I thought that was an excellent piece, because the contention being pushed in some corners of the media is so stupid and so relentlessly negative that it almost defies belief.

Her article could sit very comfortably alongside one I wrote a few weeks ago after Alan Hutton claimed that not a single Celtic player would get into the Ibrox club’s starting eleven.

And, of course, it turned out to be every bit as ridiculous as it sounded.

What I’m trying to say here is simple.

There is a version of this Celtic side which is a very good football team.

It needs additional reinforcements. That is beyond question.

We have been promised plenty in January, although we have heard those promises before and I struggle to believe much of it until I actually see players walking through the door.

But if it turns out that Celtic really are committed to strengthening properly in January, then it is going to place both of those ridiculous verdicts in even sharper relief.

The idea that this is one of the worst Celtic teams in history.

And the idea that none of our players would get into the Ibrox team.

Both are nonsense.

The problem with Celtic is not that the squad is devoid of talent.

The problem is that far too often we do not look like a team capable of making proper use of the talent we already have.

I have little faith in the coaching team.

I don’t think there is any secret about that now.

I don’t think this looks like a well-coached, well-drilled Celtic team.

Too much is getting missed. There are too many warning signs. There are too many problems with what we’re looking at in front of us.

There are too many times when those guys stand on the touchline and look lost. There are too many like-for-like substitutions. There are too many times when we are over-reliant on moments of magic.

But here’s the thing.

You can get away with that for quite a while if you have players capable of producing moments of magic.

And the reason I mention Paulina’s piece, and the reason I mention mine on Alan Hutton, is very simple.

We have a number of players in this team who are genuine magicians.

As I said this morning, in a full-flight Celtic side with the wind at its back, we would be blowing teams away, and not just here at home.

Because there is a nucleus of a really good team here.

But other than in fits and starts, I don’t know that we’re going to see it whilst the team in the dugout remains the same, and whilst the areas of the side which need reinforced to turn this into a properly functioning unit remain unaddressed.

But there are blue-chip pieces in this side, and there is no doubt about that whatsoever.

When you look at Mika Baur in midfield, that is a blue-chip player. There is no doubt in my mind about that.

He works incredibly hard, but he also has a very high degree of technical skill. And he has end product, which is something that eluded Arne Engels, and we have talked about that before.

I am not convinced, though, that he and Benjamin Nygren belong in the same team.

Nygren is also a blue-chip player, but he is a very specialised type of player, and I still don’t think we know how best to use him.

I really don’t know that there is a formation we are currently able to play which utilises Benjamin Nygren to the fullest.

A side which could integrate Nygren into a winning unit, with a solid midfield behind him and the right mobile attacker or attackers in front of him to bring out his best, I think, would be a devastating combination.

Devastating.

Because he has an eye for goal. He has a high degree of technical skill. There is definitely a player there.

You can see it a mile away.

Whether or not he is the right player for this Celtic team, or this version of the Celtic team, is a much harder question to answer.

This is a debate we’re going to have over and over again, of course.

And Kasper Høgh is another example of exactly the same argument: good player versus the right player for the system.

Listen, I don’t have the slightest doubt that Kasper Høgh is a top-class footballer and a top-class goalscorer.

What I doubt is whether we know what we’re doing with him.

I doubt that we fully understand the kind of player we’ve signed.

I don’t want to put too much credence in YouTube scouting, okay?

But if you watch his highlights reel, if you watch the goals he scored at Bodø/Glimt and the types of goals he scored, you can see where his strengths lie easily and clearly.

If you’re looking for a big guy who can hold the ball up in a packed penalty area and turn on a dime, this is the wrong player.

He’s a six-yard-box striker.

But an elite-level one.

Because he has done it against elite-level opposition.

The problem is that we do not get the ball into the six-yard box in the way Bodø/Glimt did.

So what exactly did we sign him for?

Was it simply because he had a reputation for scoring goals in the Champions League, without anyone properly recognising how those goals were being created or what kind of system he was operating in?

The fact that he has scored so many against big teams tells you the type of player we’ve got.

A player who will thrive in the right system.

I don’t think we play the right system.

I don’t think we will play the right system.

And that is a problem.

Because he cost £11 million.

So again, this is more about believing in the coaching team than believing in the player.

I believe in the player.

The player’s credentials are clear.

And that is something we’re going to have to reckon with.

There are, of course, no such doubts about our two most mobile front men, and I’ll get to them in a moment.

But Haissem Hassan is another player who is clearly highly technically skilled, and yet we’re still struggling to get the best out of him, or even to see the full extent of what he has to offer.

He has shown in moments that he is real quality, though, and I’m really pleased with that signing.

Again, in the right system, he’ll be a devastating footballer to watch.

He’s the kind of player who will turn games, who will win you matches.

But the right machine has to be built around him, and the supply has to be right.

And then, yeah, I think he’ll justify his price tag and then some.

About our other two front men, though, as I said, there is not the least bit of doubt.

Both are highly mobile. Both are sharp and alert. Both are capable of playing through the middle and playing out wide.

Callum Osmand and Camilo Duran are blue-chip footballers of the highest quality and the most supreme standard.

They’re the best two players at Celtic Park right now by a country mile.

But they’re playing in a Celtic side which does not function often enough as a complete unit.

And you’ll notice that there are two midfielders listed in this article who don’t complement each other at all: Mika Baur and Benjamin Nygren.

They don’t belong in the same midfield.

If you want a midfield which functions as a unit, they don’t belong in it together because they are vastly different types of players and they do not cohere.

Callum McGregor is a third different type of player entirely.

And so the midfield sometimes, often, looks fragmented and messy because there is no real thought which has gone into building it as a coherent unit.

The midfield needs entirely rebuilt.

But if you’re going to rebuild it, you rebuild it around Mika Baur.

The front line has to take a coherent shape at some stage too.

Right now, it looks as though you rebuild it around Hassan, Duran and Osmand.

And if you can find a place for Benjamin Nygren within that, by all means, great.

Excellent.

But here’s the problem.

That forward line and that playing style do not easily accommodate Kasper Høgh or Benjamin Nygren.

And if you’re playing a system which does utilise Høgh and Nygren properly, then that’s a playing system which completely retools everything else around them.

So what I’m saying is this.

If we’re going to come up with a coherent football identity, there are some players in this squad, some very good players in this squad, who are not going to be here even in the short to medium term.

And this is where my problem is.

There are the makings of a Celtic side in here.

But we’re not looking at one version of this Celtic side.

We’re looking at two, at least.

There are component parts here for two separate Celtic teams, or at least two separate Celtic styles of play, within the same squad.

But getting too many of these players on the pitch at the same time is going to unbalance the whole thing.

And one of the things we’re trying to do right now, to our detriment, is exactly that.

The problems are not with the squad.

The problems are with the coaches.

There is enough raw material here for a Celtic side that can play contrasting styles.

And that is a perfect football weapon if you have coaches who know how to utilise those players in two contrasting systems.

So there is a big discussion to be had at this club about where the hell we’re going and what the hell the football philosophy is going to be.

I know that if that football philosophy is going to be a single, coherent identity, it is not going to accommodate every player in this squad.

And so the next evolution of this team has to be more coherent than this one is.

My fear, and it is a very real fear, and I use that word deliberately, is that we have enough individual talent in this team to cover for the problems of the team as a whole.

And that is something we’ll be talking about for a long time to come.

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