Ange Postecoglou and the Celtic transfer warnings heard loud and clear in the Parkhead boardroom

Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate and Yosuke Ideguchi have been snapped up on a triple deal ahead of the January window.

Of the many things we've learned about Ange Postecoglou since his arrival at Celtic, a tendency to tell you exactly what he's thinking is among the most obvious.

What it pretty much guarantees is you can always take him at face value, for better or worse.

This has largely applied to unsuspecting journalists at press conferences but perhaps the first evidence that Postecoglou would be an unerringly straight shooter came during the last transfer window, and is now being compounded in this one.

Celtic have moved quickly ahead of the January market opening for business, securing deals for Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate and Yosuke Ideguchi, taking the number of J-League acquisitions to four as they join Kyogo Furuhashi in Glasgow.

That these transfers have appeared done and dusted for some time is in stark contrast to where Celtic were just a few months ago.

The club were, in Postecoglou's own words, guilty of "hesitating" during the summer when the need for reinforcements was it its greatest.

Celtic did eventually complete 12 deals over the window, but not before crashing out of Champions League qualifying to an average Midtjylland side and losing early ground in the Premiership title race.

Before and after losing to the Danes, Postecoglou was frank.

He said before the game: "We probably hesitated a couple of times and could have moved faster on some things.

"That hasn't helped us. In normal circumstances these processes are fairly straightforward. Get a player, sign him, take him on a plane, take a photo and away he goes.

"That process is now taking two to three weeks. That's where we've got to move a little bit more precisely, understand there's going to be lag time and move a bit quicker."

Celtic fans won't need nor want reminding of what transpired against Midtylland, so we'll skip straight to what the manager said afterwards.

“I’m the person that's been put in charge and if we haven't got players in obviously I haven't done a good enough job of convincing people we need to bring people in," he admitted.

"I don't say that because I'm some kind of martyr; I just think that's my responsibility.

"I've been trying to be as forceful as I can about what we need to bring in and the challenges we've had are well chronicled.

"Again maybe I wasn't clear enough - I don't know. I think I've been pretty consistent in saying that. We need more players in. The club's working hard to get those players in.

"Our supporters just want to see us bring the reinforcements in that we need and I just need to keep reinforcing my views on it as strongly as I possibly can."

Fast forward to December and it certainly appears those reinforced views have stuck in the Celtic boardroom, where Dominic McKay has been replaced by Michael Nicholson as CEO.

Postecoglou has made the ideal start to his transfer window and there's the possibility of yet more to come, with plenty of time in which to do it.

The rescheduled winter break has helped, too, with Maeda, Hatate and Ideguchi having extra weeks to acclimatise themselves before taking to the field.

Contrast this with the likes of Joe Hart being thrown into the side at a moment's notice during the summer and you can see why Postecoglou was more upbeat this Friday, with a notable emphasis on timing.

He said: “I am delighted to have secured these players so early in the transfer window, I look forward to working with them and myself, my backroom team and the rest of the squad will be making sure we help them settle into Celtic as quickly as possible."

A lack of decisiveness in the market has been a lingering concern among the Celtic support, with missed opportunities and last minute scrambles not uncommon.

But as well as overhauling deficiencies on the pitch, it seems Postecoglou is driving change