Bolingoli and then to Laxalt but he has managed to work his way into the first team. Taylor clearly has impressive attributes, he is energetic and gets into promising areas; however, his final ball is lacking and he lacks that bit of creativity in the final third. He almost looks a different player on international duty,

Adam Montgomery made his debut in the win over St Johnstone and he impressed, albeit in a dead rubber against a Saints side ravaged by COVID-19. The youngster will look for more opportunities moving forward and if the manager sees him as someone that could benefit from more games, a loan spell may be wise for the 18-year-old.

Potential signings include Josh Doig and Aaron Hickey. The highly-rated Scottish youngsters have been heavily linked with moves to the club in recent times but it remains to be seen whether the club will pursue their interest in the pair. Both have incredible potential but may not necessarily be first-team players right off the bat.

Diego Laxalt proved that Internationalist from Top Five Leagues may not be the best value but instead, the recruitment team should be looking into their vast scouting networks to assemble players that can play in the new manager’s system. In truth, Celtic haven’t replaced Kieran Tierney as the undisputed left-back at the club. Tierney has gone from strength to strength since moving on; however, the club have failed to find a replacement good enough to make possession his own.