There are no surprises in the squad Celtic have registered with UEFA for the Champions League ties with Cliftonville.
Neil Lennon has registered 19 names with UEFA but can bring in any number of youth team graduates such as Tony Watt, Dylan McGeouch, Jackson Irvine, Liam Henderson and Darnel Fisher.
James Forrest is the only player to have come through the ranks in the squad which can have one addition before 11pm CPT tonight.
Round by round new players can be registered suggesting that Lennon is looking at a maximum of three new signings to bring his squad upto 22.
While Lennon’s focus is entirely on Solitude tomorrow night the draw for the third qualifying round will take place on Friday.
UEFA will assume that Celtic will succeed over Cliftonville with the Celtic/Cliftonville ball seeded for the draw.
Last season at that stage Celtic were drawn against HJK Helsinki and can expect similar standard opposition this time around if they see off Cliftonville.
Lennon will have a fitness check on a number of players this morning before selecting his squad for Belfast.
The biggest doubts are over Joe Ledley and Adam Matthews who failed to play in any of the pre-season matches in Germany.
Scott Brown and Forrest were both used lightly while Gary Hooper has been subject to increasing transfer speculation as well as suffering from a thigh knock.
On Friday night after losing to Union Berlin Lennon admitted that the striker could have played his last match as a Celtic player.
It seems unlikely that a possible £5m transfer fee will be put at risk by playing Hooper at Cliftonville leaving Lennon with Amido Balde, Tony Stokes and Georgios Samaras to select from tomorrow night.
CLICK HERE for Celtic’s UEFA squad
I reckon Celtic should have offered Wanyama a 4/5 year contract and built the team around him. He would be worth about 25 million in 4/5 years time and we would have had a few extra years out of him. I don’t like most of the names being punted as new signings particularly Southampton’s Billy Sharp who is pure shoite BTW.
Obviously Lenny expects a few new arrivals.
Obviously something better not done in haste.
Thai, do you never get sick of posting the same mantra again and again and again……………..
We would all have liked to see Big Victor staying at CP, but…….I’ll leave you to TRY and work out the rest for yourself.
Jeeesh!!
Big vic couldn’t get away fast enough so that ends the give him a big contract argument HH
Vic was never offered a new contract.
Why would Victor be offered a new contract?
Victor signe a 4 yr contract at Celtic in july 2011, contracting him to play for the Hoops until the summer of 2015.
In Oct 2012 Victor was offered a wage improvement on his existing contract, but his agent released a statement claiming the wage hike wasn’t enough and that the player was the subject of interest from several epl teams.
Considering Victor still had almost 3yrs still to run on his contract Celtic offered the pay rise in recognition of his work rate and succes on the pitch, not through any necessity.
If Victor was still at CP, he would still have two yrs to run on his contract.
We all talk shoit sometimes thia, it’ just strange that yours is always neggative shoit of the stir it up variety.
Are you picking fights again Sweeney Bhoy lol.
Thai I get what your saying, Wanyama is the kind of player you want to build your team around but truth is he was never going to sign a 4/5 year contract at Celtic, he was desperate to play in the Premiership and Celtic made a huge profit on the transfer so it was a good deal all round.
He probably will be worth £25 million in a few years time but no team in the world would spend that kind of money on a player plying his trade in Scotland, I think we could have pushed for a little more but £12.5 million is a not bad return on a player who cost us £900’000.
As for potential new signings, you’ve got to trust Lenny and John Park’s judgement on that one, they have proven to be quite adept at unearthing gems over the past few years. Not many of us were overly excited at the signings of Hooper and Wanyama but looked how they turned out.
Hail Hail.
What exactly do you get?
That the player was never offered an improved contract on his existing four year contract?
That Celtic in some way should need to offer a new contract on a player who wants to leave?
Or that Celtic in some way refused to keep a player who’s on record as saying he was desperate to play in the epl and be the first of his countymen to ro so?
The last time I heard from you Andy was when you were adamant that Lenny, his coaching staff, the entire scouting set up, Peter Lawwell and the ‘bored’, were in someway responsible for spending thosands of pounds scouting player,tens of thousands going into negotiation and spendind more than a million bringing him o the club, to just not give him a chance?
You went through the card slagging of everyone at CP, including theh support who you suggested were not ‘ honest Celtic supporter ‘ unless they agreed with you and that if anyone tried to disagree with what you said about the club they were morons brainwashed by Peter Lawwell.
Correct me if I’m mistaken anywhere.
You and thia a.re well matched.
HH
Sweeney’ I’ve got issues’ Hughes
Seriously man what is your f*cking problem!
Every time I visit this site your trying to pick a fight with someone. The people who post here are fellow Celtic fans, by all means disagree with their opinions but stop acting like a pompous prick who belittles the opinions of others and thinks his opinions are superior to everyone else’s.
I will correct you on pretty much everything you said because I didn’t say or imply anything like what your accusing me of saying above. That was your twisted interpretation of my previous post, but heh ho life is to short to be wasting time trying to reason with bangers like you.
Thai keep posting mate and ignore this clown, he will eventually alienate himself with everybody else on here with the way he carries on, and God willing he pisses off to some other site. He’s an arrogant, self righteous bore of a man who has all the charm and social skills of a rabid dug.
Hail Hail.
You’re the clown shouting about Gershon ‘not being given a chance’. Utter unsubstanciated bs.
Your the one with the aroggance and self rightious attitude who know better than just about everyone at CP and if anyone disagrees with you they, according to you, are not ‘honest Celtic supporters and must be brain washed by Peter ‘you’re back in the room’ Lawwell if they are deluded enough to have a different opinio to you
So you can question Lenny, his coaching staff, the scouting set up and the integrity of the board, but no one is allowed to question you!
Why would Celtic spend millions of pounds, especially when things are so tight, and not give the player every chance?
It doesn’t make sense and that’s because it ‘s nonsence.
As for Victor, there are a myriad of reasons why Victor moved on, but yet again we have the same bs stirring up bad feeling about his move and just about everyone at CP getting slagged of for completing the best bit of football business done in Scotland for decades.
You’re the guy who likes to spread your personal infantile self-rightious aroggant insults at anyone who dares disagree with you, as you let everyone see with your wee keyboard gangster paddy above.
Grow up ffs!!