McGowan gives breakdown on Celtic transfer interest in Devenny

Celtic have ‘taken an interest’ in Crystal Palace midfielder Justin Devenny.

The news comes from Stephen McGowan with three/four days left in the transfer window.

McGowan has been a highly reliable source of Celtic news for over 20 years although David Friel of The Sun has been the most accurate reporter this summer of transfer activity.

The deadline for registering players for the Europa League is 11pm on Wednesday. The domestic deadline is 5pm on Thursday.

Judging from the squad used against LASK Celtic are very short on depth.

Should they suffer any more injuries similar to that of Alistair Johnston the quality of the Starting XI quickly suffers.

Although Devenny is a Northern Ireland internationalist having been developed by Kilmarnock he qualifies as Association Trained for UEFA purposes.

UEFA rules require four Club Trained and four Association Trained players are included in their 25 man squads.

Since the signing of Haissem Hassan on August 12 Celtic haven’t added any more players to their squad.

Today on The Herald website McGowan reports:

CELTIC have taken an interest in £6million-rated Crystal Palace midfielder Justin Devenny.

A left-sided midfielder born in Irvine the 22-year-old is also deployed as a left wing-back by Northern Ireland, the birthplace of his mother.

Devenny came through the ranks at Kilmarnock before switching to Airdrie in the summer of 2022 and earning a move to England 12 months later.

With 53 appearances and three goals Devenny is an FA Cup winner for Crystal Palace and was an unused substitute in the Europa Conference League final triumph over Rayo Vallecano. Scoring the decisive penalty as Palace beat Liverpool to win the Charity Shield he also claimed his first international goal in Northern Ireland’s 3-1 win over Luxembourg in the World Cup qualifiers.

With a year to run on his current contract, Middlesbrough have already been linked with a £6m move while Cagliari, Leicester City, Southampton and Preston North End have also been credited with an interest.

CELTIC TRANSFER REQUIREMENTS AS TIME SLIPS AWAY

At this stage of the transfer window ‘taken an interest’ isn’t the most convincing term to use.

Most business should be completed with targets identified, negotiations undertaken and offers made.

Overseas targets tend to require at least 48 hours to undergo a medical and complete work permit and international clearance.

A deal for Devenny won’t require much of that paperwork but seems to have surfaced on the back of difficulties with other targets.

O’Neill is on record as looking to sign a replacement for Arne Engels as well as a left-back and goalkeeper.

Those three positions would seem to address the basic squad needs, further depth and quality would be required to have a substitute bench capable of changing matches.

O’Neill’s next transfer update is expected on Tuesday afternoon ahead of the match against Aberdeen.

That match is likely to be played against a backdrop of swirling transfer speculation.

CLICK HERE for Devenny Transfermarkt profile.