{"id":700234,"date":"2026-01-16T16:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T16:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/700234\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T16:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T16:19:12","slug":"martin-oneill-drops-hugely-exciting-14-word-celtic-transfer-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/700234\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin O’Neill drops hugely exciting 14-word Celtic transfer update"},"content":{"rendered":"

Celtic<\/a> manager Martin O\u2019Neill is hopeful of getting reinforcements in for their crucial clash with William Hill Premiership leaders Hearts.<\/p>\n

The champions are still to make a January signing, despite O\u2019Neill admitting new arrivals are \u201cabsolutely essential\u201d, while title rivals Hearts and Rangers have both strengthened their squads.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill ruled out having fresh faces in before Sunday\u2019s Scottish Gas Scottish Cup tie against Auchinleck Talbot and they would not be able to field new signings in their Europa League contest with Bologna next Thursday.<\/p>\n

But he dangled some hope for Celtic fans that they might have additions for the trip to Tynecastle on January 25.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill was asked about reports linking Celtic with a move for 33-year-old West Ham striker Callum Wilson<\/a>, who has scored four Premier League goals this season.<\/p>\n

\"mohamed-bamba-lorient-celtic\"<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\tBetter signing than Bamba: Celtic pushing hard to sign “clinical” striker
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Celtic are reportedly interested in a deal to sign a striker who would be a better addition than Mohamed Bamba this month. <\/p>\n

Refusing to be drawn on speculation but admitting the Hoops are “in search of those elusive goalscorers”, O’Neill delivered a hugely promising 14-word update.<\/p>\n

“We are making progress. Remarkably, I think we are. We\u2019re definitely a bit closer.”<\/p>\n

He then shared a target date for new arrivals: \u201cObviously, we can\u2019t change the squad around for the Bologna game, but we\u2019d like to have some people in for Hearts (Jan 25) if it\u2019s at all possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d be hoping by some stage next week that we\u2019d have people in. I\u2019m actually very worried I\u2019ve said that now.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked again about Wilson, O\u2019Neill added: \u201cI hadn\u2019t thought about that. Not that he\u2019s not a very, very fine player, but I thought he was going elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"wilson\"<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill renews his relationship with the Scottish Cup at Rugby Park on Sunday, more than 20 years after winning the competition for the third time with victory over Dundee United in the final game of his first spell in charge.<\/p>\n

It was a third triumph in five years. The other two campaigns ended with a 3-2 final defeat by Rangers and a shock loss at Inverness.<\/p>\n

The 73-year-old said: \u201cMy memories of the Scottish Cup as a kid growing up was always because the only live game on TV would be the English cup final. You\u2019re always getting news through at half-time what was happening at Hampden. The crowds that used to go to the games were phenomenal.<\/p>\n

“So to come up and win it a few times was great. And then to lose, particularly to Caledonian Thistle, it was my fault really because I changed the team round completely. I didn\u2019t know whether we would have the energy having just beaten Liverpool on a Thursday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, some good and some bad memories.<\/p>\n

\u201cDundee United was my last ever game. It was nice to end, but the previous week we\u2019d thrown the league away at Motherwell, and I knew that this was going to be my last game from that point. So, it was lovely to win, but I have to say that the Motherwell game was still in my mind at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Celtic manager Martin O\u2019Neill is hopeful of getting reinforcements in for their crucial clash with William Hill Premiership…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[94,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-700234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115905689492664782","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}