According to a Daily Record reporter who has spoken to Martin O’Neill, Celtic know where they want to strengthen in January.

And that should be comforting.

It should offer us all a little optimism and hope.

But it doesn’t.

And there is a reason why it doesn’t.

Because it is the same area of the team we have been crying out for reinforcements in for a long time.

Knowing the type of player you need is one thing.

Actually going out and signing the right quality of player is something else entirely.

That distinction matters enormously at Celtic right now, because identifying the problem has never really been the issue.

We all know where this team is weak.

We all know where it lacks balance.

We all know where the squad needs more physicality, more aggression and more defensive security.

The real question is whether the people responsible for recruitment can actually deliver the right player when January arrives.

Because knowing that you need a defensive midfielder is not an achievement.

It is the bare minimum.

The hard part is finding one good enough for Celtic, getting the deal done and making sure that, this time, we have actually signed the player we need rather than simply another name to add to the squad.

I have little doubt that Martin O’Neill will get a defensive midfielder.

I have very serious doubts that it will be anybody of real quality, or anybody who costs too much.

Because we are dealing with the same group of people we have been dealing with all along.

The people who failed to replace Kyogo properly for a year and a half.

The people who failed to replace Nicolas Kühn for over a year.

The people who, last January, when Celtic were in a life-or-death fight and the possibility of finishing third was very real, staring us in the face with all of the implications that carried, handed the manager a collection of loanees, only a handful of whom were actually any good.

These people have not magically transformed into better football administrators overnight.

And they won’t.

Martin O’Neill may know exactly what he wants.

He may even know exactly who he wants.

But the bottleneck remains the same.

It still rests in the hands of the same executives who have repeatedly shown that identifying a need and properly filling it are two very different things.

That is why I cannot get particularly excited by reports that the club knows the position it wants to strengthen.

Of course it does.

It would be astonishing if it didn’t.

The problem is that Celtic have known about obvious weaknesses before and still failed to solve them properly. We have watched vacancies remain open, watched positions go under-strength and watched the club convince itself that something temporary, cheaper or more convenient will do.

That is why trust is so low.

This is not cynicism for the sake of cynicism.

It is the result of experience.

If Celtic had a recent record of identifying major weaknesses early, targeting the correct calibre of player and moving decisively to get deals completed, supporters would hear this story and feel reassured.

But that is not the record we have.

So instead of hearing “Celtic know where they want to strengthen” and thinking that the problem is about to be solved, many of us immediately wonder what compromise is coming next.

Will it be a loan?

Will it be a cheaper alternative?

Will it be somebody who technically plays the position but doesn’t actually possess the qualities the team needs?

Will we spend weeks negotiating over relatively modest sums before losing the player and moving on to somebody else?

That is the problem now.

Celtic have trained supporters to expect the downgrade.

There is another worrying element to the story.

That element is that Celtic are apparently still looking for the player.

You would think that cannot possibly be true.

You would think there is virtually no way that can be accurate.

Because if Celtic are still looking for the player now, then we are in a lot of trouble.

That is a job which should have been underway a long time ago.

More than that, it is a job which should already be close to completion.

There should be four or five names sitting in a drawer somewhere, and every one of them should be of relatively similar quality.

There should be no going down some list of A, B and C options where the standard gets progressively lower with every name.

That is not serious squad planning.

And this is not rocket science, no matter how much people inside football sometimes try to dress it up that way.

There are only two things which stop Celtic signing the players it needs.

Cost and will.

If we have the will to pay the cost, then we can get the deals done which need to be done.

But that is exactly where the problem lies.

Because identifying the position is easy.

Knowing the profile is easy.

Even finding the names should not be especially difficult for a football club with Celtic’s resources.

The real test is whether the people in charge are prepared to spend what is necessary to get the right player rather than settle, compromise and then tell us afterwards that January is a difficult window.

And, yes, January is a difficult window.

Clubs do not always want to sell. Prices can be inflated. Players have contracts. Agents have demands. Other clubs become involved.

Nobody is pretending otherwise.

But every transfer window is difficult when you are trying to sign good footballers.

That is why recruitment departments exist.

That is why football executives are paid enormous salaries.

Their job is not merely to tell us why deals are difficult.

Their job is to overcome those difficulties.

If Celtic have known for months that this midfield requires a certain type of player, then January should not begin with the search.

January should begin with the execution of work already done.

Later on today, I’m going to talk about Anthony Joseph’s revelations and why they have me more concerned than I’ve been in quite a while, which, as regular readers will know, is a pretty strong statement for me to make.

But I have little doubt that Martin O’Neill knows what this team needs.

The truth is, Martin O’Neill has probably known what this team has needed since last January.

The problem is not what he knows.

The problem is what they do to serve his needs.

And, to be perfectly honest, I don’t see much evidence that they have been terribly interested in doing that particularly well up until now.

Maybe that will change.

Maybe it is destined to change.

Maybe we are going to see that change take place.

But seeing is believing.

Until then, I’m not going to believe a word of it.

And neither should he.

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