Martin O’Neill has indicated the club are edging closer to completing two late transfer additions, with progress being made on deals for Joel Mvuka and Junior Adamu…
The Scottish champions – who rejected a £14 million approach from Nottingham Forest for Arne Engels yesterday afternoon – are bracing themselves for a busy deadline day.
Forest returned today with an improved bid of £17.3m but that too has been rejected with Celtic advising the Premier League side that the Belgian midfielder is NOT for sale in this window. Nottingham Forest are now believed to be looking elsewhere.
Lorient wide man Mvuka is expected to complete a permanent switch worth around £3 million, while Freiburg attacker Adamu is closing in on a loan move, with Celtic looking at securing an option to buy agreement.
O’Neill confirmed both transfers are nearing completion as Celtic push to finalise their business before tonight’s 11pm cut-off. The interim Hoops boss said via Celtic’s You Tube channel: “Yeah. I think they’ve either done their medicals or are about to do them. So that helps us a little bit as much as anything else.”
“You never know, there might be something else before Monday evening. And then you won’t be able to ask me on Tuesday, which will be the biggest relief of all time! But it’s always been the same, so it’s not a problem.”
Following Celtic’s 2–0 victory against Falkirk – a result that lifted the Hoops above the Ibrox club in the table – O’Neill admitted he has been keen to bolster his attacking options.
The Celtic boss believes 24-year-old Austria striker Junior Adamu can bring a contrasting dimension to his forward line alongside recent arrival Tomas Cvancara, while also easing the burden with Kelechi Iheanacho who has been sidelined through injury.
O’Neill also feels winger Joel Mvuka could add a much-needed spark out wide, backing the Norwegian’s speed and directness to stretch defences and inject greater urgency into Celtic’s attacking play.
O’Neill said: “We need Iheanacho, who’s a very fine player and can hold the ball up. He’s played very, very little, but I think he can make an impact.”
“He might not last games and things like this, so we definitely need someone strong in there. I think Adamu can do that. I think there’s a little bit of pace with the young lad from Lorient.”
The 73 year-old added: “So it’ll just give us a couple of options as much as anything else. The players, I think they deserve it. I think their efforts have been really, really big. I think you saw today where, with the number of games, there’s just no respite for us.”
“As a consequence, players would naturally feel tired. This will help supplement the squad, as I said, and hopefully there’s a possibility of other things happening between now and 11 o’clock, I believe.”
Conor Spence
Wonder who said no to 17 million.
The person who knows he’s worth more than that!
That’s who!