Lubo Moravcik has told Celtic to head east to find the players for their summer rebuild.
Twenty years ago a thirty-something was adding special magic to Martin O’Neill’s side with team-mates and fans amazed at the ability of the bargain signing made by Jo Venglos.
It seemed incredible that Moravcik had played the bulk of his career out of the spotlight with the best years of his career spent in France at Bastia and St Etienne
It wasn’t until he moved to Celtic that the Slovakian got to play in European competition with the hoops still able to offer that platform.
Despite the success and profile generated by Morvcik and Stan Petrov there has been little sign of Celtic scouting seriously in Slovakia, Bulgaria and their bordering countries.
Explaining where quality is still affordable Moravcik told The Huddle Podcast:
It is very hard for the big Scottish clubs like Celtic and Rangers now to find a player for reasonable money and with good quality. There’s big competition for players now, especially against the English teams and big European teams.
Maybe they should go to countries where football is not very rich and find the players there, but it’s a difficult job, to be honest. You saw Slavia Prague this season in the Europa League, their players aren’t too expensive, but they are very good.
For example, a player like Lukas Provod. He played for a small club last season, moved to Slavia and made big, big progress. He’s a very talented player, still young, good physically, has a good left foot. It would be very interesting to see a player like that. That is maybe the way to go.
The Czech Republic, Slovakia, places like Austria or Hungary, there are a lot of players over there to watch. Ferencvaros this season played Champions League and there are a lot of good players in the former Yugoslavia, especially at Dinamo Zagreb who also played very well in the Europa League. That is maybe where you can look for these quality players.
Celtic have very recent experience of the quality that Sparta Prague, Ferencvaros and Cluj have available.
CLICK HERE for Provod Transfermarkt profile.