Former Celtic striker Chris Sutton has urged the club hierarchy to get ‘serious’ with recruitment if they reach the Champions League group stage…
Martin O’Neill’s side already have one foot in the door after Wednesday’s 3-0 win over LASK, but will have finish the job in Linz on Tuesday evening if they are to secure a £40 million payday.
If the Hoops prevail, then Sutton believes they will need to add more quality reinforcements if they harbour any ambitions of competing with Europe’s elite.
With Camilo Duran, Kasper Hogh, Miko Baur, and Haissem Hassan already been added to Martin O’Neill’s side, and although Sutton believes they are good acquisitions, the former Celtic star believes that while they are now well equipped for the domestic challenge, the club need more quality it they want to compete at the highest level.
“O’Neill needs more reinforcements,”Sutton told Daily Record in his weekly column. “It’s too late now regarding the second leg against LASK and I suspect they might wait to see if they do get to the Champions League before deciding just how big they go in the remainder of the window.
“If they can get there though, Celtic do have to get serious. Have they got enough already to cope with the Premiership? Maybe so. The ambitions have to be higher though. Making an impact in Europe has to be the aim.
“They can’t just get to the group stage and be happy to turn up, collect the cash and say thank you very much. They need to compete. To do so, O’Neil will need further additions,” the former Celtic goalscorer added.
Celtic are expected to complete a £7 million deal for Bosnian International Ermin Mahmic, with Chelsea teenager Landon Emenalo also expected to sign a season long loan deal this week. The club will NOT have an option to buy included in the Emenalo deal as the player remains highly rated at Chelsea and is as things stand very much part of their future plans.
Further bids for Hajduk Split’s Niko Sigur, and Torino’s Gvidas Gineitis also expected in the coming days. Sigur has had interest from Celtic and Toulouse with Jens Berthel Askou’s side reportedly having had a £2m bid thrown out by Hajduk Split over the weekend.
🚨 𝐔𝐏𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐄: Hajduk are reportedly not even considering a €2M offer from Toulouse for Niko Sigur, with the club valuing the 22-year-old at €3-4m.
Celtic also come to Hajduk with a €2.5M offer.
His future should be decided after the Raków tie.
[Germanijak] https://t.co/fDIiyYR4Ik pic.twitter.com/jrfUFnIfJD
— Croatian Football (@CroatiaFooty) August 23, 2026
The opportunity to play in the Champions League is certainly going to be a consideration for the player and he’ll no doubt be watching with interest tomorrow night as the action unfolds in Linz with Celtic going into the second leg with a healthy 3-0 advantage, with the Croatian Football outlet noting that Niko Sigur’s future will be decided AFTER his side’s Conference League match on Thursday night.
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1 Comment
There are times when Chris Sutton likes to play to the moan a minute brigade within our support imo?
That moaning is nothing more than a disruptive and disrespectful dig at MoN, above anyone else, involving the decision making MoN has to be making, in finalising our 25man European squad for the league phase imo?
And his main focus is going to be upon making that a CL campaign?
So with only a provisional European squad in place at present, there will be changes made, with additional players added, that is a certainty?
But who and where in a positional sense, isn’t as straightforward within the decision making process MoN has to consider still imo?
At present, space within our squad, allows for Engels and Monty. Also for balikwisha and possibly Kenny, along with Hatate, if he doesn’t change his mind and actually wants to stay with ourselves this season?
So potentially 5 places may be available to fill within our finalised 25man squad, for which 1 of them has to be Scottish to fulfill our full quota of players allowed?
And that’s without MoN having to consider whether places should be made available for both AJ and Jota with potentially the last 4 matches of the European league phase in mind also?
And even then, if we do get a full 25man European squad in place, that will have to be reduced to 20 for the majority of our Scottish games, if everyone is fit and available?
Doohan and Murray would be favourites at present in that regards, once a new keeper is added?
Already have 7 attacking options, with only 6 used within a 20man SPFL match day squad? So does that mean Osmand or forrest having to miss out?
There’s a number of other decisions that MoN has to consider also, especially as he has to manage our team, with growing competition for starting positions developing?
Yet still say MoN would rather have the decision to disappointing players with having to miss out upon match day squads, than scrambling around for players just to make up match day squads, which he had in operation last season imo?
It’s no wonder Sutton is a pundit and never made it into football management.
Where it’s far harder to make the managerial decisions, than looking in from the outside, and trying to blame the board for those that have to be considered and taken imo?