Craig Swan expects just one loan signing arriving at Celtic before the transfer window closes on Monday night.
Back in December Neil Lennon suggested a few areas that needed strengthened with the injury to Chris Jullien and transfer of Jeremie Frimpong significantly weakening options in defence. Last season those two were key parts of Celtic’s success.
Swan is normally joined by Chris Sutton on the Daily Record Celtic podcast but today he had to make do with Liam Bryce joining up with Michael Gannon as they hit the airwaves.
7 minutes 40 seconds into the Record Celtic Podcast Swan was asked about incoming transfer prospects:
I’d expect Celtic will get one in before Monday night. Neil Lennon has been quite open that he is hoping to get a couple of deals done. I think that Michael (Gannon) makes a fair point about reinvesting wisely but also in terms of long-term strategy there has been a lot of money lost this year through the pandemic.
You can argue that there has been money wasted as Michael said, on a couple of guys that have come in and not justified their fees at this stage.
I’d be thinking that it would be more likely to be along the lines of a short-term loan till the end of the season, maybe at right-back rather than going out and reinvesting £5 or 6m on someone. I don’t think that is going to happen. Maybe just a loan, a short-term fix to get Celtic through till the end of the season while they are in the background making plans for a right-back in the summer.
Celtic spent £13m on David Turnbull, Vasilis Barkas and Albian Ajeti during the summer transfer window with only the former Motherwell midfielder providing any real contribution to the season.
Bringing Diego Laxalt, Shane Duffy and Moi Elyounoussi in on loan won’t have been cheap but the details of loan fees and wages rarely emerge.
In normal circumstances a short-term loan might appeal to players but with Lockdown conditions, matches Behind Closed Doors and the SPFL challenge virtually over moving to Celtic doesn’t have the same appeal as in previous windows.