Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers will be elated with the way that his team have started the 2024/25 Scottish Premiership campaign, with 14 wins from 15 matches.
The Hoops have been almost faultess in the top-flight and are on course to win the title for the second season in succession since the Northern Irish head coach returned to replace Ange Postecoglou last year.
Celtic’s board backed Rodgers throughout the recent summer transfer window, with the likes of Arne Engels, Paulo Bernardo, Kasper Schmeichel, Adam Idah, and Auston Trusty, among others, brought in.
The players the former Liverpool and Leicester City manager snapped up in his first summer transfer window at the club, however, have had mixed success.
Celtic's summer 2023 signings
Celtic brought in ten new players to bolster their squad after Rodgers entered the dugout for the second time; Nat Phillips, Hyun-jun Yang, Hyeok-kyu Kwon, Paulo Bernardo, Luis Palma, Maik Nawrocki, Gustaf Lagerbielke, Marco Tilio, Tomoki Iwata and Odin Thiago Holm.
Of those ten players, only Bernardo – who signed permanently this year after his loan last term, and Yang have featured in at least five Premiership matches this season.
Phillips returned to Liverpool in January and Kwon, Lagerbielke, and Tilio are all currently out on loan, whilst Iwata was sold to Birmingham in the summer.
Nawrocki was hailed as “very highly-rated” by Rodgers, who described him as a “great” signing, after his reported £4.3m move from Polish side Legia Warsaw.
The defender, as shown in the video above, was also excited to get going at Parkhead and believed that he would be a good fit in Glasgow.
With the January transfer window less than a month away, however, the Northern Irishm manager must finally cash in on the Hoops flop, who has failed to live up to the hype that his manager created with those comments last year.
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The Polish central defender was signed for a relatively big fee, of £4.3m, and has ended up way down the pecking order at Parkhead, behind Cameron Carter-Vickers, Trusty, Liam Scales, and Stephen Welsh.
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For the money spent, including his reported £12k-per-week wages, Nawrocki has, simply, not offered enough on the pitch for the Hoops, as Rodgers has not deemed him to be above the other players in his position.
He has been an unused substitute on seven occasions and made one appearance, as a substitute in the League Cup against Falkirk, in all competitions so far this season.
Appearances
10
Starts
7
Pass accuracy
88%
Ground duel success rate
69%
Aerial duel success rate
50%
As you can see in the table above, Nawrocki did feature in ten league games during the 2023/24 campaign but failed to nail down a regular starting spot.
The fact that he lost half of his aerial contests with opposition players may have played a part in that, as the 23-year-old flop was unable to dominate forwards in the air from set-pieces and open play.
Nawrocki has not made a single appearance in the Premiership this season and has not made a matchday squad in the division since October, despite being fit and available – as he has been on the bench for every Champions League game.
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Therefore, Rodgers must ruthlessly cash in on the centre-back, who has not proven to be a ‘great’ signing as of yet, due to his lack of importance to the team for the money spent on him.