Since his return to Parkhead in the summer of 2023, Brendan Rodgers has been backed by the Celtic board in the transfer market in all three windows so far.
The biggest show of faith from the board so far has been the decision to break the club’s transfer record in an £11m swoop for Augsburg star Arne Engels.
However, his signings in his first window back at the club have not been hugely successful as a collective in their first 18 months or so in Glasgow.
Paulo Bernardo, who was on loan last term before joining permanently this summer, is the only one who remains a regular fixture in the side in the present day.
Celtic's 2023 summer signing woes
Per Transfermarkt, Maik Nawrocki, Gustaf Lagerbielke, Luis Palma, and Odin Thiago Holm were the four most expensive signings in that transfer window, all costing £2.5m or more.
Nawrocki, Lagerbielke, and Holm combined for just 13 starts in the Scottish Premiership during the 2023/24 campaign, and none of them have started a game in the division this season, with Lagerbielke currently on loan with FC Twente.
Palma started well at Celtic, with five goals and nine assists in his first 16 league games, but has only produced two goals and zero assists in 16 Premiership matches in 2024.
One signing that may have gone under the radar as a flop from that summer of recruits has been Australia international Marco Tilio, who was brought in for a fee of £1.5m from Melbourne City.
Marco Tilio's Celtic struggles
Shortly before his official unveiling, Football FanCast suggested that Tilio could have been Rodgers’ own version of Manchester City star Phil Foden, as a diminutive, left-footed, attacking midfielder, who can play centrally or out wide.
Football talent scout Jacek Kulig had named Foden as a “similar” type of player to the then-Melbourne star and listed dribbling, technique, and ball control among the £1.5m signing’s strengths, after a return of ten goals and five assists in 25 A-League starts in the 2022/23 campaign.
Tilio, however, arrived with an injury and was not fit until September 2023, which meant that he was already down the pecking order by the time he was available.
The winger went on to play just 28 minutes across two games against Hibernian and Motherwell in November and December 2023, as the winger failed to break into the starting XI, with the likes of Palma, Hyun-jun Yang, Daizen Maeda, Kyogo Furuhashi, Hyeon-gyu Oh, and James Forrest ahead of him in the forward areas.
Tilio was then sent out on loan to Melbourne City for the second half of the season and scored one goal in four matches, whilst missing nine games through injury, before returning for a second loan there in the summer transfer window.
Appearances
3
Goals
1
Assists
0
Big chances created
0
Key passes per game
1.3
As you can see in the table above, the 23-year-old attacker scored one goal in three matches at the start of the 2024/25 campaign, but he has been out with a hamstring injury since November and is expected to be back at the end of December.
So far, it has been £1.5m wasted for Celtic as they have only got 28 minutes of action from him in what will have been two years by the end of his current loan with Melbourne.
Celtic could repeat Kuhn masterclass by signing £7.5m wizard
Celtic were linked with an interest in the impressive winger in the summer transfer window.
ByDan EmeryNov 19, 2024
His form in Australia, along with his continued injury issues, does not suggest that he is likely to return to Parkhead and live up to being their own version of Foden.
Tilio’s contract with Celtic does not expire until the summer of 2028, though, and there is still time for him to overcome his struggles, but it currently looks as though it was £1.5m wasted by the Scottish side.