Whilst everyone is preoccupied with tonight’s Glasgow derby build-up and how we’ll tackle the match, there’s another big decision that Celtic must finalise this evening.
Indeed, before 11pm, the club must submit its squad for the upcoming Europa Conference League playoff clash against Bodo/Glimt, per UEFA rules. The Norwegians are due to visit Parkhead on February 17th, with our away trip coming one week later.
UEFA will allow 3 new players to be added to the squads submitted earlier in the season for the group stages. That will allow Ange Postecoglou to throw in several of his January signings.
Celtic managed to recruit as many as 5 new players in January. Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate, Yosuke Ideguchi, Matt O’Riley, and Johnny Kenny respectively.
Therefore, not all of them will be able to be thrown straight into our Euro squad for Bodo/Glimt. 2 will have to wait until next season to get a taste of European football at Parkhead.
The squad submitted tonight will also be the squad that will be utilised for the rest of the competition.
Yosuke Ideguchi and Johnny Kenny look the likeliest to miss out for Celtic
Kenny, first and foremost, looks like being one for the future. A player who may very well be linking up with the B team when he returns from injury. Therefore, he’s highly unlikely to be one of the 3 added to the squad.
And, unfortunately, you have to say the favourite to miss out now looks like Ideguchi. He’s currently sidelined after suffering from a horror challenge at Alloa. The latest from Ange on this wasn’t good either. He stated that the former Gamba Osaka man is in pain and that his knock “isn’t great” [Celtic TV].
Whilst he could be back for at least the second leg of the Bodo/Glimt clash, he’ll still need time to make his mark on the first team and recover appropriately. That leaves him more unlikely to make an impact than the rest of our new signings.
Maeda, for example, has already shown hugely promising signs in his first 2 games against Hibernian and Alloa respectively. He’ll likely be part of the squad along with Reo Hatate, who is shining in the number 10 role in the absence of Tom Rogic.
O’Riley has also come in from MK Dons and looked both an aggressive and creative addition to the midfield. All 3 have made more promising impacts so far than Ideguchi, who simply hasn’t had the luck required so far. You can’t see any of them missing out on tonight’s squad.
But we’ll see what tonight brings. It’s certainly not the biggest focus of this evening’s schedule, but it’ll be interesting to see who Ange goes with.
In other news, Josip Juranovic ramps up the Glasgow derby fighting talk ahead of Celtic Park clash
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