With the distraction of the 2026 summer World Cup taking place out in the United States of America, Canada and Mexico, Celtic fans could be forgiven for taking their eye off domestic football for a short period of time.
After all, following on from all the shenanigans in the 2025/26 domestic Scottish Premiership campaign where we needed serial winning Parkhead legend Martin O’Neill to return twice to save our board’s blushes – and then somewhat predictably took the season down to the final day to add yet another Premiership title trophy to his tally, having already picked up his fourth Scottish Cup – it is fair to say that the Celtic Park faithful had earned some time off from real football.
With his proper return now announced and the ink dry on a fresh 12 month contract and long confirmed in the sports news, Hoops fans are naturally eager to see some real progress being made by the board as the new season draws near, and whilst there are things bubbling along in the background, obviously there is plenty that needs to be done before the players line up for pre season build up training once again.
Despite the World Cup dominating the news headlines right now, the transfer window speculation rumour mill is already in overdrive when it comes to both potential incomings, as well as potential outgoings and as we are about to enter yet another summer weekend, one claim doing the rounds concerns Bosnia-Herzegovina talent Ivan Basic.
Late last month, the 24 year old midfielder slowly began being linked with a possible move to Celtic, but the speculation surrounding the Kazakhstan based player now seems to be stepping up a gear. In some ways that is to be expected as he is currently on duty for his country out in North America, having featured in both the Group stage clashes with co-hosts Canada, and Switzerland.
It is believed that Kazahk Premier League club Astana value him at around the £2 million mark, so from our point of view that kind of potential transfer fee should pose no problems at all if we now do have any real interest in his services, with him having originally been recommended to us and then monitored by members of the recruitment and scouting staff.
Astana themselves are already seemingly on record as saying that they will not stand in his way should the interest that he gains this summer prove to be tempting for him as he looks to broaden his experience in the game and take in a new adventure, so the only real question here is whether or not there is any truth to the speculation and if there is, how far high up our list of preferred and shortlisted targets is he?
He is being linked with a few other European sides, such as German Bundesliga outfit Eintracht Frankfurt, and Spanish La Liga side Elche are also credited with an interest here, so it might well be worth keeping an eye out for him as Bosnia-Herzegovina have now had their qualification through to the next stage confirmed as one of the best performing third place finishers.
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