All the talk about Brendan Rodgers’ dramatic exit from Celtic this month has centred around the Hoops’ current Scottish Premiership title race and Scottish Cup push.
However, the lasting legacy of his impromptu exit may well be the state he has left the squad in after three years of increasing wages and increasing amounts of sidelined players.
Perhaps the most notorious transfer of his time at Celtic Park was the acquisition of Marvin Compper, a reported £1m flop who made just one appearance for the club, against lower league opposition.
His presence at Celtic continues to be a problem, with his contract signed in 2018 not expiring until the summer of 2020.
As reported by Keith Jackson in The Daily Record this week, his contract is worth a whopping £36,000-a-week, close to an astronomical £1.9m-a-year.
That’s a terrible amount of money for the club to haemorrhaging when the player is doing absolutely nothing to help the team progress on the pitch. At that kind of wage, it’s not as if he is going to be tearing it up anytime soon either.
The club need to find a solution to the situation in the summer, whether it’s finding a negotiated settlement, a loan or even a permanent transfer elsewhere.
That’s a wage that can be spent on a first-team quality player in any position and whether it’s Neil Lennon or another new manager, surely they’ll want as much resources available to them as possible.
Compper’s situation is just one example of the major squad work that Celtic need to do this summer, but perhaps the most egregious example of players not currently getting a game.
Peter Lawwell and his recruitment team have a massive task ahead of them.