Celtic supporters have been reasonably satisfied in recent times despite seeing their side’s five-match winning run in the Scottish Premiership come to an end on Sunday.
Brendan Rodgers’ men went into their clash with Livingston at the weekend off the back of a rich vein of form in winning each of their preceding five league games, as well as beating RB Leipzig in the group stages of the Europa League on Thursday night. Yet the Bhoys were unable to keep their impressive winning streak going in only mustering a 0-0 draw at Almondvale Stadium, albeit it was enough to see them reach the summit of the Scottish Premiership for the first time this season.
Thus, there have been many satisfied Celtic fans up and down the country in recent times, several of whom are wondering how their side will get on as the season progresses given the lack of business conducted by their team during the summer transfer window.
In fact, Rodgers himself expressed his dissatisfaction with how things went during the close season, but while he has on the whole been exemplary during his time at Parkhead, there is little doubting that even he made something of a blunder in letting defender Erik Sviatchenko leave the club for £1.03 million (as per Transfermarkt).
And given the club’s struggle in the centre back department in the early phase of the campaign, alongside the fact they made a £1.22 million loss on the Denmark international given they signed him for £2.25 million (as per Transfermarkt) back in 2016, it’s fair to say that Rodgers and chief executive Peter Lawwell didn’t cover themselves in glory with that particular deal.
Ultimately, 27-year-old Sviatchenko made the move to Celtic Park back in January 2016 after coming up through the ranks and beginning his senior career in his homeland with FC Midtjylland, for whom he went on to appear 131 times prior to his move to Scotland.
And the centre back immediately became a key part of Ronny Delia’s plans in appearing in all but three of their Scottish Premiership matches in the second half of the 2015/16 season, only to become even more important following the appointment of ex-Liverpool boss Rodgers that summer.
And that’s because the 27-year-old went on to appear 28 times in the Scottish Premiership that season to help Rodgers’ men win the domestic treble and go the whole domestic season unbeaten, while he also started all six of their Champions League group stage clashes to underline just how integral a member of the squad he was under the Northern Irishman.
However, things started to go wrong for the Dane when he suffered a serious knee injury at the start of the 2017/18 campaign, to the point that he was loaned back to Midtjylland for the second half of the season, thus prompting Rodgers to sanction his departure back to the club on a permanent basis during the summer, in turn making a £1.22 million loss on the defender.
Significantly though, it also left the club short in the centre back ranks given the injuries to the likes of Jozo Simunovic and Marvin Compper, while Dedryck Boyata’s reported refusal to play hardly helped Rodgers’ cause – they were crying out for Sviatchenko.
And given everything he gave to Celtic during his time at the club, including being a stalwart in the side that went the whole domestic season unbeaten in 2016/17, it’s unsurprising that he became a fan favourite during his time at Parkhead, at the same time a hugely accomplished centre back.
So for Rodgers and Lawwell to allow the defender to leave during the summer, despite failing to recoup even half the transfer fee alongside their struggles at centre back, was without doubt a huge error of judgement from the Celtic duo – it was a rare Rodgers blunder in an otherwise exemplary tenure in charge of the Bhoys.
Celtic fans… what do you think? Let us know!
