Celtic’s slow start to the transfer window can be explained by a “knock-on effect” from this summer’s major tournament, according to Peter Grant, who insists Martin O’Neill will still have secured recruitment “guarantees” from Dermot Desmond.
Preparations for the new season are already underway, with Dundee awaiting on August 3 before a crucial Champions League play-off later that month.
Speaking to the Sunday Post, Grant insists O’Neill’s experience means he will have demanded clarity on strengthening the squad before taking the job. “Martin is a wily old fox. He has been around the block,” he said.
“He will know more than anyone that Celtic got away with it last season. It was a remarkable campaign and what he achieved to guide the team to a double was remarkable. But you don’t get away with it twice.
“He will know that this is a squad that needs to be strengthened, and he will have had that conversation before accepting the job. He isn’t a young, relatively inexperienced manager coming in with no knowledge of how it works between the boardroom and the dressing room.
“He will have had a few guarantees about what he was getting in terms of being able to go and mould this squad into the kind of team he wants. He will be more than aware of where the deficiencies were last season.”
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Grant believes significant reinforcements are required, particularly in attack. “They definitely need two strikers,” he added. “I don’t think they should ever have let Adam Idah go.
"Daizen [Maeda] could have gone last year, and it would have made sense to do that and have someone else come in alongside Idah.
“Now, they need at least a couple of centre-forwards and a centre-half. Cameron Carter-Vickers has had a few injury issues, and there was a softness about Celtic defensively last season that needs to be addressed.
"Another midfielder would be in the equation, too.”
He also pointed to the impact of the summer tournament on transfer activity. “A major tournament being on definitely has a knock-on effect to the window, every agent and manager will tell you that,” Grant said.
“The long and short of it is that there is a domino effect in terms of players and clubs when it comes to movement.”
