Chris Sutton has said what we all know about Celtic's summer recruitment

Chris Sutton has said what we all know about Celtic's sloppy summer recruitment. The former striker has been critical of how the club is being run these days, as many are, and he has been realistic about the talent level of this team.

The Bhoys are going to be in the thick of the title race, as you would expect, but they look subpar in Europe and have struggled to compete with the better sides in the Europa League.

The reason Celtic aren't dominant domestically and competing properly in Europe is that they were not equipped to a high enough standard in the summer. Arne Engels was sold for £22million and not replaced, while Celtic tried to correct a clear failure to recruit enough quality players with a flurry of late signings that largely included inexperienced signings on loan or cheap deals.

Meanwhile, an out of shape Jordan Lotomba was signed at right-back and a rather average Sam Johnstone was signed as a last-minute goalkeeper signing despite Celtic having known Kasper Schmeichel would be retiring even before the summer.

“It’s about having a proper recruitment model rather than waiting until the final days of the window," Sutton wrote in his Daily Record column. He added: “It boils down to ambition.”

That it does. Unfortunately, it seems the current Celtic leaders are only interested in showing ambition if they are in the Champions League. That was part of the summer problem. The Bhoys waited to see if they would qualify, and when they didn't, they pulled the funding for many additional signings.

The Bhoys are still in the Europa League, so it is baffling that didn't want to show more ambition to compete in that competition, especially given they are never going to win the Champions League in its current state.

But that's the way this board is running the club, and there was no real honesty about that being the case. All the noises going into the summer were that Celtic would be investing significantly, but they didn't, and they then blamed routine parts of the game like agent fees for their lack of business.

The reality was that they didn't want to spend significantly over what they brought in unless Champions League qualification was secured. That was clearly the case, and now the question is how January spending will be shaped by whether the Bhoys are still in the Europa League or not.