9th September 2026; McDiarmid Park, Perth, Scotland: Scottish Premiership Football, St Johnstone versus Celtic; Celtic manager Martin ONeill
Martin O’Neill has prioritised signing a defensive central midfielder when the January transfer window opens.
That is the opinion of Ryan McDonald of the Daily Record, based on conversations with the Celtic manager.
During the summer transfer window Celtic signed 10 players but Mika Baur and Joel van Den Berg the only midfielders.
So far the Dutch teenager has yet to play a minute for O’Neill. Last week he turned out for the Celtic B team in the KDM Trophy defeat away to Ross County.
Baur has been successful enough to get capped twice by Germany but the balance in the Celtic midfield is under scrutiny.
O’NEILL HAS TO FIND THE MIDFIELD BALANCE
The January window opens in just over seven weeks time. Most clubs will be well advanced with their recruitment plans.
For Celtic it seems that replacing Arne Engels is something of a priority.
After two seasons at the club the Belgian midfielder was sold to West Ham in August. It could be January before his replacement arrives at Celtic.
There just seems to be a constant breakdown between defense and midfield and I think that’s because they have there’s a massive gap there which is unfilled by Arne Engles’s exit.
So I spoke to Martin O’Neill quite recently on this and asked him, you know are Celtic actually looking to sign a replacement for Engels and he admitted that Celtic hadn’t signed a replacement in the summer.
So he said that work is on going behind the scenes to identify that player and I think that’s got to be a priority. The thing is Celtic can’t wait until like they always do and then to the end of the window to bring this player in.
They need, I think it needs to be done ideally before that Rangers game at Ibrox because I think that’s that is an absolutely crucial fixture in the season.
Later at 18 minutes 45 seconds McDonald added:
Straight from the word of Martin O’Neil they are looking at a defensive midfielder that is a that’s absolutely top priority.
Last season Celtic had Julian Araujo on loan before the transfer window opened.
The Mexican defender came off the bench in the January 3 Glasgow Derby that turned out to be Wilfried Nancy’s last match as Celtic manager.
Tomas Cvancara made his debut away to Hearts on January before a late burst of activity brought Junior Adamu, Joel Mveuka and Ben Arthur to Celtic.
None of the January arrivals stayed on beyond their loan deals.
With a trip to Ibrox on January 2 the fixture list hasn’t been kind to Celtic.
That comes on the back of a five week run that covers away matches at Hearts, Dundee, Aberdeen and Dundee United.
By the turn of the year O’Neill will have in depth knowledge of how well equipped his Celtic squad is.
