With all of the fanfare surrounding the Glasgow Derby a couple of weekends ago – as well as Celtic’s exciting Champions League draw – you would be forgiven for allowing a couple of notable signings to go under the radar.

Of course, the club’s record signing Arne Engels did not get lost in the pack, whilst Luke McCowan captured the hearts of the wider Celtic support with his now-infamous reaction to walking through the tunnel at Celtic Park on deadline day. A lovely moment, but another signing did occur on deadline day, after all…

Of course, we’re talking about Sheffield United’s Auston Trusty, who joined Brendan Rodgers’ side two Fridays ago for £6 million. Starting off his career in and around the MLS in his native USA, the USMNT international joined Arsenal from Colorado Rapids back in 2022 before spending time on loan at Birmingham City. Despite interest from Rangers, Trusty moved to Sheffield United last summer, before making the switch to Scotland and Celtic after being relegated to the Championship with the former.

In light of this move, The Celtic Way’s Ryan McGinlay spoke to Hal of the Sheff United Way to gauge what kind of player the club are getting in Trusty, as well as his game’s strengths and weaknesses.

Joining Sheffield United back in 2023, the two-times-capped central defender impressed Hal even before he made the move to his club, due to the stopper’s successful loan spell at Birmingham City – though in a very different position. He said: “We had seen Trusty play against us at left-back for Birmingham, and it's a position that he can play in, as well as a left wing-back.

“Sheffield United were playing a back three at the time when they went into the Premier League and they needed a player that could cover that left-side of centre-back position – he seemed like a ‘Trusty’ option in that area at the time. We were quite excited about the player because he looked very good at his previous club – he won Birmingham’s Player of the Season despite only being on loan there – a rare sight.

“However, Trusty was thrown into a very difficult Premier League season, despite us Sheffield United fans being excited at what the player was going to bring to the club.”

Indeed, it was a season to forget for the Blades, as the English side finished rock bottom of the EPL with just 16 points in 38 games. Because of this, there were more negatives concerning Trusty’s time at Bramall Lane than positives. Hal was blunt about the centre-back, as he gave a definitive answer on what the defender had to work on most. He said: “Concentration.”

“I think every Blades fan watching this will agree with me in saying that is the first thing that will leap into their mind with Trusty. I’m not saying he is a player that goes to sleep in games, but there were times that he looked in control of a situation, and then all of a sudden the opponent’s striker was goalside. Unfortunately with Trusty, he will go into a bracket of unsuccessful signings that Sheffield United made in an attempt to try and stay in the Premier League.

“Actually, of all of the signings that the club made in this transition to Premier League football, many thought that Trusty would be the most reliable, solid, and dependable player. Unfortunately, because of positioning and concentration, he wasn’t always that guy.”

Despite this torrid season under Paul Heckingbottom and then Chris Wilder – the current Blades manager – the USA international did display some of his strengths in the red and white stripes of Sheffield United. While Hal did witness some of these qualities, he admitted a surprise concerning the transaction between the two clubs last week. He said: “I’ll be honest here, I am quite surprised that Celtic see Trusty as a £6 million-rated centre-back – they may have seen more in his time at Birmingham City.

“I say this because he certainly showed more of what he could do than he did in the Premier League. On his best days, he showed that he has a good jumping reach, as well as being good in the air with headers, which is what you want to see at set pieces. On his day – there were more off days than on with Trusty – he is good at marking, as well as being composed when tackling.

"He is brave, and he also speaks really well – it is clear that he is obviously a very intelligent player. You put all of these attributes together on paper and he sounds like the archetypal ‘perfect’ centre-back – unfortunately, he did not put all of those things together on a consistent basis at Bramall Lane.”

At the age of 26, Trusty is not your typical ‘project’ player that Celtic have become accustomed to over the past few years. A fully-fledged international player, the defender will be looking to start the majority of games for his new club this campaign. Circling back to his main weakness – that of concentration levels at the back – Hal believes that Trusty will shake this problem off during his spell at the Scottish champions. He said: “I think that Trusty has got all of the raw tools to be a really good player.”

“In the Scottish Premiership, he will excel with a team that has a lot of the ball – which was the exact opposite at Sheffield United. He was constantly having to defend in the Premier League, so any frailties that you have are going to be exposed – unfortunately, we saw that.

“He will be in a side that will have more of the ball and will be expected to win games, which will be brilliant for him. I think there’s a really good, solid defender in there, though time will tell if he can shine at Celtic.”

Previously, the latest link to both Sheffield United and Celtic has been that of Cameron Carter-Vickers, who enjoyed a fruitful half-season spell at the Blades from 2017-18 before returning to his parent club Tottenham Hotspur in January. With both Carter-Vickers and now Trusty at the club at the same time, an all-American central defensive unit could now be deployed by Rodgers at Celtic.

Hal believes that Carter-Vickers could – and should – be an influential figure for Trusty to look up to, despite being of a similar age. Looking back on the aforementioned spell at his club seven years ago, Hal said: “The two defenders definitely have things in common that they can relate and talk about.

“Carter-Vickers had a very successful time at Sheffield United and the Blades fans remember him very fondly. To see the levels he has got to at Celtic has been really pleasing and now he will be a notable example to Trusty of what he can achieve if he listens to the coaches, and gets the crowd onside – because he’ll want to share with Auston that there’s no better fans on earth.

“He’s just turned 26 years old; he's probably going to be stepping into the defensive prime of his career and he’ll be looking to take a first-team spot at Celtic.”