Celtic Manager Martin O'Neill Prepares for Champions League Clash

Celtic manager Martin O'Neill does not expect any late transfer drama before his side step back into Champions League action – and he is more than ready for Reo Hatate to be part of the journey.

LASK visit Glasgow on Wednesday for the play-off first leg, but O'Neill is braced for a quiet deadline as the late-night cut-off on Tuesday approaches.

Asked if there could be any additions before the tie, he kept it blunt: there is a “fairly decent chance of nothing happening”.

That stance comes despite the weekend sale of Arne Engels to West Ham, a departure that leaves a noticeable gap in Celtic’s midfield engine room. O'Neill admitted the club are “still in the process of finding a replacement” and underlined exactly what has gone out the door – Engels’ relentless running power, which he concedes will be “hard to replace” against the Austrians.

New faces have already arrived this summer. Camilo Duran and Kasper Hogh have hit the ground running, while Mika Baur and Haissem Hassan are just beginning to find their feet.

Baur, in particular, is suddenly central to O’Neill’s plans. The German made his debut as a 59th-minute substitute in Sunday’s 4-0 win at Dundee United and is now in line to start on Wednesday. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is suspended, Hatate has yet to feature this season, and the manager hinted Baur could be thrust straight into the starting XI.

“It would have been nice to have kept Arne for the couple of games, because he knows the players, knows his role in the team,” O’Neill said. “But it's not to be. We'll have someone else in there. It might be Baur, I'm not sure yet. He's just getting to know the team.”

Hatate is the other obvious option in the middle of the park, but his situation is more complex. The Japan international has been an unused substitute in every game so far this term and has not started a match since a 2-0 defeat at Dundee United in April.

The 28-year-old, who joined in 2022 and still has two years left on his contract, owns a glittering domestic record in Glasgow: five league titles, three Scottish Cups and two League Cups. Yet O’Neill accepts that recent months have been difficult.

“It's been a bit of a struggle for him [of late],” the Celtic manager said, reflecting on a player who once dominated Scottish midfields. “What I would love Reo to do is get back to the form he showed a couple of years ago when he was one of the best players in Scotland.”

There have been enquiries over Hatate’s availability, but nothing concrete so far. That could change quickly, as it often does in the final hours of a window, but O’Neill made his stance clear: the door is open if Hatate wants to stay and fight.

“There have been [transfer] enquiries, but nothing definitive. That may well happen. If Reo wants to stay and battle for his place in the team and says he's capable of doing it, I have no problem with that.”

So Celtic head into a pivotal European night with no guarantee of reinforcements, a key midfielder sold, another at a crossroads, and a new German recruit learning names on the fly. For O’Neill, the equation is simple: the answers will have to come from inside the dressing room – starting against LASK.