On Thursday Martin O’Neill explained that domestic football was his priority.
Announcing the squad for the Europa League he told the club website:
The players we have signed, we want them to make a mark initially in the domestic scene, which is the most important thing for us at this stage.
Fairly clear. Hard to misinterpret that.
Even with the relatively easier task of playing in the Europa League the club with world class ambitions has set their sights on staying in front in Scotland.
The 19th best league in Europe. The league in which three clubs got knocked out in the Play Off Round for the Europa Conference.
Roll forward to today and O’Neill hosted a media conference.
During the transfer window Celtic made 10 signings.
Four before their Champions League Play Off, two in the week before the first leg against LASK.
Six players were signed in the 48 hours before the UEFA deadline. Five of them on loan.
Today O’Neill had some very different thoughts on Celtic’s priorities.
It seems that UEFA matches which aren’t the priority were the driving forces behind Celtic’s summer recruitment.
O’NEILL ON THE SPOT OVER RECRUITMENT
QUESTION: Do you feel you got as much as you wanted, as you could have expected, or will there always be more?
Well, I think that the difficulty, when you think about it, is that you only have to look at the UEFA list about the places that we would have had available for players, and some young lads here, players will be disappointed not being able to make that particular UEFA squad. So, there’s only so many places that we could fill.
On Thursday the Europa League was secondary for O’Neill.
On Friday UEFA regulations shaped Celtic’s summer recruitment.
So nothing to do with Michael Nicholson’s obsession with driving for profit from every transfer window.
After turning down offers for Arne Engels in January Celtic sold the midfielder a week before the first leg against LASK.
Mika Baur is a midfielder but has no resemblance to Engels.
On September 2 Celtic signed Oliver Sorenson on loan, the following day they signed a teenage midfielder from PSV Eindhoven.
In recent seasons Celtic have been short on midfield physicality. Following the transfer window they are even lighter in that area.
That issue hasn’t been addressed in any of Celtic’s last four transfer windows. Not since August 2024 when Engels was signed have Celtic recruited a physical midfielder.
Sevco will probably smother our midfield…
Hopefully not but I can see it happening in The Liebrox Game !