Neil Lennon says he wants Celtic squad strengthened in January

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Celtic manager Neil Lennon has stated that he wants to strengthen the squad in the January transfer window.

A rebuilding job had to be done over the summer. Lennon signed 11 players as he made major changes to the back-line in particular with eight acquisitions. The likes of Mohamed Elyounoussi, Luca Connell, and Jonathan Afolabi were also signed in other positions (Transfermarkt).

So far, not one of his signings can be deemed a failure. The most questionable so far could be the signing of Greg Taylor given the fact he’s played just one game. But even then, we all still have big hopes for him at Parkhead.

It sounds positive for Celtic fans ahead of January too. Speaking in the Celtic View (Volume 55, Issue 19, Page 9), Lenny turned his thoughts towards potential incoming players.

“The knockout round is a long way off (Europa League). Come February, we’ll have to gauge it then, but you have the January transfer window and hopefully we can do a bit of business and strengthen what we have already.

“At the minute, we’re in a good place with the form, consistency, and level of performance. It’s not just about going deep into the Europa League, it’s about winning the league and the domestic competitions we’re in.

“If we can find that player to strengthen what we do within the budget then we’ll endeavour to do that.”

Neil not giving much away, but where do we need to strengthen?

When it comes to our defence, it’s clear there’s absolutely no work that needs to be done there. We did plenty of that over the summer, and we now have plenty of depth all across the back four.

One area that could come into question is our right-wing choices. Outside of James Forrest, only Marian Shved is a natural in the position. Yet, Forrest has played 25 of our 27 fixtures so far this season (Transfermarkt). Shved has barely had a chance of a look-in.

When Forrest has been absent against Nomme Kalju and Partick Thistle, Shved and Elyounoussi have featured respectively. The former has only been a part of six matchday squads this season (Transfermarkt), whilst the latter has become the first-choice left-winger. Forrest could do with a high-quality level of competition, and you can question whether Lenny feels that Shved is that man.

The other obvious position that could be looked at is up top. Odsonne Edouard has been our main man this season, but both Leigh Griffiths and Vakoun Issouf Bayo have had their injury problems.

This is a tricky one for Lennon. Even though the latter pair still haven’t returned to action, it shouldn’t be too long before both have returned.

The Celtic manager claimed that Bayo’s injury could be about six weeks, and that was nearly two weeks ago (Celtic Twitter). Griffiths also clearly isn’t far away after Lenny had expressed hope of a return against Motherwell (BBC).

Both look likely to be back well before January. So would we really need a fourth striker if all three are fit?

It’ll be interesting to see what positions Neil looks to strengthen in. So long as he keeps churning out the results, however, not many will argue with his decisions.