Celtic ran out in front of their own supporters at Parkhead for the first time since they won the Scottish Premiership title when they faced Hibernian on Saturday.
The Hoops clinched the league title with a 5-0 win over Dundee United away from home at the end of last month, before they travelled across Glasgow to play out a 1-1 draw with their rivals last weekend.
It did, however, look as though Hibs were going to spoil the party when they took the lead at Celtic Park thanks to an opening goal from Martin Boyle in the 25th minute.
The Premiership champions, though, bounced back and led before the break after goals from Nicolas Kuhn and Adam Idah turned the game around, before Reo Hatate added a third in the second 45.
Cameron Carter-Vickers, who has suffered with hamstring injuries this season, was given the weekend off by Brendan Rodgers, in order to manage his minutes in the final few weeks of the season.
That opened up a position at the heart of the defence and the Northern Irish head coach opted to go with Auston Trusty next to Liam Scales.
Scales and Trusty’s performances for Celtic this season
The Hoops reportedly paid a fee of £5m to sign Trusty from English side Sheffield United in the summer transfer window last year to bolster their left-sided centre-back options.
The USA international and Scales have competed for the starting berth next to Carter-Vickers at centre-back, but they have also had to play alongside each other at times when the former Spurs man has been unavailable, like on Saturday.
Although Celtic won the match comfortably in the end, Trusty, who lost 100% of his ground duels, had a moment to forget when his poor attempted clearance dropped straight to Boyle to find the back of the net.
Unfortunately, errors have been too common for the former Arsenal defender in the Premiership this season since his £5m move to Parkhead, particularly in comparison to Scales and Carter-Vickers.
As you can see in the table above, Trusty has made more errors that have led to shots, more errors that have led to goals, and been dribbled past more times, despite playing fewer matches than the other two centre-backs.
This also shows that Scales, who was unlucky to give a penalty away at Ross County, has been more reliable than the American dud in the Premiership.
This is despite the former Aberdeen loanee being worth just £3m, as per Transfermarkt, which is £2m less than the fee the club paid Sheffield United for the other left-footed defender.
The Ireland international has not made as many errors as the former Premier League flop and that may be why Rodgers has preferred him over Trusty alongside Carter-Vickers in recent weeks.
However, the Celtic boss did still opt to select Trusty on the right side of the defence over Maik Nawrocki, a naturally right-footed player, and the Hoops must ruthlessly ditch the Polish centre-back this summer as a result of his lack of minutes on the pitch this season.
Why Celtic should cash in on Maik Nawrocki
The 24-year-old defender, whose Transfermarkt value is just £1.7m, was an unused substitute once again against Hibernian, as he failed to add to his paltry two appearances in the Premiership in the 2024/25 campaign.
When questioned about Nawrocki’s lack of game time in March, Rodgers explained that it was because he prefers to have left-footed players on the left. He said: “I do always prefer where I can a left-footed centre-half on that side, in all honesty, because that allows you to get through the pitch quicker and have more speed playing forward.”
However, Carter-Vickers was unavailable against Hibernian and the manager still opted for Trusty on the right side, despite him being a naturally left-footed player who has the same problems that Nawrocki has playing out on his weaker side.
This suggests that the former Legia Warsaw star’s lack of game time goes beyond Rodgers’ concerns about which side of the centre-back pairing he plays, as he was unwilling to give him minutes against Hibernian with no other right-footed centre-backs available and the title already wrapped up.
The most frustrating part of this for Nawrocki, however, may be that this has come after his impressive performances in the Premiership in his two outings in March.
All the way back in January of last year, Nawrocki told reporters that he was prepared for his moment to shine in a Celtic shirt, and that moment eventually came in March of this year when Trusty and Scales were injured and he was named in the XI against Rangers and Hearts.
As you can see in the table above, the Polish star took his chances to impress with dominant and reliable defensive displays in those two matches, which led to pundit Chris Sutton hailing him as “fantastic”.
However, Nawrocki has been an unused substitute for four matches, missed out on the matchday squad twice, and not played a single minute of football since the win and clean sheet against Hearts.
As aforementioned, his Transfermarkt value now stands at just £1.7m. This means that he is worth less than Scales (£3m) and Trusty (bought for £5m), whilst also being the least used centre-back option, with just two league outings.
Therefore, Celtic must brutally axe the 24-year-old outcast from the squad in the upcoming summer transfer window because he is a depreciating asset who is not getting enough minutes on the pitch.
Rodgers has shown that he is not ready to trust Nawrocki ahead of Scales or Trusty and it is now down to the board to find a team that is willing to snap him up so they can recoup some money for his services ahead of the 2025/26 campaign.
