Celtic's next transfer steps after flurry of activity

By John McGinley

July 4, 2022

Heading into this summer transfer window, we knew Celtic had two massive priorities on the slate before even thinking about the rest of the squad – sign up Cameron Carter-Vickers and Jota.

Significant time and effort was put into completing both deals but thankfully it paid off, with Ange Postecoglou getting the players he wants for season two.

Strengthening the left-back area was also an obvious step given the lack of competition for Greg Taylor. Josip Juranovic was forced to switch flanks on a number of occasions last season while Liam Scales has made the move to Aberdeen.

The club acted quickly again – Alexandro Bernabei arrives with an increasing reputation in Argentina and looks ready to kickstart a promising career in Europe.

With Ben Siegrist also joining to provide back-up for Joe Hart, Celtic are looking in good shape.

But where will the club go from here?

Reports have consistently indicated that Postecoglou is in the market for another central defender, an active and robust central midfielder and another attacker.

The strongest link at this moment comes in midfield, where Vinicius Souza looks like the next big target.

When you run a website like this you start to get a sense of what transfer rumours to pay attention to. Bernabei always felt like a credible target and, based on the reporting so far, so does Souza.

Away from the Brazilian however, other reports, links and rumours right now just feel like noise, as fun as it is to track.

Sky Sports linked Celtic to Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Ko Itakura early in the summer but both defenders have moved from Manchester City to other clubs.

No consistent defensive link has really emerged which might tell us that the club are looking to move on Christopher Jullien before making any decisions in that position.

Likewise, in attack, the club still have Albian Ajeti on the books and in training. He earns first-team wages. It’d make sense for him to be another name we have to shift before committing a long-term deal to another player.

So while the club wait on the Souza situation, outgoings may take centre stage before we see movement on talent coming in.

The good thing about getting significant business done early in the window is that it leaves Celtic a lot of time left to tweak the squad. There’s really no rush to make the next trio of signings.

The club can switch focus now, get into the training schedule and see where we are when the group returns to Glasgow.

By then, hopefully, it’ll be a little clearer which direction Celtic will go in before the end of August.

In other news, Carl Starfelt makes Celtic flight to Austria despite injury concerns.