On Sunday we saw the value of our two January signings: Julian Araujo won Man of the Match, while Tomas Cvancara scored the opening goal. Time will tell if February’s three additions will prove as effective.
Junior Adamu (24) is primarily a striker but plays across the front line. Like Tomas, he joins from the Bundesliga, where has two and a half years with Freiburg. Junior’s first season at Freiburg was spent largely as a substitute, but he became starting striker in season 2024-25. That status ended in November 2024 when he was red carded for violent conduct at Dortmund and received a three match ban. The player never recovered his regular starting spot after that setback until April.
Celtic have an option to buy the Nigeria-born Austria international. 10 goals in his breakthrough season in Austria with Salzburg got him the move to Germany. He has played a lot of football for a 24-year-old, so should be ready for the challenge of the Scottish Premiership.
Norwegian Joel Mvuka (22) had an anxious wait before his move to Celtic was confirmed late last night after issues with his medical. Consequentially, the deal was downgraded from a permanent transfer to a loan with an option to buy. You have probably seen him before, he made substitute appearances in both Europa League games against Celtic in 2022
After spending 18 months at Bodo/Glimt, he earned a move to Lorient, where he has mostly been used in right-midfield. I’m told he has pace to burn and will get up and down the right side to support attacking and defensive play.
Benjamin Arthur (20) arrived on loan from Brentford, allowing Stephen Welsh to return to Motherwell until the end of the season. Brentford have high hopes for the player, so there was no chance of an option to buy.
The others going out the door were Jahmai Simpson-Pusey, who managed to convince three managers he had no interest in being at Celtic. Life tip: recruit attitude before talent. Johnny Kenny leaves for Bolton Wanderers until the end of the season. Johnny endured a torrid run of form after such a promising display in the League Cup semi-final in November. You get the feeling his chance at Celtic has passed.
My big worry of yesterday was when Nottingham Forest bid £25m for Arne Engels. That figure has been Celtic’s ceiling, so any bid of that size would have caused serious thought, but with the title race so tight, it would have been too risky to sell a first-team player.
Under a different manager, Arne regularly started on the bench early in the season. The speed with which he went from being out of the team to being subject to a Celtic-record bid is fascinating.
The old mantra, we hope to leave the transfer window stronger than we went into it, was surely met. The squad lost fringe players and, even before yesterday, added significant value in Tomas Cvancara and Juian Araujo.
With Tomas, Junior Adamu and the return of Kelechi Iheanacho, Martin O’Neill has significant options for the striker role, which should allow Daizen Maeda to setting into the wide position. We are also hopeful of seeing Callum Osmand next month.
Kieran Tierney looks to have regained full fitness, while Marcelo Saracchi is back training and will be available for selection this month. Alistair Johnston is still some way from returning, but Araujo is a productive deputy, with Colby Donovan and Anthony Ralston as backup.
Auston Trusty and Liam Scales will be the focus in central defence; it remains to be seen what action Benjamin Arthur sees, or if he figures ahead of Dane Murray.
Martin is not short of options in the middle of the park. McGregor, Bernardo, Hatate, Engels, McCowan and Nygren have been used for the middle three positions. I expect might see Joel Mvuka in a deeper role – more like McCowan’s position than Yang’s.
Will it be enough? I would mistrust anyone confident either way on that question. With the two new signings we have seen, and the return to fitness of several absentees, in addition to yesterday’s business, we can at least be hopeful. One month in the roles, Martin O’Neill and Shaun Maloney have played their cards. It will be a fascinating end to the season.
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Anyone else have problems logging in? I often log in then find I’m logged out immediately.
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i think if you refresh your browser when that happens it will show you as being logged in again.
theres loads of things that are user-unfriendly about this site that could easily be sorted in a day or 2 by a half-drunk web developer. but its pauls site and its free so he can do, or not do, what he likes!
Chairbhoy
The January 2026 window
IN
Julián Araujo 🇲🇽
on loan from Bournemouth
Tomas Cvancara 🇨🇿
on loan from Borussia MG .
Junior Adamu 🇦🇹
on loan from FC Freiburg
Ben Arthur 🏴
on loan from Brentford
Joel Mvuka 🇳🇴
on loan from FC Lorient
OUT
Hayato Ianmura 🇯🇵
on loan to FC Tokyo
Jahmai Simpson – Pusey 🇬🇧
recalled early by Man City ( now on loan at FC Koln )
Shin Yamada 🇯🇵
on loan to Preußen Münster
Johnny Kenny 🇮🇪
on loan to Bolton
Stephen Welsh 🏴
on loan to Motherwell
Slams Shut CSC
First he duped them into paying 11m for Engels.
The he duped them into thinking he was rubbish.
if there are loads of pages of comments, i need to turn my phone horizontally to see the last page numbers to click on any of the last few pages.
a few lines of css would sort that out in a minute!
“Under a different manager, Arne regularly started on the bench early in the season. ”
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Would that be the same “different manager” who got slated for wasting £11m on him, by any chance?
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“with the title race so tight, it would have been too risky to sell a first-team player.”
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Hmmmm. Remember when we kept Bobo Balde in January 2005 because we needed him to win the league?
That worked out well…….
*SENTINEL CELTS PLAYER OF THE YEAR 2025-26*
*RESULTS FROM GAME #39 CELTIC 2 FALKIRK 0 (CVANCARA, NYGREN)*
Good evening, friends.
Playing later than the 2 teams who were ahead of us brought a little added pressure but you’d never have known it. After the opening exchanges Celtic controlled the game and never really looked in danger of dropping any points. And for only the 3rd time this season, one player received a nomination from every single voter.
Celtic have now played 39 games, and have won 21, drawn 8 and lost 10. We have scored 70 goals and conceded 43. We moved up to 2nd in the league table but remain 6 points and 8 goals behind Hearts. 14 league games remain.
As for the voting numbers, it was yet another infuriatingly close but no cigar evening but nevertheless a huge thank you to the 97 who took time to vote.
The total votes cast for each player are as follows, with my own nominations asterisked.
Schmeichel: 13
Araujo*: 97
Murray: 0
Scales: 14
Tierney*: 40
McGregor*: 49
Engels: 5
Nygren: 36
Yang: 3
Cvancara: 32
Maeda: 0
Forrest: 2
Hatate: 0
Tounekti: 0
Welsh: 0
Iheanacho: 0
Unused substitutes: Bernardo, Donovan, McCowan, Sinisalo
And so, the POINTS earned by each player for the game against Falkirk are as follows –
25 points: Araujo
22 points: McGregor
19 points: Tierney
16 points: Nygren
14 points: Cvancara
12 points: Scales
11 points: Schmeichel
10 points: Engels
9 points: Yang
8 points: Forrest
5 points each: Hatate, Iheanacho, Maeda, Murray, Tounekti and Welsh
1 point each: Bernardo, Donovan, McCowan, Sinisalo
The cumulative points achieved after 39 games played are now –
555: Scales
548: McGregor
495: Tierney
415: Engels
379: Nygren and Trusty
365: Maeda
348: Hatate
338: Yang
335: Schmeichel
318: Tounekti
284: Forrest
274: McCowan
263: Donovan
199: Iheanacho and Ralston
191: Kenny
158: Carter-Vickers and Saracchi
148: Bernardo
112: Murray
86: Araujo
78: Yamada
76: Balikwisha
66: Sinisalo
60: Johnston
40: Osmand
30: Cvancara
23: Inamura
19: Idah
14: Simpson-Pusey
8: Doohan
3: Isiguso
2: Hale and McArdle
1: Hayney
0: All the other players who’ve not yet made a matchday squad!
There’s a full Premiership card this midweek. On Tuesday, temporary league leaders Hearts are away to St Mirren (on Sky, 8.00pm). On Wednesday at 7.45pm Sevco are at home to a Kilmarnock side managed by McCann and Dodds. 15 minutes later Champions Elect Celtic kick off at Pittodrie against Aberdeen (also on Sky)
Hail Hail!
Chairbhoy
“ Compare this with Heart’s signing of Rogets Mato…
A difficult signing secured, no doubts backed up with state of the art analytics.”
He might turn out to be a superstar but, genuine question , why would we feel any angst or sense of being outdone by Hearts signing a player from a team currently 5th in the North Macedonia league who , unless you’re going to surprise me , I suspect none of us had heard of before?
Incidentally, he was an unused substitute in the game against Dundee Utd at the weekend.
Overall, for me a decent transfer window.
The positives are the guys we have signed have a different profile from some of our more recent recruits ie they have played in different leagues, slightly more experienced and have better international pedigrees than Kwon, Shin, Inamura, Tillio etc.
We also have the benefit of try before you buy for most of them.
IMHO we have a good chance of winning the league, but we need at least 3 of the new guys to hit the ground running, and for squad players like Bernardo, McCowan, Yang etc to stand up when needed.
We will also see some bruised egos from guys who dont even make the bench and hopefully they rise to the challenge.
ziggydoc1 on 3rd February 2026 12:52 pm
Anyone else have problems logging in? I often log in then find I’m logged out immediately.
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If that happens ziggydoc, just redresh the page and you are logged back in (something to do with website caching)
Paul67 et al
Apparently Aberdeen have not beaten us in the SPL at Pittodrie in nearly ten years. Then again Dundee hadn’t beaten us at all since Martin’s first stint, so always best to be wary of these kinds of stats and ‘record’, give how often the MSMS try to use them against us in Europe for instance. One thing about St Mirren, is that they are not going to be overpowered by Hearts tonight, not physically at any rate, though Hearts have 2-3 players who are genuine gamechangers. Interesting game as a backdrop to ours tomorrow.
BSR @ 1:02 pm,
A fine precise of a – we are where we are window…
Thanks…
Hail Hail
Chairbhoy
You don’t half post some nonsense. I am not a board groupie – but equally, I don’t fanlbricate conversations in my head and pass them off as fact.
Keep writing the daily essays if it makes you feel better.
Info only
There were 7 horse races at Kempton yesterday
2 of which were won by the favourite
The mathematicians on here will realise that 5 were won by a horse which wasn’t the favourite
Not a massively strong indicator imo
Transfer window was the bottom end of acceptable to me. To be in a position of loans alone isn’t great. Not an indication of a well run club, IMO
Still, that previous manager! Ggrrrrr
Sionnaigh
I think P67 needs the blessing of St Blaise to help clear his throat to utter any criticism of the board.
The imaginary conversations are the first draft.
Your takedown is the poorly edited second draft.
Both are fiction, but at least the former sometimes aims for charm.
Pay attention.
The long wait is over @ 1:09 pm,
Don’t know if it’s a surprise but my point was the process rather than the player.
Though I suspect he will be a very good SPL signing.
Hearts analytics targetted Rogers Mato with not much left on his contract.
Much to the chargin of his club FK Vardar they got him on a pre-contract to come in on summer ’26.
After Shankland’s injury they tried to get him early, FK Vardar were having none of it, and actually were trying to sell him to the MLS…
Hearts pulled out the stops, after all, there is a title to be won, and got Mato in early.
Hail Hail
Rodgers should have been sacked when he cost the club £40 Million CL wonga as he failed to defeat Kiarat Almaty, which was far worse than any of the European failings which Neil Lennon was crucified for, but hypocrite fans just could not see through sly Rodgers as he played is usual wee victim violin on the touchline as he tried desperately to split the fan base as he shadow boxed with the board on the touchline for more players.
Rodgers did this knowing that he could keep last seasons £30 Million transfer window influx on the bench behind him knowing that the 60,000 Old Firm season ticket holders would be too busy shouting at the board to notice the Rodgers match fixing going on right in front of their wilfully blind eyes.
Just like he did a few months earlier as he blew the Treble vs Aberdeen in the SCF.
Match fixing?
Hmmmm?
Why the Rodgers silence if he has nothing to hide?
I think DD was actually holding back most of what he could have said about sly Rodgers in public, NDA piss etc., probably said to him before he left hence the Rodgers guilty silence.
What DD said about Rodgers obviously must have been true.
Or we would have heard the other side of the story by now.
Shoorley?
Blessed are those fans who aren’t victims of clique mind control enslavement deceptions.
That’ll be, KEVJUNGLE, and his like minded comrades who have been correct about everything.
All of the time – Every time.
Blessed be MON & Shaun & Fozzy Forever.
Real Junglists never lose their Junglism.
That is why they shine like beacons way above those who get easily suckered into each and every trap.
Tim Malone Will Tell @ 1:19 pm,
STOP!! With the smoke screens and b.s.
We know lots about the transfer window.
We know that Martin and Shaun were happy with Aranjo and Cvancara and were hoping for more pf a similar standard to steengthen the team
We know that Celtic had been “thwarted” on a few signings thos window but Martin was optimistic of getting Fares Ghedjemis and Damir Redzic in.
That didn’t happen but we got some of our lesser choice targets in – Junior Adamu and Joel Mvuka, who we hope will be great additions.
We know that Martin wanted a central defender – he brought back Stephen Welsh for cover and hoped to bring in a Centre Half and let Stephen go back to Motherwell.
We got a lastminute.com centre half in the way of loanee Ben Arthur.
So don’t pull the wool over my eyes just keep on supporting the EPL…
Hail Hail
I can imagine how a conversation between Nicholson and DD’s secretary went.
Hello Muriel, how are you. Good thanks. Tell me , is DD in a good mood today?
Not bad , put me through then. Will do.
Hello your highness, hope you are well. Get to the point please.
Is it ok if Celtic spends 3 million on a striker, your majesty.
Let me think about, don’t call me, I’ll call you
kingLUBO
Happy St. Petrus Lexbene day ( patron saint of liars shysters and money changers ): the people Jesus threw out of the Temple.
The Cleansing of the Temple?
Sounds like a plan.
Beh AVE Beh AVE!
Dear me.
I confess – I am just another board place man like Auldheid – you have totally rumbled me.
I came to the conclusion a while ago that you either had hidden microphones in the Celtic boardroom or a very vivid imagination – maybe you can clarify?
As for actually getting off my arse and watching Brentford, again, guilty as charged.
Still, it sure beats sitting in Wycombe typing fairy stories to get a few responses.
Recruiting a young player with regular starting experience in a top 5 league, give him a platform like the CL and there you have as sure a development and trading model as you’re likely to see.
We’re a trading Club who kicked back £36 million in sales this season because we can’t recruit…
FACTS
1. Stronger now that before the window started (yes, a very low bar)
2. In MON we trust (even blindly cos he’s a legend)
3. The £70M+ in cash reserves, remain… in reserve
4. Bookies maintain Celtic as favorites (for good reason)
I’m feeling surprisingly good about our squad. Lot of good points on here today.
Winning the league this year may be strangely more satisfying than it has been for a while.
The board – When MON gis yeez ya baws back at the end of the season, then you can sell Arne!
Weather forecast not great for Aberdeen area ……
What I’d love to see happening. St Martin given another years contract.
Maloney kept in situ but made Director of Football Operations.
Not much to ask., surely.
king LUBO
Flynn — – – I know who you are !!!!!!
Glenowen on 3rd February 2026 1:25 pm
“Still, that previous manager! Ggrrrrr”
Ggrrrr indeed.
But for Nancy and the VAR from Tynecastle we’d likely now be sitting 12 points clear of Hearts and 17 ahead of rangers. I think. 🤔
Tim Malone Will Tell @ 1:49 pm,
You are an ignoramus…
Do you even listen to Martin and Shaun’s media conferences and interviews?
If you did you know what I said us true…
STOP with the smoke screens protecting this incompetent Board
Play the man and b.s. – the m.o. of the lot of you…
Getting of you ass to watch Brentford does not make you a legend in my book…
It makes you one of the hundreds of thousands of EPL sell outs
Hail Hail
The notion that anyone is going to adequately replace Engels at 24 hours notice seems naive to me – but I openly admit that I don’t know who said what to whom and when.
Forest in all likelihood were testing Celtics resolve on the basis that we would probably take the money – we didn’t.
The boy in Italy is reported to have had a change of heart – we don’t know who has said what to who – but shit happens and we went to the next option.
I have lived in England for 36 years and first took my son to see Brentford when they were in League 1. I don’t begrudge myself a £375 a year Brentford season ticket although I do question the morality of what football has become. Celtic are my true love – Brentford is a ‘bit on the side’
I think Celtic are poorly run with a recruitment strategy in shreds.
I believe that everyone is entitled to their opinion on players, ownership, tactics, formations etc. – but when people fabricate conflict to suit their own position, I think that is beyond desperate.
Auldheid is one of the few people who ever actually got off their backsides and actually “did something” rather than just type guff on a blog – I have a good memory.
I hope that clarifies my thoughts.
IgnoramusCSC
I
CHAIRBHOY on 3RD FEBRUARY 2026 1:29 PM
Mato isnt cover for Shankland, he’s a winger.
CHAIRBHOY on 3RD FEBRUARY 2026 1:29 PM
Wouldn’t take issue with any of that.
It’ll be an interesting exercise to keep tabs on the guy to see how he fares.
Hopefully, for reasons far bigger and more important than CQN discussions, he’s an utter dud, except against the Rangers where I’ll be disappointed if he doesn’t score a hat-trick any time he plays them..!
lets all do the huddle on 3rd February 2026 1:03 pm
if there are loads of pages of comments, i need to turn my phone horizontally to see the last page numbers to click on any of the last few pages.
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automatic posting refresh, like Toffeeweb and other fan sites, should have been implemented decades ago on CQN, instead of having to it manually via the F5 button
Turkey
Even your post reeks of disbelief at the fee.
The fee reeks of a board media drop. Engeks has done nothkng to earn such a price-tag. It is fanciful nonsense. More gaslighting & manipulation to make another corporate failure look like a success. 17.5m was the offer. 18m or more & engels woukd trsining anywhere but lennoxtown. 25m is celtics ceiling. We sound more & more like zombies with each passing day. Mugs
Defensive back-up Benjamin Arthur has virtually no experience. So he replaces Stephen Welsh, who is a decent player with quite a bit of SPFL experience. Unfathomable.
The other back-up is Dane Murray, who BR considered to be better than Lagerbielke. Oh dear.
****that someone clsims 25m is celtics ceiling is laughable****
We needed a good, experienced, centre half; we got a loan of a youngster. We’re in desperate need of a keeper who doesn’t let routine shots go by him. We needed them at the start of the season so that’s two failed transfer windows. Couple that with the stupidity of the managerial merry go round and the only answer is that change is required amongst those that make decisions at Celtic Park. Will that ever be addressed on this blog?
Hopefully the attacking players we brought in are enough to paper over the cracks for the remainder of the season.
We’ve improved our options up top. Players who can hold possession and get us up the pitch (takes strain off midfield).
Why it’s not enough. We all cringe every time a ball is crossed into our box – center back with areal power wasn’t signed. Secondly, our midfield is weak and cannot win balls. Pulling Nygren back to defend is pointless.
Thats why we win nothing this season. We are defensively poor.
Maybe araujo as a midfielder would help.
Tim Malone will tell
I came across some old programmes from 80s and 90s the other day.
Last time I saw Brentford was at Griffin Park 1990 in the 4th tier. Brentford 2 Bury 2.
What a transformation in both clubs since then.
I went a few times to Griffin Park and to be honest to Most London clubs back then when not travelling up every other weekend to see Celtic lose another league to rangers.
Weather forecast not great for Aberdeen area ……
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that’s the.city’s motto!
in the near 40 years ive been going.to aberdeen, i dont think ive ever came back complaining of sunburn 😀