Celtic Seems Busy On The Midfield Signing Front. That’s An Encouraging Sign.

So, today’s been an interesting day, hasn’t it? Plenty of transfer stories to sink our teeth into, though none of them are concrete. It’s been a day of rumours—good rumours, bad rumours, indifferent rumours, and one particular rumour which seems to have terrified a lot of people. I’ve already written about it twice, so I won’t be going into it further.

Except to say this: if there turns out to be even the slightest shred of truth in it, the people at Celtic Park better get busy—and they better get busy very, very quickly—and come up with a plan. The money is there, and there will be even more if the story is true and they countenance a sale. They will have no excuses, and the fans won’t tolerate any.

So, what of the rest of it? Most of it centres on the continuing Matt O’Riley saga. Will he, won’t he—stories about Brighton and whether they are really going to make us an offer we can’t refuse. And whether they’re serious about doing a deal, or if it’s just more paper talk and fumbling around the edges.

There are stories about Gustav Lagerbielke possibly going out on loan.

None of us would shed any tears if he did, but we would all wish him well. As I said yesterday in a piece, he is a good player who is simply a victim of the circumstances of last summer, when team-building was done without the manager’s real input. The lessons learned from that will hopefully not be repeated. Gustaf is simply not capable of playing in the manager’s system, but that doesn’t make him a bad footballer—just a very, very unlucky one.

The more exciting stories are about potential Matt O’Riley replacements.

It does seem as if the club is interested in multiple midfield targets, and that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to sign all of them. But the manager has said we’ll need to sign at least two, so at least one midfield signing will probably be done whether Matt O’Riley goes or not.

I can’t honestly say I dislike the names being thrown about.

I’m trying to temper my enthusiasm because we don’t know if these deals are actually in the process of being done, or whether Celtic’s interest in these players is real.

It’s just as speculative as the Kyogo situation. This is all agents and media chatter at the moment, and until signatures are on paper, it will remain speculative. But the names being mentioned are more encouraging than at any point in the window so far.

Even the young lad from Dundee, Luke McCowan, would be a sensible signing. He’s a good development prospect, and as everyone knows, we have an issue with homegrown players that we need to resolve. We need to sign some Scottish-based players at some stage if we’re going to maintain our Champions League squad criteria; otherwise, we’ll just be leaving players out, which is silly and a waste of resources.

As for Alvin Sánchez, he’s a very good footballer with a good pedigree and a reasonable scoring record, which would only improve in a good side.

He’s an exciting player with a big future ahead of him, and the kind of player who could step into the team quickly if Brendan works his magic. I like that idea—he’s young and fits the so-called “project profile,” although I don’t believe we’d be signing him on that basis. If the manager likes this guy, he’ll have the tools to go into the side right now and make an impact.

Rumours continue to circulate about Arne Engels, who has apparently been identified as a key target should Matt O’Riley go.

He’s an even more impressive player than Sánchez with an even better pedigree, although he would cost us significantly more. But it’s nothing we can’t afford, especially if we sell O’Riley for £30 million or thereabouts. As ever, the only limit is Celtic’s ambitions. But the fact that we’ve looked at this player and he’s on the shortlist encourages me.

The name Tanner Tessmann continues to be linked with us. He currently plays for Venezia in Italy, and I suspect he’s been linked with us through Brendan’s new scout, Mark Cooper, who has a background in North and Central American football.

It’s no coincidence that he’s one of three players with an MLS connection who has been mentioned in this window, including another today.

I have to believe there’s something to that story as a result. This is someone the manager trusts, bringing his knowledge to the situation, and I think these deals could possibly have legs. We are talking about two midfielders, and Tessmann might be one of them.

Mateusz Bogusz may be the most exciting of the other players linked with us today. He’s the other MLS player, an attacking midfielder with all the right skills to be a huge success in this team. Everything about him looks so similar to Matt O’Riley that you can see exactly why the chatter around him is strong.

He would cost us in the region of £7 million, which is money we have. We’ll have even more latitude to spend if Matt leaves, so it seems we are at least in talks with this lad.

There’s also a bit of intrigue around Abu Kamara from Norwich, who has been linked with a move to Celtic and has apparently asked for a transfer.

He’s a player well-known to people at the club, and we could go on Adam Idah’s recommendation if we’re genuinely interested in him. That may be one worth keeping an eye on as we head into the final week of the window.

So, it’s been a good and busy day.

The main takeaway is that it does look like we’re in talks with at least one, perhaps two targets, in the event that Matt O’Riley signs for Brighton.

Whilst that’s not great news, because it would necessitate the sale of a top player we all love, it’s better than the alternative, which is that we’re simply waiting for that deal to get done so we can start scrambling around for someone to come in.

It seems we do have targets; it seems we are working on business in the midfield area, and hopefully in a few other areas as well. That offers some form of encouragement, particularly because some of these targets are good footballers and evidently capable of filling Matt’s shoes.

Maybe the black cloud over this window will start to lift a bit in the next couple of days, even if Matt leaves—and provided, of course, that the Kyogo story turns out to be as daft as a lot of us think it is. Either way, there’s a lot of work to be done, and I hope to God people are getting on with it—but in the midfield area at least, it appears we are.