Celtic enjoyed a busy summer of transfer activity as they look to retain their Scottish Premiership crown and it now appears that they have turned their attention towards securing more arrivals in January, according to reports.
What’s the latest news involving Celtic?
According to The National, Celtic face a fight on their hands to keep B Team coach Darren O’Dea, who has been identified as Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s preferred candidate to succeed Billy Dodds at the Scottish Championship outfit.
Former Celtic player O’Dea has worked his way up the ranks since returning to Parkhead in various coaching capacities; however, will now travel north to the Highlands for face-to-face talks with Inverness over their managerial vacancy despite his current employers being keen to keep him around.
The Hoops were involved in Champions League action during the week and fell to a disappointing 2-0 defeat against Feyenoord in their group opener, in an encounter where both Gustaf Lagerbielke and Odin Thiago Holm were sent off and Celtic were masters of their own downfall, as per Sky Sports.
Returning to Scottish Premiership action this weekend, Celtic face a tough away test against Livingston at the Tony Macaroni Arena on Saturday afternoon and left-back Greg Taylor is keen to get back to winning ways in West Lothian.
Speaking to Celtic’s official website, Taylor stated: “Coming back to domestic action, it is a big change, of course. But the one thing that this club demands is winning. I think it’s physically demanding in both ways. The Champions League is the elite, so you are pushing your body to the very limit. But then, you’ll play Saturday and maybe change style a little. Livingston will be quite physical, so that is another challenge. It’s just something you’ve got to deal with.”
What has Rodgers said about Celtic’s recruitment?
Speaking in his pre-match press conference in the build-up to the Hoops’ clash against Livingston this weekend, Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers has indicated that he could look to balance out his youthful squad with some experienced players in the January transfer window and beyond.
Cited by Sky Sports, Rodgers stated: “Listen, if you look at the strategy of the club, it’s signing the younger players to develop and improve. I think I have said it before here, that to maximise that potential, of course, you need that balance in your squad. You need quality and you need experience, and that will obviously help and support potential that you have. So that’s something that hopefully over the course of my time here the squad can regenerate into that way.”
In the summer, Celtic lost the likes of Carl Starfelt, Aaron Mooy and Jota, while seasoned players such as Tom Rogic, Nir Bitton and Giorgios Giakoumakis have left the club in the recent past. Despite the return of Rodgers to Glasgow, Celtic have primarily invested in young players and have an average age across the squad of 25, as per Transfermarkt.
With the evolving landscape of the Champions League continuing to enable top-bracket sides to spend major sums of money on recruitment year after year, Celtic find themselves in between a rock and a hard place in the sense that they are dominant domestically but find competing at the top level in Europe to be a challenging endeavour.
