Neil Lennon has confirmed that Boli Bolingoli-Mbombo is close to joining Celtic but insisted that the defender is being signed to provide competition for Kieran Tierney NOT to replace him.
Late on Monday night social media was full of claims that Celtic were close to signing the Rapid Vienna defender with Sky Sports Austria picking up on the story today.
After tonight’s 0-0 draw with St Gallen in Switzerland Lennon told The Sun: “As for Bolingoli-Mbombo, we are not too far away and he will be another good addition to the squad. He gives us competition at left- back. He’s strong, athletic and good on the ball.”
Tierney returned to Scotland at the weekend to step up his rehab from a double hernia operation amid growing reports of interest from Arsenal and Napoli.
With a limited budget and interest in Wilfried Zaha interest from Arsenal could be cooling although there could be other interest from England in the 22-year-old Celt.
Johnny Hayes played at left-back in the 0-0 draw with St Gallen with no other obvious back-up for Tierney. It’s believed that Andrew Gutman doesn’t have a work permit for the UK.
Celtic have until 11pm on Thursday to sign players for the Champions League qualifier against Sarajevo although two additional ‘wild cards’ can be registered by 11pm on Sunday.