Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou today delivered a promising January transfer window update as he stated the Hoops are ideally looking to get deals done early.
In recent days, the transfer speculation has hotted up with the window opening in less than a month. Reo Hatate was linked with a move to Parkhead with an eye on making his debut against Rangers on January 2nd [Daily Record]. Celtic have also recently been reported as being interested in Spurs winger Dilan Markanday [Evening Standard].
It’s fair to say the speculation is absolutely ramping up. Celtic need to make some key additions, and ideally, they would take part in the winter training camp to bed into the squad.
And even though Ange was quick to point out the difficulty of doing deals during Covid times, he was keen to stress how “pleased” he was with the progress. Speaking via Celtic TV, Postecoglou said: “We’ve been working towards it for a while and all of our planning again is about making sure that we get the deals we want done as early as possible.
“But as you guys are all aware we’re living in a weird world right now. Things change day to day. I can sit here and say ‘yeah we’ll have everything done’ and the world decides a different fate for us all. We’ve just got be agile, dynamic. We’re doing our work.
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“I’m really confident in the progress we’re making. The ideal is yes we have our deals done early and players come in early, but at the same time understand there are always little obstacles that can’t be foreseen and we just make sure we do the stuff on our part as efficiently as possible which I think we are doing. We need to be ready if the opportunity is there for us and strike early.”
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Celtic need to do as much early work as possible come January
It’s great to hear Postecoglou put an emphasis on getting deals done early. The truth is the sooner we get players in the door, the quicker they can integrate ahead of a crucial title run-in.
Unlike the summer, we don’t have a few months to allow these players the opportunity to get settled. Nobody can come in and do a James McCarthy or it will be a huge blow to our title chances. The reason being there several important deals needing finalised before the January window closes.
Celtic are in desperate need of a new left-back, an issue that will hopefully be solved with the signing of Hatate. In addition to that, another centre-forward is a priority to replace the simply not good enough Albian Ajeti. With Giorgos Giakoumakis also struggling with an injury knock, Postecoglou could do with the extra option.
These are moves that Celtic need to act on quickly. After our January 2nd derby clash with Rangers, we take a 3 week break before our next fixture. Celtic will return on the 22nd against Alloa and face 3 immediately tough away fixtures within a 4-match period at Tynecastle, Fir Park, and Pittodrie respectively.
Having our new signings in and up to speed for then would be a major boost for the club and would give ourselves a better opportunity to combat these tough fixtures.
All eyes then on how proactive we can be in the early stages of the January window.
In other news, Josip Juranovic brilliantly labels Celtic career “the best time of my life”