Ange Postecoglou turns up the pressure on Celtic’s new transfer fixer

Ange Postecoglou has put the spotlight on Michael Nicholson to deliver Celtic’s January signings in time to be integrated and match-ready for the game against Hibs on Monday, January 17. 

After more than three months a acting CEO Celtic confirmed the promotion of their former Legal specialist as the man to replace Peter Lawwell. 

Dom McKay had 72 days in that job during the summer with Postecoglou going into the Champions League ties against Midtjylland with the sole addition of Liel Abada to the squad. 

Vasilis Barkas played in the first leg, Scott Bain in the return with Joe Hart making his debut in the Europa League tie away to Jablonec. 

In the final days of the summer window Ryan Christie and Odsonne Edouard, both starters for Postecoglou, were sold while Jota, Giorgos Giakoumakis and Cameron Carter-Vickers were brought in, two on loan. 

A repeat of that last minute activity could be disastrous with Celtic playing Hibs, Hearts and Dundee United before the January transfer window closes. 

The transfer window opens on Saturday, having identified positions in need of strengthening and players to do that Postecoglou is trusting Nicholson to bolster the squad in time to face Hibs. 

Discussing his link up with Nicholson, in comments used by the Daily Record, Herald, Scottish Sun and Scotsman the Celtic boss says: 

We’ve been working really hard on this window for quite a while. We knew it would be important and January is not an easy one. 

It’s not one where you really want to do too much because there is sometimes a desperation around it in terms of the business. 

So we set our task early on that — irrespective of how the first half of the year went. 

We knew what targets we wanted, and what kind of players. And Michael has been the driving force. 

As you can appreciate with the games we’ve had, I had to focus on making sure we were competitive on the field. 

Michael has taken the lead and he’s working awfully hard in the background to make sure we get what we need done.

Since the beginning of November Celtic have been strongly linked with Reo Hatate, Daizen Maeda and Yosuke Ideguchi.