Celtic boss sets out ambitious June target as club ramps up transfer work

By David Walton

May 11, 2022

Ange Postecoglou has confirmed that he wants all of Celtic’s transfer work done before pre-season starts up again in June.

The first big transfer move of the summer appeared to happen yesterday with the Scottish Sun reporting that Celtic are closing in on the signing of £2m-rated Mohanad Jeahze.

It’ll likely be the first of several big signings for the club this summer after a huge overhaul last season. Left-back is one of the priority positions at Parkhead needing strengthened, but there are also several other areas that need fine-tuning.

And Postecoglou has admitted that he would love to have all of his transfer work complete by the time the players arrive for pre-season training in June.

As quoted by the Daily Record, Postecoglou said: “The work has already started, we’re already planning and I’ve already had conversations with the club about the kind of players we want to identify and bring into the club.

“Our priority is to try to get that done early so that come pre-season, with us hopefully winning the Premiership and getting straight into the group stage, we know we’ve got a really good opportunity in pre-season to work with the group of players without the pressure of competition.

“It would be great if we could have all the new players in by that time. Sometimes these things are taken out of your hands a little bit, but out intent is to try to get our business done early. We know what we need, we’ve already identified the areas we need to improve, so we’ve already started work on that.”

Mohanad Jeahze the first of several big arrivals at Celtic Park?

Postecoglou hasn’t gone into detail regarding what areas he feels needs strengthening. It’s not the kind of information he provides the media. But it’s clear that he has a vision in his head regarding what he needs to do this summer.

If Celtic bring Jeahze in for the start of the transfer window, it’ll be yet another huge signal of intent. Not because we’ve signed a high-quality left-back, but because it’ll be yet another sign that we’re looking to get things done nice and early.

Granted, there’s no guarantee that will be the case. As the manager says, it can be taken out of the club’s hands. Player targets could stall on making decisions whilst negotiations could drag on and on. Those are the things Celtic can’t affect.

It’s just promising to see this kind of intent coming from the club. In recent years, we’d gotten used to Neil Lennon almost distancing himself from potential new signings. He would seldom hit out with any timelines in which he wanted deals done either.

Even last summer we were bringing in players far too late even if the overhaul required was on a massive scale. That’s something that we don’t expect to see this summer, and it’s great to see the manager saying as much.

Of course, Jeahze has still to be confirmed first and foremost. How many we bring in after that is anyone’s guess.

In other news, Promising Ange Postecoglou Celtic injury update after Liel Abada scare