RONNY DEILA will use international week to scout for Celtic signings but he and his spies are more likely to be spotted at Under-21 or national youth team games than a Euro 2016 qualifier over the next 10 days.
The manager’s goal is to close out this season with a domestic treble, then make the additions capable of helping the squad through the Champions League qualifying rounds. However, it is unlikely that Deila will be throwing a few million pounds to secure any eye-catching signing that would raise supporter expectations ahead of that late summer campaign.
He explained: “We will bring in players, but I think we will bring in younger players to build the next generation behind the current one.
“If we are going to fight with the best clubs in Europe for the best 22-year-olds, then you can forget it. No chance. The only chance we have to get a world-class player is to go to 16/17-year-olds and say: ‘You will train with the first team’.
“That’s our chance to get a player in. We have to find some very big talents that can be the best ones.
“Ajax get it because they have an unbelievable reputation — and we have to build, over the years, a reputation. That if you come to Celtic, you see what is happening, you get sold to the big clubs and you get a good development.”
Deila helped Real Madrid wonder kid Martin Odegaard on to early stardom by handing him his first- team debut at 15 in Norway. While Celtic would not stand a chance of tempting him to Scotland when Spanish, German or English giants are scrapping for his signature, Deila believes less precocious talent than Odegaard can be mined then nurtured into better long-term prospects under him. He added: “There are players there, maybe not at Odegaard level, but close. With a good development, they can be past Odegaard if he makes the wrong decisions and we make the right ones.”
