Martin O’Neill is happy with the arrival of Sam Johnstone on loan from Wolves.
The four times capped Englishman becomes signing number six of the transfer window with the main Celtic deadline arriving at 11pm tonight.
Celtic must submit their Europa League squad tonight with their opening match two weeks away against Ferencvaros.
Since the end of February Celtic have effectively been operating with one goalkeeper.
Back-up Ross Doohan hasn’t played any competitive football in the last 15 months.
Vil Sinisalo has been largely impressive but every player requires and reacts to competition.
With a 33-year-old with a decade of first team experience in the top two tiers of English football Sinisalo has very real competition for his place.
Martin O’Neill wasn’t on media duty on Tuesday but discussed the arrival of Johnstone to the club website:
We are really happy to welcome Sam to Celtic.
He is a quality keeper with excellent experience at the highest level and I think he will be a very good addition to our goalkeeping team.
He is really looking forward to joining Celtic, to add competition to our team and we are pleased to bring a goalkeeper of this quality to the club.
Johnston made 15 EPL appearances last season as Wolves were relegated from the EPL.
Shoulder surgery during the summer has put a question mark over his future at Wolves.
CELTIC SIGNINGS AND THE UEFA SQUAD NUMBERS GAME
That injury will concern Celtic fans but with the benefit of experiencing Kasper Schmeichel’s issues last season the club’s medical staff will surely be satisfied by Johnston’s fitness.
After signing four players ahead of their Champions League Play Off against LASK Celtic returned to the market yesterday.
Oliver Sorenson joined on loan from Palma with Shaun Maloney expecting further arrivals today.
Celtic’s 25 man UEFA squad has to include four Academy trained players and four Scottish trained players.
Callum, McGregor, James Forrest, Kieran Tierney and Tony Ralston fill the first criteria. Luke McCowan, Dane Murray and Doohan meet the second.
With all new signings likely to go into the squad there could be some fairly big names that are cut from the squad.
Despite being out injured Alistair Johnston and Jota are expected to be in the UEFA squad with fixtures running through until the end of January.
It’s hard wired into the suits psyche that shopping very late in the window saves you money cos whoever’s left is the dreck nobody wanted to pay for.
God forbid they get in early in the window and maybe pay a bit more than they would like for a player that may actually be worth it.
Groundhog Window…that’s what we go through every fricken year, the suits wake up the day after CL exit and set to work…
Sad but true, Mike has been drinking all summer long only to wake up hungover and realise we are out of champions league before it even started. Seeing fans fury to make up for it some loans are in place. Energy sapping