Celtic close to two signings & eyeing more – O’Neill

Celtic interim manager Martin O’Neill revealed two prospective signings are having medicals and hinted the club could do further deals after his team beat Falkirk 2-0 to move above Rangers into second place in the Scottish Premiership.

The Parkhead outfit have signed Julian Araujo and Tomas Cvancara – both on loan – in the winter transfer window from Bournemouth and Borussia Monchengladbach, respectively.

Supporters have consistently criticised a perceived lack of investment this season, while last summer’s recruitment has been hit and miss at best.

Benjamin Nygren is Celtic’s leading scorer – the Swede took his tally to 15 with the second against Falkirk – but Michel-Ange Balikwisha and Sebastian Tounekti have flattered to deceive.

Free signing Kelechi Iheanacho has struggled for both form and fitness, and although Kieran Tierney has impressed at points, he is not the same player that left for Arsenal in 2019.

The victory over Falkirk took O’Neill’s side back into second after Rangers were held by Hibernian, but they still trail leaders Hearts by six points.

“We are [close to transfers],” O’Neill said. “We’ve some medicals here at this minute and fingers crossed the players come through.

O’Neill was asked specifically about Lorient’s Norwegian forward Joel Mvuka and Freiburg’s Austria striker Junior Adamu, who have been linked with moves to Celtic.

The former Leicester City and Aston Villa manager would not confirm those were the two players undergoing medicals, but told BBC Scotland: “You would be pretty well close.”

With the transfer window closing on Monday night (23:00 GMT), former Celtic goalkeeper Pat Bonner was heartened by the news, but frustrated by the length of time it has taken to bring in reinforcements.

“That’s the most promising thing I’ve heard from the manager in the past couple of weeks,” he said on Sportsound.

“Once you’re at the medical stage, the deal is done. They’re at the final stage, thank goodness. It’s dragged on and dragged on and dragged on.

“They have got to learn from that in the future.”

Celtic’s most recent addition Cvancara made an impact on his debut against Hearts last weekend, assisting Yang Hyun-jun in the 2-2 draw, and he opened his scoring account against Falkirk with a lovely glancing header.

The Czech Republic international had more touches in the Falkirk box than any other Celtic player and O’Neill believes there is plenty more to come from the big striker.

“It was great and it was the breakthrough as well too, which was needed,” O’Neill said. “And that’s nice for him and it’ll give him a really big boost of confidence.

“There’s parts of his game I think that obviously need tidying up, which I think he can do.

“He hasn’t played much football in recent times, so that’s two games for us, he makes the goal for us at Hearts – and I think at that stage he might have been the only player on our field who could have made that run at the time – and (on Sunday) he’s come in and he’s got the goal.