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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EKBhoy – thanks for the info.
At Mirren poorly coached against 10 men. Move ball quicker, get it wide. Too much faffin around.
The ball must be air sick 😫
Got to hand it to Saint Mirren here, they are giving it a right good go. With just a bit more composure in front of goal, they could have been 4 up by now.
Saints 1-0
ahahahaha
Mon the saints
Yessssss
Saints 1-0 from corner
St.mirren 1 up
Yeesss!!
BOOM. Great delivery great header. Up ye mcinnis.
Saints goin for it …
Score from corner
1-0 Saints!
whats the bets we get 6 mins minimum of extra time now???
yaaaasss the buddies
How can Sutton say that was a free header? He had defenders all around him. Cracking jump.
3 mins ET
+3 mins
3 minutes added
Hearts next two games is Hibs then Huns.
Hearts bringing on 2 subs??
Ft 1-0
FT
He He McInnes ya fekn’ looooooser!
Nice
1-0 Saints.
👌
Lovely stuff, well done Saint Mirren
Must take advantage tomorrow.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Get it rite upye McInnes!!
/DB
Right CELTIC 3 points tomorrow…
Dont care how you do it
Just do it.
Let me see, Hibs beat them, Falkirk beat them in the Cup, we drew with them, and now the Saints have beaten them, no way Hearts will win all their SPL games from here. Not saying we will either, but if we win enough of the key games we’ll be there or there about.
Starting tomorrow up in ol’ Aberdeen
And here’s to you Stevie Robinson, Jesus loves you more than you will know 🎶
As BigChips said, these loans – from teams of decent standing – will be costing us large so are a form of investment in transfer business. Clearly, our recruiters and approvers did a decent job with Araujo and Cvancara. If the two new flyers are at a similar level, who’d bet against MON helping us lift silver again ? Incidentally, when Shaun M said MON watches more vids of players than anyone else at Celtic, I’m guessing Martin relies on his ‘eye for a player’ skills rather than just reviewing the data and stats.
Ideally, our analysts run the computers on the data inputs then the manager’s (Ange, Brendan, Martin) make a final call from watching vids or seeing in the flesh.
Still, I wonder who’s a better striker between Miguel Freckleton and Carlo Muggleton ?
BSR @ 8:12 pm,
Yes, we are definitely in the new normal…
For me it can be a great thing but we have to start taking and implementing smart footballing decisions – we are more than capable of doing that.
We must hope that MO’N stays, at least for the medium term to keep us honest.
Hail Hail
clunks on 3rd February 2026 9:51 pm
3 mins ET
3 min I.T (Injury time)
Is this the road to Portobello….?
You better believe it is…..
Interesting set of fixtures coming up.
The huns will probably get a bucket load of goals tomorrow night and move above us,
but then have to play Motherwell and Hertz.
Hertz have to play Hibs and the Huns.
We have Aberdeen, Livi and Killie.
We could be top of the league in 3 games’ time.
A win tomorrow night is massive.
The next 2 games for our 2 rivals could see them drop more points.
Ours are relatively speaking easier.
I usually hate to see Kris Boyd’s big coupon with a grin on it but , on this occasion , I can live with it…