The summer transfer window has now long been closed and Celtic have already notched up six wins from an opening six domestic Scottish Premiership games under legendary and serial winning manager Martin O’Neill. The 74 year old Northern Irishman is bidding for one final title and piece of silverware, before he returns to the more peaceful surroundings of a well earned retirement at the end of the 2026/27 campaign.
As loyal Celtic fans will know, despite the business that was done and the high number of new faces that arrived at Parkhead late on during the final day of transfer action, before the all important Deadline Day slammed shut and closed the market until football reaches 2027 and the New Year, O’Neill would have preferred to have added to his options further. Much like the popular Betway online casino, the more you spin that roulette wheel, the greater chance of winning you have and there was certainly strong speculation rumour mill claims that he would have wished to have added at least one more body to the midfield area.
Hoops fans will have to wait and see whether or not anything happens on that front and the speculation truly builds up again as football heads in to the month of December, but left back was also a problematic position and for now the club is being linked with a strong interest in young Liverpool left back, Luke Chambers.
The highly rated 22 year old starlet had thoroughly been expected to leave Anfield during the last window to take in a loan spell to further boost his development and experience at first team level. However, new manager Andoni Iraola was suitably impressed enough with his early efforts in training that he was drafted fully into their first team plans for the pre season build up campaign, and although match minutes have been hard to come by as the Spaniard looks to significantly improve their sluggish start to the campaign, he was remained involved with the group and recently appeared on the substitutes bench in their Champions League game with Spanish La Liga side Atletico Madrid.
Although he ended up remaining with The Reds for this first half of the campaign, it is fully expected that he will now head out in the January transfer window having benefited from the additional time he will have now spent in and amongst their international calibre top flight squad.
Celtic’s potential interest in the six capped England Under 20 youth international is obvious when you consider another short term injury lay off for the very experienced Kieran Tierney. O’Neill simply lacks real depth in the position, with Liam Scales filling in when necessary, so having somebody more natural on the left of defence will only prove to be an advantage when we hit the second half of the season.
Whilst Chambers is older than a number of starlets, he has good experience already having built up game time during loan spells with Kilmarnock, two spells at Wigan Athletic and then Charlton Athletic. His spell at the BBSP Stadium, Rugby Park, will have already given him a good grounding in the Scottish game, and with a handful of appearances for Liverpool directly in the domestic Cups and the Europa League, that should only aid him – particularly given the added pressures that comes with playing for the Bhoys.
We have to see if anything comes of our interest, especially as injuries mount in the remaining months of this year.
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