Having signed two wingers in season 2022-23 (Jota – on a permanent contract, Haksabanovic) and four in season 2023-24 (Palma, Kuhn, Yang, Tilio), Celtic cut back on their most persistent transfer fix and limited the arrival of wingers to Jota during the season just finished.
We are again reported to be in the market for a winger; there are reasons. Jota is out injured until the end of the year, Daizen Maeda has two years left on his contract, which he has so far declined to extend. While Nicolas Kuhn will attract more attention than anyone else in the squad, in particular from his native Germany.
With Kuhn and Maeda under contract, Celtic have a degree of control ahead of the Champions League qualifiers in August, but that is not complete control. Players who are attracting attention seldom perform at their best near deadline day. Even if we resolve to keep both players for the season ahead, at this stage of the summer, there is reasons to be concerned about how focussed parts of the squad will be in August.
More wingers is one way to mitigate the risk.
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Bada Bing
What have you heard about Inamura?
TT
Bob MacIntyre pars the 18th, in the clubhouse at 1+
Sharing the lead as things stand
Wot a putt to beat Bob.
Good morning CQN.
Would be reassuring and satisfying to get some deals over the line quickly.
Does look though Luke the recruitment team (whoever he is / they are) is at work.
Good morning all from Govanhill. Another week begins.
Morning all.
BRRB, did the drummer bhoy contact you yesterday about his new best pal?
St Stivs
Ref your point about our biggest domestic rivals euro challenges. These start this week with the draw made for round 2 CL qualification.
The challenge to get to CL seems a really tough one with Benfica and Brugge as final stage opponents. That is after they get through 2 other rounds.
In round 2 they will play Servette Geneva or Brann from Norway or Panithinikos. Personally I think mid season Norwegians in mid July would be the harder one but neither of the others are gimmies.
Should they win there are plenty toughies awaiting them in round 3, one from RB Salzburg, Fenerbahce, Nice or Viktoria Plzen.
Almost as hard if they lose in round 2 though they will drop to Europa qualifiers round 3 and play Shakhtar, Braga, PAOK, Legia, Mitdjyland, Partisan B or Anderlecht.
Win that and they would have winnable ties to reach Europa league. Only Malmo or perhaps Sigma would be tricky. Lose though and they could find themselves scrapping with Brann, Maribor, Servette, AEK Athens, Hadjuk Split, Utrecht, Wolfsberger just for a conference league spot.
Should they win their round 2 CL qualifier and lose round3 CL then they would be unseeded in Europa play off which could really give them a tricky tie again eg Lech Poznan or Young Boys which could mean Conference League.
Either way a really tough baptism awaits their new manager. 6 potentially huge qualifying ties by the time he has played 2 league games.
One thing it will ensure is they are match fit before the derby at the end of August at Ibrox. By then both rangers and ourselves will be clear on our European opportunity for the season ahead.
BelmontBrian
Aye, good photo. Didn’t recognise Mr Chase right away though.
If we fail to win through to the CL will we drop into the Europa League or are we out of all European Competition?
Haksabanovic and Palma are both better players than Yang .
TT