Celtic are well into their pre-season preparations this summer. Currently on a training camp in Austria, they played their first friendly of the season on Wednesday against BW Linz, winning 1-0 thanks to a goal from James Forrest.
Ahead of them is the famously difficult UEFA Champions League qualification process. These games could define the Hoops’ entire season which is why they are back so early and working hard to get into the best shape possible.
So far Brendan Rodgers has brought in two players to help strengthen the squad ahead of those matches, Aberdeen’s Jonny Hayes and Ipswich Town’s Kundai Benyu. It’s become clear that there aren’t going to be massive changes to his team until later in the summer.
Speaking to Celtic TV last week, Rodgers admitted as much, saying: “I also want to just wait and see because I know the market in England and the rest of Europe well. I know how it works. It’s later on in the window before players of real quality become available. I want to bring the best possible players into here.”
It sounds like Rodgers is determined to bring elite players to the club and if, as expected, they reach the group stages of the Champions League again, their spending could be taken to new levels.
With that in mind, here are THREE quality players we reckon Celtic should be targeting as a late summer acquisition…
Lazar Markovic
Skybet currently have Celtic has second-favourites to sign Liverpool winger Lazar Markovic with only Watford ahead of the Hoops in the race. That may be in part because Brendan Rodgers was the man who initially brought Markovic to Anfield in 2014 for a reported £20m.
Markovic of course has famously not settled into life at Liverpool, making just 34 appearances for the club before loan spells at Fenerbahce, Sporting Lisbon and Hull City.
Currently valued by Transfermarkt at £8.5m, that puts him into Celtic’s range if they can qualify for the Champions League a second year in a row and given they need a quality replacement for Patrick Roberts, a move for the 23-year-old doesn’t appear to be too outlandish.
Known for his dribbling skills and snappy passing in the final third, he could be just what the Hoops are looking for. He showed flashes of his potential in the second half of the season on loan to Hull City and while they were ultimately relegated he did manage goals in wins against Middlesbrough and Watford.
Joel Campbell
Joel Campbell is another player on the fringes of an English Premier League team who has spent years out on loan at other clubs. Since joining Arsenal in 2011, he’s been sent out on loans to five clubs around the continent, never really ever convincing Arsene Wenger he is a viable option in the Gunners attack.
Wenger did get good use out of him in 2015/16, with the Costa Rican 30 appearances that season. Last term he was sent out on loan again though, this time to Sporting Lisbon.
He didn’t get the amount of football he’d perhaps have been looking for, making just 7 starts in league action across the season. He did still manage a tally of four goals and three assists however.
With European experience playing for Olympiakos, Villarreal, Arsenal and Sporting, he could be the kind of winger that Celtic need if they are to make progress in the group stages over the coming season.
Despite never becoming a regular fixture of the Arsenal side, his pace and trickery could be well suited to a team of Celtic’s ability.
Oumar Niasse
With Romelu Lukaku ahead of him in the pecking order at Everton, there was perhaps never much chance of Oumar Niasse getting a regular game at Goodison Park while the big Belgian continues to bang in the goals for Ronald Koeman’s side. He signed for the club last January and since then has made just 7 appearances for the Toffees.
However his loan to Hull City in January of this year points to a player who could be effective in British football, scoring 5 goals in 13 starts before the end of the season. Before his move to England he scored goals consistently in the Turkish and Russian top-flights too.
With a strong physical presence at 6ft 2in tall and in the prime of his career at 27 years of age, he could offer Celtic another elite option in attack alongside Moussa Dembele or Leigh Griffiths.
