You could hardly move for new faces navigating their way towards Lennoxtown yesterday.Joel van den Berg, Oliver Sorensen and Sam Johnstone made it into the building. Shim Mheuka was poised to join them.Before tonight’s 11pm European signing deadline, there’s every chance they’ll have Gvidas Gineitis and Landon Emenalo for company. There may even be others.A late flurry of activity to go with the £30million spent on four players earlier in the window.As well-received as it undoubtedly will be by the fan base ahead of the match with Aberdeen, it begs an obvious question; Why didn’t it all happen three or four weeks back before the Champions League qualifier against LASK?While Celtic do deserve credit for belatedly swinging into action, it does feel like a householder mending the roof after the storm has blown through. Celtic players are dejected after blowing a 4-0 aggregate lead to lose 5-4 to LASK last month Celtic assistant Shaun Maloney understands the frustrations of fans’ over transfer activityNotwithstanding the many moving parts that exist in any transfer window, the obvious frustrations supporters have expressed about the rate at which deals have been concluded isn’t lost on Shaun Maloney.’You can understand that,’ said Martin O’Neill’s assistant. ‘From a coach’s point of view, you want them as early as possible.’You have to adapt to how the window plays out. We’d love them as soon as possible, but from a coaching point of view it’s about being as positive as possible, helping them integrate as soon as we can and improving the team’s performance.’I think in an absolute ideal world, you’re probably in this position (only) reacting to injuries.’We couldn’t plan for Alistair (Johnston) or any of the ones that have got injuries in the last week or so, but they’re actually not that long term.’I think the other stuff, in an ideal world, you’ve got all your work done at certain points within the window. But I think that’s also the reality that we live in.’While clearly not every deal can be completed prior to the first day of pre-season training, this wave of late additions is curious.Confirmation that O’Neill would be in charge this season came on June 11 with a European play-off etched in the diary for mid-August.It was a far cry from the January window where Wilfried Nancy’s departure understandably caught the recruitment team on the back-foot. This time, they’d had ample notice to get their ducks in a row.’January was really difficult,’ Maloney added. ‘I wasn’t with the recruitment team at that point.’The club was preparing for a completely different way of playing. Different structure, team, different profile of players.’When was it? January 5, within the first week, we changed. Sam Johnstone in action for Wolves last season and is expected to join Celtic imminently’Very quickly, we had to change complete direction on the type of player we wanted to bring in. That was tough. That was really difficult.’From the February time, my role wasn’t just the assistant. I had to try and help the recruitment department prepare for this window in terms of the players we thought we were going to have to replace, if we were selling them or the loans would go back.’There was a lot of work to try and do that. Almost since the end of May, the structure of the club has been that it’s Martin on the board.’For me, I’ve literally just focused on coaching the team. Any time Martin or any of the board guys ask an opinion or need me to watch anything, any player that they bring, no problem. I think all the staff are more than willing to do that work.’January provided an illustration in what can happen when that work is rushed. Joel Mvuku, Tomas Cvancara and Junior Adamu made little impacts across their five months in Glasgow.But the club’s dealings around that time weren’t all a write-off. Julian Araujo was a success after joining on loan from Bournemouth with Alex-Oxlade Chamberlain, a free agent in February, also impressing until his lack of fitness caught up with him.On the evidence of his vintage display against Falkirk on Saturday, the former Liverpool man is finally enjoying the benefits of a full pre-season.’We got him in February,’ Maloney recalled.’He’d been training at Arsenal, but he hadn’t had a permanent club since Besitkas.’He was similar to a lot of the guys that came in January.’Probably Araujo was the only one that consistently played. I think everyone else, we brought in, they had really big moments. So, I think that’s what that window taught us. It was a really difficult window. Oliver Sorensen is another transfer target that Celtic are set to get over the line ‘Now Alex has had a sustained period of training.’He’s done more training with us, more than any other player really. A lot of the extra work.’You’re starting to look at the condition that he’s in.’He can go and perform. I hope he has a really big season for us.’He has been an unbelievable player.’Extremely powerful, can drive with the ball from the middle of the pitch.. I think you saw that once against Falkirk.’It’s probably the first time I’ve seen him do that out-with training.’He’s really getting there. I think he does things that other midfielders don’t have.’You’ve heard me talk about profiles and things players can do. He can do things you can’t coach.’It’s just trying to get him in a condition where he’s really competent to go 100 per cent at each game.’Even though he was suspended for the European tie, the vast experience of the former England man would have been significant in the immediate aftermath of the collapse in Austria.While the team responded with a deserved win over Falkirk, its shortcomings off the ball were again concerning and have provided much food for thought.’The first couple of days were difficult. It was low,’ said Maloney.’It wasn’t just the players, everyone associated with the club felt that disappointment.’In the Falkirk game there was a lot of good, but we also allowed Falkirk more of the ball in certain areas than we would have liked.’That’s where we have to demand more.’I also understand the emotional side of those three days and the massive disappointment.’We had to win that game and the last couple of days have been easier to focus on what we need to do on the back of a win.’We have to keep improving. We have got really good players – and we have to demand more from them.’