Celtic are off to a brilliant start on the domestic front, and even with Kieran Tierney missing, the Hoops looked head and shoulders above St. Johnstone and Motherwell. The reigning Scottish champions still have time on their hand to bring in more players, and one would expect them to add in two or three areas.
However, Neil Lennon recently ruled out a big-money signing and indicated that Celtic would continue with their bargain hunting ways in the transfer window. Many would have expected the Bhoys to spend big on a few areas with Kieran Tierney’s £25m transfer fee, but now it is more or less a guarantee that Celtic won’t spend big.
Lennon’s update on Celtic’s future transfers
Lennon recently said (Daily Record, Live Transfer blog: 9:40), ”We want to bring a few in, but we may have to get a few out to make sure the balance is right. We aren’t going to go out and break the transfer record, but we will try to be shrewd with it. We will look to up the quality if we can in the positions we want to. We can still buy players from England. You might get good deals coming out of there, or abroad, now.”
State of play at Celtic
Some Celtic fans would be disappointed as it seems like not all of the money is going to be reinvested in the squad. The Hoops sold Mousa Dembele for close to £20m last summer to Lyon. The club also received £9m as compensation fee for Rodgers leaving midway through the campaign.
The Bhoys have only spent big on Christopher Jullien since last summer. Celtic’s record signing is Odsonne Edouard who was brought in for £9m, and that transfer record is unlikely to be broken as Lennon indicated.
We think that a left-back, a right-back and a versatile attacker should still be on Celtic’s list. The club was also on the lookout for a midfielder as they tried to bring in David Turnbull, but that move didn’t go through. However, Olivier Ntcham has seemed to bury the hatchet with Lennon after his comments about Celtic, and he has looked good ever since he came back.
With Tierney moving on, Celtic wouldn’t want to sanction another major deal this summer. So, we are expecting the French midfielder to stay after all the speculation in the past month or so. Some would have liked the club to sign more standout options by spending big so that the Hoops can become more competitive in Europe. However, Celtic will clearly continue to sign players with talent and potential instead of readymade stars.
