While Yosuke Ideguchi was moved on loan to Vissel Kobe and Nat Phillips returned early to parent club Liverpool to end what was expected to be a season-long loan spell, Celtic has had a quiet start to the month of January.
Now, though, as the window’s midpoint draws near, things appear to be getting better.
In the midst of their Scottish Premiership title fight with fierce rivals Rangers, Celtic are rumored to be close to signing Nicolas Kuhn from Rapid Wien for a sum of between £2.5 million and £3 million. Brendan Rodgers’ Hoops now lead the league by eight points at the top of the table, but they’ve played two games more than Philippe Clement’s side, so that gap could shrink to two.
Rodgers names the next two items of importance.
After Kuhn’s transfer is completed, Celtic is still considering adding a striker and a left-back to their roster, according to Mark Hendry of Football Scotland. The scouting staff is still doing its “due diligence” despite receiving offers from agencies including “lots of players,” indicating that a second arrival could not happen very soon.
The £2 million playmaker that Celtic “expect to land” might unlock Kyogo
Hendry mentions that, in terms of names, Estoril full-back Tiago Araujo was the subject of inquiries from Celtic back in November, but that “it’s been crickets” since then with no updates.
Celtic look to close gaps in their squad
You can certainly understand why Rodgers wants to strengthen in both of these areas. Celtic’s joint-top scorer as it stands is a midfielder in Matt Riley on ten goals, as many as primary centre-forward Kyogo Furuhashi has managed in 29 appearances. Back-up option Hyeon-gyu Oh has hardly been prolific either with just five in 24.
As for the left-back position, Rodgers is currently overreliant on Greg Taylor, who’s started every single league game, completing the full 90 minutes in 17 of those, and also made the XI for all of their Champions League group stage matches.
If Taylor takes on too great a load, his performance levels could decline and he’ll be at greater risk of suffering a costly injury. The manager does also have Alexandro Bernabei at his disposal, but he seems to have little interest in using him – the Argentine has only made the squad seven times, and his four substitute outings amount to a mere 71 minutes.
As for Araujo, it’s thought that Celtic’s interest “cooled” after they first made contact to gauge the “conditions” of the deal. Estoril are ready to sell him if their £4m asking price is met, with plans already being put in place to ensure they can replace him this month, but the reigning Scottish champions haven’t been in touch since the autumn. Maybe Celtic will revisit that deal, having already put in some initial groundwork, but it sounds like they may be harbouring some doubts that could lead them to sign an alternative target to compete with Taylor instead.
