Neil Lennon has made bringing in a centre-half his signing priority.
During the close season Daniel Majstorovic, Glenn Loovens and Darren O’Dea all left the club while Jaroslav Fojut’s proposed transfer was canceled after the Pole suffered a serious knee injury.
Charlie Mulgrew, Kelvin Wilson and Thomas Rogne played in the first two matches of the pre-season tour of Germany with Victor Wanyama making his return in last night’s 2-1 win over Vfb Aalen.
Lennon was delighted by the performance of Wanyama but would like to sign up a centre half ahead of the third qualifying round of the Champions League in a fortnight’s time.
“Victor was tremendous and he is a great example to the other players,” the hoops boss stated.
“We are going into a level where we need to be really well conditioned, particularly away from home.
“We are going to have to play strongly without the ball. Victor can play at the back or in midfield, depending on the opposition but we are still short of a centre-half. You can see that.
“If we get an injury to Rogne, Wilson or Mulgrew, we only have three recognised central defenders at the minute and obviously it is another priority to try to bring one in quickly.”
Second half goals from Gary Hooper and Anthony Stokes earned Celtic their first win of the season against the third division club.
Adam Matthews and Emilio Izaguirre failed to play in any of the German matches but Lennon is hopeful that his first choice full-backs will be able to play at some stage of Saturday’s match against Ajax.
Tony Watt, Lewis Toshney, Andre Blackman and Rabui Ibrahim have returned to Scotland and will feature for the development squad in the weekend tourament staged by Partick Thistle.
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About time too! We desperately need a bloody center-half. What’s Lawell up too! (Sorry, with all the Sevco distractions, it’s ages since I had a moan- we do need a center-half though. We’ve got a huge hole right in the middle of our defence).
thats no way to speak about forster! a huge hole?! lol but seriously I feel your pain… please please please do not deliver a bomb scare at the back mr lennon as much stability is needed and I reckon this will cost a few bob… HH!
Celtics problem is we get linked to many players but nothing ever seems to materialise. We always take too long to table a bid which leads to them signing elsewhere. I think they should be identifing targets before the season ends and getting the business done as quickly as possible before other clubs start sniffing about. The board should be trying to give us the best possible chance to get into the champions league group stages rather than settling for what we have. To be honest a think the league will be done by christmas but i want us back were we belong playing the creme de la creme of europe and giving these big clubs a run for there money. HH
Totally agree with jaz we need a good quality commanding centerback in asap as well as a top notch striker to compete with the big boys in europe…at one time we used to be one of the big boys, its about time we stopped settling for the tag as also rans…come on lawell get your bloody cheque book out fast, and break this groundhog day cycle we seem to go through every year around this time…HH
great woeds frm coachez, wanyama our great player here in kenya
While the need is great, we should also try to be certain the guy we bring in has the quality needed. No more stop gaps / cheap options…they prove expensive in the long term.
Ideally someone with a lot of pace, presence, experience who oozes class LOL – Ok I’d settle for someone even close.
Failing that we need a real up & comer, a young hungry central defender who will attack the ball but smart enough to keep possession.
Not easy by any means, but then we have been looking for several years now !!