Martin O'Neill: Celtic working really hard but no transfers imminent

Celtic boss Martin O’Neill insists the club are working to bring new players in to his squad – saying the January transfer window is notoriously difficult but that progress is being made.

O’Neill had stressed the need to strengthen the squad when he returned as Wilfried Nancy’s replacement to take charge until the end of the season. That echoed former manager Brendan Rodgers’ words before he left, and O’Neill’s own assessment during his interim spell in charge.

Celtic supporters have been unhappy with the board over the failures of last summer’s window, and believe the club’s results since then show that the squad has been weakened. And although the board had previously spoken about their intention to be busy in the January window, the only signing so far has been Julian Araujo on loan from Bournemouth.

At his media conference ahead of Wednesday’s match against Celtic, O’Neill reiterated his desire to “bolster the squad” and noted the long-term injuries that have been depriving him of key players. When asked for an update on possible additions, he said there was nothing imminent, but work was ongoing.

“Nothing has changed really, even when I’ve been out of the game,” he said. “The January transfer window is pretty difficult.

“Because unless you’ve identified a player that you absolutely know is going to improve your team, and that you’re prepared to spend money on him, I think it becomes more difficult.

“I’m stepping in here. I think I might have said to you a couple of weeks ago that the new manager would have wanted to have the January transfer window so that he could identify players for his particular system.

“Now, we are genuinely working really hard in the background, so there’s no impediment in that sense. It’s just trying to get some people in that we think could help us now, at least, until the end of the season.”

The veteran manager had previously said that players would be identified behind the scenes, with his assistant Shaun Maloney involved in the process, with targets then presented to him for approval or rejection. O’Neill suggested that while he had looked at and “discarded” some options, the club was now “relatively close” on some additions.

“Famous last words, but we are making progress, or we think we are,” he said. “But, you know, you’re talking about agreements with clubs, if that’s the case, for a start, number one.

“And then, secondly, with the players themselves, and then players finding out that there’s interest elsewhere. So you’re competing.

“All those particular things come into consideration, which is no surprise to me, in that sense.

“I know you’re thinking, ‘Well, we’re halfway through January now’. But we are, I think that we’re relatively close, but those are famous last words.”

Fan unhappiness has grown as the window has progressed, and though the manager said he didn’t like sending direct messages to the support, he did insist every effort was being made to land players sooner rather than later.

“We are really trying,” he said. “But as I said to you, I don’t have any impediments from the board level. I think we all want to try and do something, which is great.

“I’m not blaming anybody. We will try and get people in. It genuinely is at this stage, even though it’s halfway through January, it is looking around to see what could fit for us as much as anything else. And we’ll see.

“Again, it’s not perfect. We might end up having to do some things that, you know, take somebody on loan that you think that you wouldn’t be looking to sign for three or four years, for instance. Something like that.”

Asked if the departure of head of football operations Paul Tidsdale, just before O’Neill’s return, impeded the club’s business in any way, the manager said: “No, not really.

“I’m not going to blame anyone for that. No, that’s not the case.

“I have an idea about a player, and things are being presented to me. Now, of course, I would like to act more quickly. I think I’m trying to do that. And then I obviously have the other things to deal with, you know, the clubs and then the players themselves.

“And some people that I would really like may choose to go elsewhere. So all of that, yeah. Perhaps, maybe if I myself had a bit more preparation for it, then maybe it could have worked a bit more quickly.”