Celtic have made some questionable signings over the years with fans being heavily critical of the club's transfer business, especially this season's dealing that has seen Mark Lawwell stepping down as head of scouting and recruitment.
Whilst some of the most heavily criticised signings may be the likes of Marco Tilio who has ended up back on loan in his homeland a matter of months after joining, none are more baffling than the acquisition and treatment of Gustaf Lagerbielke.
The Swedish international signed for just shy of £3million and despite Celtic paying a fairly decent fee for him, just 6 months after signing he finds himself frozen out of the team.
In recent weeks Celtic have been struggling defensively. Cameron Carter-Vickers' season has been disrupted with injuries, meaning there have been very few moments where Celtic have been able to field a full-strength defence.
The team has kept just 2 clean sheets since returning from the winter break, and despite this, there are still no opportunities for Gustaf Lagerbielke in this Celtic team.
But given Celtic's recent struggles, should Gustaf Lagerbielke be brought back into the fold for the visit of St Johnstone to Celtic Park this weekend?
Why Hasn't He Been Playing?
The Swede signed from Elfsborg after a season that saw him win the Swedish Allvsenskan defender of the year. After a positive start to life at Parkhead, injuries to Carter-Vickers, Maik Nawrocki and Stephen Welsh meant that it was the unfavoured pair of Lagerbielke and Liam Scales that stepped into a massive trip to Ibrox for the first match of the season.
The pair performed admirably as they deflected away everything that Rangers threw at them, earning all of the plaudits from supporters and pundits, and they started the next few fixtures for the club.
However, a mistake from Lagerbielke that led to a goal that was controversially cancelled out by VAR plus a lack of pace when tracking back was something that stuck with Brendan Rodgers.
He kept up some decent performances in the following fixtures but a red card at De Kuip in the opening match of the Champions League Group Stage against Feyenoord saw him bombed out the squad, only returning for emergency scenarios such as when he scored a last-gasp winner in the reverse fixture against the Dutch champions.
He looked to be heading to Serie A in January, but once he had landed in Italy he found out that another injury to Cameron Carter-Vickers meant that the loan was cancelled and he was coming back to Celtic, only to not see a single minute action in the fixtures that have followed since.
An injury that had once led to more opportunities for him has coincidentally been the injury that has cancelled out another opportunity for minutes.
Should He Come Back Into The Team?
Aside from that red card at De Kuip, he hadn't really put much of a foot wrong, and a key factor to keep in mind is that he hasn't started a single game for Celtic alongside the defensive colossus that is Cameron Carter-Vickers yet.
With Liam Scales' form beginning to slide and Stephen Welsh looking shaky when he steps in, there are plenty of worse decisions the manager could make than affording Lagerbielke a second chance.
