Martin O’Neill has moved to ease concerns over Celtic’s transfer strategy, dismissing claims that the club’s executives have been dragging their feet during the January window…
With the month approaching its midpoint, the Hoops have completed just one deal so far, securing defender Julian Araujo on a loan agreement from Bournemouth.
The limited activity has sparked anger among supporters, who believe additions are urgently needed, particularly up front with clear deficiencies at the top end of the pitch.
Memories of last summer’s disastrous window, when negotiations ran down to the wire and key targets slipped away, have heightened fears of a repeat scenario.
🍀 Celtic manager Martin O’Neill reacts to his side’s win over Falkirk
“I didn’t think we played well…but we stuck it through.” 🗣️
𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 @sbk | 18+ | 𝑃𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝐺𝑎𝑚𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑦 pic.twitter.com/JL84I7yGss
— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) January 14, 2026
Speaking shortly after last night’s 1-0 victory over Falkirk, O’Neill was asked to address the growing criticism of the board and whether the slow pace of recruitment was a cause for concern.
O’Neill said via Premier Sports: “No, that’s not the case at all from the board. The board has been very, very helpful. Part of it is me looking at players and it’s not something that I had in mind. Over Christmas, I was at home, enjoying myself, didn’t think about signing players in the January transfer window.
“But I’m getting great help from my coaching staff who are seeing a lot of players. We’re pretty hopeful now that if you consider we could have a couple in here on Sunday, then in essence the people who we might bring in wouldn’t be available to play anyway in the European game.
“So we’ve got a little bit of time and please don’t press me in that sense. You’re right to ask the question, absolutely, and no one is stopping me, we’re trying to do our best. I must have seen quite a number of players now, as many players as I’ve seen in the last few days as I’ve seen in about a decade.”
The top three have now played the same number of games with 16 games to go. Hearts remain top of the table, six clear of Celtic. Both the Hoops and the latest Ibrox club are on 44 points.
It appears it’s a three way title race, but all O’Neill’s men need to do is keep winning games – but it’s clear the interim Celtic boss needs significant support in the transfer market. Will the Celtic Board deliver new signings or the same old excuses? We’ll all know soon enough. Hell mend them if it’s the latter.
Conor Spence
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“hell mend them”, is a great saying but it won’t stop our board of accountants pocketing circa £1m per year+ a HUGE BONUS to come, I’d regularly put forward the idea that nicholsons wages and especially his bonus is linked to European progress NOT our bank balance, I’ve a feeling that would light a fire under their arse, just to be clear I’m not recommending fans set fire to nicholsons arse as I’ve no wish to lose my ST or a 6am visit from the police.
I don’t think anyone would fancy a player off any list drawn up by Tisdale.
Martin and Shaun have decided to take control of the situation and that was what I had hoped would happen so I didn’t really expect any players in yet.
If there isn’t anyone in before next week’s Euro match then I will start to worry. We can’t go to Tynecastle with the current side and hope to win the match.