Celtic fans may have been slightly surprised to hear than Neil Lennon doesn’t want to bring in another central-defender in this transfer window.
The Hoops boss recently detailed the five positions he wanted reinforcements in after the club banked £25million from the sale of Kieran Tierney.
“We’ll look to bring another left-back in, no question,” the Northern Irishman told the Daily Record.
“A right back as well. And a left winger. And a right winger. And maybe a centre forward.”
Have Lennon and Celtic changed their transfer needs?
While it is encouraging to hear that Lennon wants another left-back, fans may be a little perplexed at the lack of mention of a central-defender. Currently, we have Christopher Jullien, Kristoffer Ajer and Jozo Simunovic as our main options. Jack Hendry isn’t seen to have much of a future at the club but Israeli duo Nir Bitton and Hatem Abd Elhamed can both play there too.
The club were previously keen to add a centre-back with Lennon travelling to watch Partizan defender Strahinja Pavlovic, according to the Scottish Sun. There was clearly some interest there so it seems a bit bizarre that we’ve suddenly decided we no longer need a centre-back.
Ajer, Jullien and Simunovic all look capable options but there would be a concern if two or more were to get injured. Effectively, Celtic are two injuries away from having to play a centre-midfielder or a right-back in the middle. And that would be far from ideal.
It is perhaps a little concerning that the Northern Irishman thinks we need two more wingers rather than a single centre-back. We’re pretty good for options on the right-side with James Forrest and Marian Shved both looking good. On the left we have Mikey Johnston, Lewis Morgan and Scott Sinclair. So what’s the big fuss there?
Time will tell what happens before the end of the window, but you would fear a little if we went into the season with just the centre-back options that we’ve already got.
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