Martin O’Neill has made an alarming January transfer confession with less than five days left of the window to go.
So far, Celtic have added two players this month as Julian Araujo and Tomas Cvancara join the Parkhead club on loan.
With more additions required to strengthen the Celtic first team squad, Hoops boss Martin O’Neill and assistant Shaun Maloney have been working hard behind the scenes on transfers.
However, with 28 days gone and no new signings imminent, O’Neill has made a transfer admission that will alarm the Parkhead support.
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With a week to go, rate Celtic’s transfer window so far out of 10…
Martin O’Neill admits some Celtic transfer deals have been ‘thwarted’
Celtic have been linked with a number of players this January but up until now, those connections have faded away.
But it appears that some deals may have been close as O’Neill delivers an update that will worry fans.
When asked what the hold up is to get deals done, O’Neill told the pre-match press conference on Celtic TV, “Well, first of all I think you take it into more general terms, the January transfer window’s exceptionally difficult.
“I mean it always has been, even when I was in the Premier League. And it’s a difficult market and particularly ones where you maybe are wanting some permanent deals and you think you might have had more time in the summer to think about it.
“From my own viewpoint, I was not thinking about a January transfer window between Christmas and January. It wasn’t on my agenda.
“I was looking forward to just going down and watching the occasional game. And so it’s come here now.
“There’s lots of names have been put forward. Lots of people that I’ve taken an interest in. One or two have been thwarted. There’s no question about that.
“But, yeah, we’re still really working on it.”
What exactly is holding up Celtic’s January transfer deals?
Celtic have known since the summer of 2024 that Kyogo Furuhashi wanted to leave the club. In January 2025, the Japanese striker did so.
So why did the club not forward plan to have a player ready when he left? Celtic also sold Nicolas Kuhn and Adam Idah but with no replacements ready to step in and replace them.
Almost six months since Idah and Kuhn made their exits, and now a full year since Kyogo left Celtic, Cvancara was added to the squad.
How many more signings do you think Celtic need to win the title?
That still leaves O’Neill down two attackers, and that doesn’t even include Jota being out injured.
So what is the hold up? Why, after all this time do Celtic not have players ready to come in to the squad?
That is the question on every Hoops supporters’ lips, especially after Michael Nicholson claimed he wanted Celtic to be ‘world-class in everything that we do’.
Except transfers, apparently.
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