Celtic need a refresh in the middle of the park this summer.
One player Celtic could have previously signed is highly-rated midfielder Lennon Miller, who had a breakthrough campaign at Motherwell before securing a move to Udinese during the summer of 2025.
Make no bones about it, Miller would have walked into Celtic’s midfield during the recently concluded campaign, despite Martin O’Neill winning the domestic double.
But Miller’s move to Italy has been a mixed bag; on the one hand, he is enhancing his career, but on the other, it has resulted in him missing out on Scotland’s World Cup squad.
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Lennon Miller’s mixed fortunes at Udinese after Celtic links
Given the profile of player Miller is, and his current age, 19, then he would have been perfect for Celtic’s declining midfield.
But as per, those in the boardroom at Parkhead weren’t pro-active, and rather than bringing him to Glasgow, he packed his bags, moved to Italy and signed for Udinese for around £5 million.
Life in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region was pretty tough for the opening six months, including several games where he hardly came off the bench.
| Serie A games | Starts | 90 minutes played | Remained on the bench | Minutes per game |
| 24 | 9 | 1 | 13 | 42 |
Even though Miller scored his first goal for Udinese in a domestic cup game against Palermo in August, he would only play 68 minutes for the rest of the year.
That included being dealt a brutal reality check in November when his manager, Kosta Runjaic, called him out and urged him to ‘do a lot better’ after his forgettable 16-minute cameo during the defeat against Juventus.
“Lennon played a lot of football last season, so I wanted to test him against Juventus because they are a great team,” said Runjaic in November.
“He could have done better. He lost a lot of balls, and that shows to me he needs time to be 100 per cent ready here.”
That resulted in the teenager remaining on the bench without an appearance for six games straight before things started to pick up.
After the turn of the year, Miller would be used more often, including six Serie A starts by the end of February, and ending the campaign with a rating of 6.73 by Sofascore.
| Assists | Big chances created | Key passes per game | Touches per game | Sofascore rating |
| 2 | 3 | 0.6 | 24.4 | 6.73 |
Miller snubbed by Scotland boss Steve Clarke after Billy Gilmour’s injury
Any injury now to any player is very damaging because it’s more than likely going to rule you out of this summer’s World Cup.
The showpiece event kicks off on June 11, with Scotland taking to the stage on June 14 when they lock horns with Haiti.
But Miller won’t be part of the squad.
Not only was he snubbed from the main squad by Steve Clarke, the Scotland boss then proceeded to bring in Manchester United youngster Tyler Fletcher when Billy Gilmour got injured, which would have been an even bigger blow to the Udinese star.
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