I have followed Celtic for as long as I can remember, and I genuinely cannot recall a winter quite like this one. Here we are in 2026, and the talk around Parkhead has been less about pressing traps and inverted full-backs and far more about the treatment table. Brendan Rodgers resigned, Martin O'Neill stepped in on an interim basis, and the club has spent weeks trying to appoint a permanent successor while simultaneously fighting to keep a title race alive. How does a squad cope when four or five of its most dependable bodies vanish inside six weeks? Badly, usually. And yet here we are — still second, still breathing, still chasing a fifth title in a row.

Journalist Pete O'Rourke reported that the club would prioritise two positions when the January window reopened: a centre-back and a striker. Not a winger, not a project, not another midfielder to sit in a queue — a defender and a goalscorer. That tells you everything about the state of the squad.

The defensive problem starts with Cameron Carter-Vickers. The former Tottenham man suffered an Achilles setback back in October and was expected to miss around five months, which effectively wipes out the bulk of the season. When your most reliable centre-back — the guy who reads danger three seconds before it exists — is gone for that long, you do not simply replace him with a body. You replace him with a personality. Celtic reportedly drew up a two-man shortlist for the position, and I spent most of December refreshing pages hoping one of those names would finally be confirmed.

Up front, things are arguably worse.

• Kelechi Iheanacho — a hamstring issue described as less serious, but the Nigeria international was still expected to be sidelined for several more weeks.

• Callum Osmand — carried off on a stretcher during Celtic's 3-1 Europa League defeat to Midtjylland in only his third appearance of the season; hamstring surgery followed, with O'Neill admitting the 20-year-old would be out for a long time.

• Marcelo Saracchi and Alistair Johnston — both full-backs facing extended spells on the sidelines.

• Jota — still working his way back from a long-term knee injury.

Reading that list back is genuinely grim. I remember watching Osmand go down in that Midtjylland game and feeling the air leave the room. Twenty years old, third appearance of the campaign, stretcher. Football is brutal sometimes, and it is easy to forget that these are people, not squad numbers.

And this is the context in which the managerial situation has unfolded. Wilfried Nancy, who spent three and a half years at Columbus Crew and won both the MLS Cup in 2023 and the Leagues Cup in 2024, emerged as the front-runner for the Parkhead job, with conversations ongoing about him replacing O'Neill on a permanent basis. I will admit I was intrigued rather than convinced at first — MLS to the Scottish Premiership is a jump, and the pressure here is a different species entirely. But the more I read about how his teams are built, the more I thought: if you are going to rebuild a broken squad mid-season, do it with somebody who has a clear idea of what he wants. The Frenchman was expected to be active in the January market, and that mattered enormously.

But here is the question I keep coming back to: is one January window, however well executed, actually enough to rescue a title race?

Celtic are chasing a fifth consecutive Scottish Premiership crown. Sitting second, seven points behind a Hearts side that has played a game more, the maths is not catastrophic — but it is uncomfortable. Drop points in the wrong week and the gap becomes a canyon. Win the right three games and suddenly it is a two-horse race again with everything to play for.

So yes, I am hopeful. A centre-back who can organise a back four, a striker who can score the ugly goal in the 88th minute, and a manager with a plan — that is not too much to ask, is it? What I have learned this season, though, is that Celtic rarely do things the easy way. The injuries forced the club into a corner, and corners are where the most interesting decisions get made.

Whatever happens between now and May, I will be there. That is the thing about supporting this club — you do not get to choose the easy years. You just turn up, sing louder, and hope the shortlist delivers.