Celtic’s bold personnel moves on transfer deadline day were designed to haul the Parkhead club back into the title race. The signing that had everyone talking of course was that of Robbie Keane and it could only be viewed as a gamble, a short-term solution designed to help land the championship.

Now that Tony Mowbray’s men find themselves ten points behind Rangers with the same number of games played, it’s reasonable to wonder if the radical overhaul will be for naught in terms of silverware. Granted there will be commercial spin-offs to having a big name like Keane wear the hoops for a few months. Yet Rangers are going to have to come a cropper a few times, and Celtic might just have to win every SPL game between now and the end of the season. It’s difficult to envisage.

Don’t get me wrong. Celtic should be applauded for their ambition. There was genuine excitement in Glasgow on Monday night and ahead of Keane‘s debut at Rugby Park. It took us all back to the days when the Old Firm were able to lure prominent players from south of the border to Celtic Park and Ibrox respectively.

It shouldn’t be all about Robbie Keane from the Celtic angle though. Diomansy Kamara has the ability to be a big success in Scottish football, and Edson Braafheid should prosper as a swashbuckling left-back desperate to make the Dutch World Cup squad. Morten Rasmussen displayed his striker’s instincts in the recent win at Hamilton and Jos Hooiveld can bolster a defence that has been in desperate need of strengthening.

It strikes me that relegation threatened Kilmarnock also enjoyed a very positive end to the transfer period. Jimmy Calderwood got immediate value from Chris Maguire, seeing him score the only goal against Celtic in our highly compelling live Tuesday night game on ESPN. Ironically Calderwood had been less than keen to see the youngster go out on loan when he managed him at Aberdeen. Kilmarnock should also be helped by Scott Severin and Rob Kiernan, both on loan from Watford. It’s hard to imagine Killie going down now.

Other January winners? Well, Aberdeen will have been happy to get 500,000 from Middlesbrough for Lee Miller, a player who would have been out of contract in the summer. It enabled Mark McGhee to finally get Steven MacLean and Jim Paterson from Plymouth. Still, the new boys couldn’t help the Dons avoid a 1-0 defeat at home to Falkirk on Tuesday night.

Hamilton have slipped to the bottom as I write this, but they concluded an excellent piece of business in bringing Brian Easton back on loan from Burnley, where he had taken part in just one competitive game. Will it be enough to save Billy Reid’s men? It could be touch and go for Accies but in captain Alex Neill, they have one of the top players in the SPL this term.

At the moment you would put your money on the relegation battle being a lot tighter than the championship race. Hamilton, Falkirk and Kilmarnock are fighting it out and St. Mirren could easily get dragged in, too. St. Johnstone probably have enough about them to stay well clear of trouble.

Elsewhere, Alan Gow should enhance an already strong Hibernian side, who have Celtic in their sights. The opportunity for the Edinburgh club to split the Old Firm remains a strong one. Dundee United have plenty of breathing space in fourth and they can be expected to stay there, despite no new January acquisitions.

Motherwell, revitalised by Craig Brown, will be hoping for a bit of spark from Michael McGlinchey, once of Celtic. McGlinchey, who qualifies for New Zealand is expected to feature for the Kiwis at the World Cup finals.