ISTANBUL, TURKEY - APRIL 3: Alex Oxlade Chamberlain of Besiktas looks on during the Turkish Super League match between Besiktas and Goztepe on April 3, 2025 in Istanbul, Turkey. (Photo by Ahmad Mora/Getty Images)
Celtic have apparently held fresh talks with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain over a short term move. According to Stephen McGowan.
There are some suggestions that the former England internationalist could be included in the Celtic squad listed with UEFA for the Europa League.
That squad has to be nominated by 11pm tonight, Celtic play Stuttgart on February 19 and26.
Oxlade-Chamberlain hasn’t played a competitive match since 11th May 2025 when he appeared for 11 minutes for Beskitas in their 4-1 win over Adana Demirsor.
Getting a 32-year-old match fit in that time frame is impossible. In their league position Celtic don’t have fixtures to ease the Ox back to match fitness.
A TOUGH TRANSFER WINDOW FOR MCGOWAN
Stephen McGowan is normally a fairly reliable source of Celtic news, last night in The Herald he reported:
Celtic are moving closer to an agreement with former England international Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain after fresh discussions between the two sides.
Martin O’Neill revealed his interest in signing the 32-year-old free agent before the postponement of last night’s clash with Aberdeen.
The midfielder agreed to the mutual termination of his contract with Besiktas in August and has recently been training with former club Arsenal.
While reports claimed that Oxlade-Chamberlain was keen to remain close to his family, sources close to the player have told Herald Sport that talks with Celtic are positive and progressing well.
Like many of the Celtic ITK sources McGowan had at best a patchy time of it during the January transfer window.
It seems that those trusted sources aren’t quite as reliable as they once were. Anthony Joseph of Sky Sports had similar issues.
Celtic open talks with Italian side Frosinone over a deal for Fares Ghedjemis.
The Parkhead side are also working on an agreement for Hungarian international Damir Redzic. @mcgowan_stephen reports.https://t.co/N2wn8LaYQV pic.twitter.com/dAjbcxNIhG
— Herald Sport (@HeraldSportScot) January 29, 2026
There was of course no chance of Celtic signing Ghedjemis. The story surfaced on the afternoon of Celtic’s Europa League match against Utrecht.
After the match his name was put to Martin O’Neill. When he responded by saying ‘you’re not a million miles away there’ the story ran for another 36 hours.
CELTIC TRANSFER ‘STRATEGY’
When the inevitable happened Celtic signed a right winger with a heart condition. On loan.
O’Neill was very light on detail when he was asked about signing Joel Mvuka.
There is absolutely nothing in Mvuka’s CV and stats that suggest he will make any sort of positive impact at Celtic.
Incredibly he was a medical away from signing a three and a half year contract. Instead he has been signed on loan till the end of May.
The offer of a long term contract to Mvuka kills off the claim that Celtic were concentrating on the loan market to keep funds and squad spaces for their next permanent manager.
All three of Celtic’s dramatic deadline day transfer deals could have been completed on January 1, 10 or 20.
Moving on to speculation over Oxlade-Chamberlain is a classic tactic.
After 33 days of the transfer window Celtic are two injuries away from fielding a central defensive partnership of Dane Murray and Ben Arthur. The on loan Brentford defender has even less experience that Jahmai Simpson-Pussey.
Gabby Agbonlahor is also available as a free agent and has been training regularly with the TalkSPORT morning team.
How do you rate Celtic's January transfer window?
OUTSTANDING- exactly what we needed
DECENT- it is notoriously difficult
HORRIFIC- typically Nicholson
We all know the game Desmond plays oloan deals today. And jam tomorrow they will spend nothing on players the only answer is stop giving them your money
Why limit it to Oxlade-Chamberlain? If it’s just to fill the chip wrappers and deflect from yet another sub-optimal transfer window, can we drum up some idle speculation for the similarly unattached Dele Alli?
He’s younger, got more England caps and scored far more goals when he was still active as a football player. It’s all garbage anyway so it’s not like it’s going to happen.
How about Ronaldo? He seems to have suddenly fallen out of favour in Saudi Arabia and at a sprightly 41 he could be just the boost our forward line needs!
The close season is going to be absolutely huge for Celtic, most likely a new manager who will need to assess whatever players he has, a few wanting to move on and of course a complete Scouting department to be set up to bring quality players in !!!
All looking to be a total shambles once again, highly unlikely we will significantly strengthen for any euro competition qualifiers yet again
Despot better get his finger out pronto, a new manager needs to be top priority and settled long before the end of this season, which again will put doubts on season book renewals.
The ox is in .
Any thing will do these days – Desperate stuff but let’s see !