O’Connell, early Eboue confirmation expected

Our central defence partnership has settled on Jozo Simunovic and Erik Sviatchenko, you would be hard pushed to choose between them. Kolo Toure, who performed so well early in the season, has been relegated to third choice, while Mikael Lustig can move into the middle if required.

Efe Ambrose will draw his Celtic experience to an end this year, possibly without playing for the club again, while Dedryck Boyata must be desperate to leave Glasgow. Injury prevented the Belgian from attending the European Championships but his international prospects will be non-existent unless he plays regular football.

If Eoghan O’Connell is looking at his first team prospects he might consider himself potentially third choice for next season, but the 21-year-old hasn’t had a sniff of domestic football since August. A substitute cameo performance at the Camp Nou may already be wiped from the player’s memory.

O’Connell is a player I think ha a genuine chance of making the breakthrough. If he was at Dinamo Zagreb right now, we’d probably sign him, but he needs football. Kilmarnock wouldn’t be my first choice destination for him, I’d rather he was tested at a higher level, and frankly, anywhere else but Kilmarnock, but four months in Ayrshire would give him a platform for next season’s qualifiers.

Kouassi Eboue’s agent told the Russian media over the weekend that the player’s work permit could be through as early as today. Spending two weeks with your new team-mates, before a game against lower league opposition, is as near ideal conditions to join a club as Kouassi could hope for.