Neil Lennon is hoping to have new faces on board before Celtic fly out to Kazakhstan to face Shakhter Karagandy.
The match on August 20 is dominating Lennon’s thoughts with a £20m plus windfall coming with qualification for the group stages of the Champions League.
Since the end of last season Celtic have signed four new players but the loss of Victor Wanyama, Gary Hooper and Kelvin Wilson has left a big hole in Lennon’s first choice XI.
The £2m signing of Derk Boerrigter from Ajax illustrated the level that Celtic are working in with Lennon hopeful of more transfer developments.
“There’s no new players coming in at the minute but I’m hoping something might develop over the weekend,” the Celtic boss admitted.
“Kelvin has now gone and we’re a bit bare on numbers. We want to add to that in the next few days as the Euro deadline is Monday.
“We’ve been linked with a lot of players and this window has been the most remarkable I can remember. I’m not here to talk about speculation and that’s all it is with Capuano (Lazio defender Marco).
“We tried to get Doyle (Wolves striker Kevin) in January but that was then and this is now.”
Looking ahead to the match in Kazikstan Lennon added: “It’s a bit of an unknown one for us, we’ll try and get as much information as possible on them but logistically it’s a bit of a nightmare.
“We’re playing in Aberdeen on the Saturday at lunchtime and there’s a possibility we might have to fly direct to Kazakhstan after that. So it could have been kinder.
“But we’ll be focused – there’s a lot at stake and we’ll prepare as well as we possibly can. From what I gather the game might be played on a plastic pitch.
“To try and watch them live, it would be planes, trains and automoblies for me to get out there. It’s a seven or eight- hour flight.
“So it’s probably going to be impossible for me but we’ll try and get a representative over there to see them.”
CLICK HERE for striker target joins Stoke City
We better get some quality additions – utter stupidity to sell top players BEFORE we had qualified not like any of them will ever kick another ball in CL football.
We were not under pressure to sell so why the rush to get them out the door before we had adequate replacements in place.
Then once again the stupid chase for more cash with so many pre-season games squeezed in resulting in players picking up injuries – We would have been better served going to a training camp and then playing 2-3 games. Our development team could have beaten Cliftonville just as easily.
Could not agree with you more Williebhoy, Neil was quoted that the bhoys are running on fumes already,not something the fans want to here and not something you want to be telling the opposition, and this waiting to see how we get on before we buy players makes no sense to me ,surely you have to assemble your best team BEFORE the season starts so we can destroy these small teams and get some form together for the big games.
We did go to a training camp in Germany and did play 2-3 games to start the season. Our first 11 needed to get match fit so it would have been stupid to not play them against Cliftonville. We’ve planned this pre season very well.
What injuries have we received other than fluke short term ones to a few players? Those injuries have happened because of the short offseason more than anything. You can’t criticize the club for this pre season, we did the best that we could.
I’d rather play a match in Dublin against Liverpool as a reward to our Irish fans than another run of the mill competitive SPL match. That is where our players will get injured, not in a friendly.
While I see and understand the disappointment, in the case of Wilson, I agree that he will never play at that level again. He was always in over his head at our level. But the two others will play in a Champions League team again for sure. Wanyama sated when he came to us right from the start that he saw us as a stepping stone to a top team in Emgland.
He doesn’t have that today, and with Southampton never will, they are also a stepping stone. The only difference is he is closer to his goal there. He will face Englands only three real top teams, Man. Utd., Liverpool amd Chelsea at least twice each. He will be with one f those at the start of next season. Bet on it. As for Hooper, he will also shine and will end up with probably Liverpool within two seasons.
Liverpool? One of England’s only 3 real top teams! You better lay off the drugs…
Why do I get this horrible feeling we’ll see this transfer window close with lots of speculation and a Kevin Doyle. If we’re going to buy players, then buy them early enough so they don’t have to wear name badges for the first few games of the season.
Why rush and buy players, spending money right away on donkeys when some top class player pops up near the end of the transfer window wanting to play for the beat team in the world.
Travel should not be used as an excuse for the forthcoming CL playoff. Forget about the Aberdeen game, fly out before it and let the development squad play them. We should have enough in terms of quality to set ourselves up for finishing the job at home. Being realistic,any new signing is unlikely to settle straight into the team and make a difference.
My thoughts exactly Joe, forget about the first 11 for the game against the sheep and play fringe players, guys that need to make a name for themselves to be considered for the first team.
Zaluskas, Moyloko, Rogic, stokes, kayal, Balde, etc… See what they’re made of. Our 2nd string should beat any Spfl team if not we should get rid and buy the best players from the Spfl..
Stokes is the main striker at the club HH
Aye for the Spfl!! Until he concentrates on putting the ball in the net and stop trying to do what commons does ten times better hel always be a squad man..
Name a better striker at the club
Surely to god lawwell can see we’re heavy favourites to qualify against this mob so we can bank another £20m+ so we can afford to spend £6m-£8m on a quality midfielder and a quality goal scorer to take us to the next step, I think the team we have is a good one just need the wee bit extra quality to make the difference. Please make this happen HH
We will never spend 6-8 million on an idividual player and certainly not on two of them. That is an unrealistic wish. We have a transfer plan and we will stick to it. THere are plenty of quality players available in the 1-5 million pound range that we can obtain that will enhance he team.
I ment for both mate not 2 @ 6m each HH
“We tried to get Kevin Doyle in January but that was then and this is now” that to me is the biggest hint we are signing him. I am raging we would be better playing Tony Watt he would score more goals than doyle.
Our BOD will show severe lack of ambition if we sign Doyle what a complete joke he is garbage
Kevin Doyle can still play. I’d be fine with signing him, just as long as he’s the second striker we bring in and not our main goalscorer. Billy Sharp should be the man to replace Gary Hooper. Celtic fans may not be familiar with him, but he’s a genuine goalscorer who can score 30 goals a season for Celtic and he’ll be available for under £2 million.
Its apparent that we are short on numbers but regardless of how much money we bring in Celtic park will never see the likes of a 6million player again…. unless we are selling them! @Mark
I expect we will be bringing players with potential resale value for small fees or looking to bring in older, more experienced heads for even smaller fees!
To be fair to the club , last preseason we didn’t have extra money cos of our dismal display in Europe 2011/12. Now not only do we have extra revenue from champs league we also have resale money too… You never know they might give us 8-10 mil to spend and then it’s up to Lenny how he spends it… The caviat to signing expensive players is the big wages, which would break our structure and have a domino affect the ought the squad…Just ask Sevco!!
The boy finnbogason looks to be in our transfer mold maybe a bit pricey at £4-5m but young with a re-sale value and would score plenty but its time we signed players to do a job now instead of hoping they turn into a player HH
i hope that peterlawell and the board give the fans a marquee signing as well as a centrehalf
To be perfectly honest I’m sick of hearing the phrase “resale value” that’s just my opinion.
I agree with that mate
whats the point of having millions in the bank when wee are debt free and penny pinching the fans pay good money to follow the team time too give something back …HH
Just watched celtic young guns against Liverpool full strength and am sitting here a happy man. Mr lennon you are doing some job that team the day Balde was magic young Irvine and fisher were magic. But best on park was moyokolo he never lost a ball all day. And lustig was magic beside him at centre half.
Mick Quigley is spot on, great energy in the team out in Dublin and no one can say anything negative about our squad after that display. Pre-season is where the cobwebs are swept away and anyone who judges a team on these should just show more patience. Balde was magnificent as were all the kids on the park and we were solid and smart at the back. Mr Lennon is a canny we guy and smarter than most give credit for. Show some support folk because players read what we read and they are only human so need the old ego massage now and again. HH and well done CFC
I would like to sa a massive thank you to
Celtic. They trained in malahide yesterday
I took my 2 kids out to watch it was great.
They signed jerseys and got in photos.
A big thank you to Neil Lennon and Celtic.
Why rush and buy players, spending money right away on donkeys when some top class player pops up near the end of the transfer window wanting to play for the beat team in the world.
My last comment was to finish with best team. Any how Celtics policy in buy cheap and produce class players has nt failed us yet! Look at our history, Larsson, Wanyama top notch business. Last year we had almost 3 full squad teams that could have done the job for us. Neil is a smart cookie and deserves more credit than some ppl give him. I can honestly see us a better squad than last without the likes of Hooper, Wanyama and Wilson. And we’ve just started this season.
Wee Lennon will pull something out the bag I’m sure