Ishan Crawford Celtic have made one signing this summer. Six players have already left, and the club’s own chief executive now says Scottish football’s champions cannot compete with English Championship wages for the ones it wants to keep.
Supporters boycotted Saturday’s friendly against Middlesbrough over the direction of the boardroom. Across Glasgow, Rangers have made seven signings and are closing in on a Serbian international captain.
Six Players Out, One Signing In
The only outside arrival Celtic have made all summer is Colombian striker Camilo Duran, signed from Qarabag for £6m. He is the club’s first proven forward bought since Kyogo Furuhashi left Parkhead. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain also returned, but on a new contract extending his short-term deal from last season, not as a fresh arrival.
Everything else has gone the other way. Maik Nawrocki’s permanent move to Ligue 1 side Lens this month closed a Parkhead career that never delivered a regular starting spot. The fee is reported at £2.5m, well below the £4.3m Celtic paid Legia Warsaw for him in 2023. One transfer feed on X described a cut-price exit for the defender.
Kelechi Iheanacho turned down a new contract and signed a three-year deal with Turkish second-tier club Bursaspor instead. Marcelo Saracchi will not return either. The Boca Juniors left-back wrote to fans on Instagram that he and his agent “did absolutely everything within our power to make a return to Glasgow happen.”
Luis Palma, Stephen Welsh and Hayato Inamura had already left earlier in the window, for Lech Poznan, Swansea City and Tokyo FC. Nawrocki was the fourth permanent departure of the summer.
| Player | Move | Club | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Camilo Duran | In | From Qarabag | £6m |
| Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain | In | Re-signed | New contract |
| Maik Nawrocki | Out | To Lens | Reported £2.5m, cost £4.3m in 2023 |
| Kelechi Iheanacho | Out | To Bursaspor | Free transfer, three-year deal |
| Marcelo Saracchi | Out | Returned to Boca Juniors | Loan spell not renewed |
| Luis Palma | Out | To Lech Poznan | Undisclosed fee |
| Stephen Welsh | Out | To Swansea City | Undisclosed fee |
| Hayato Inamura | Out | To Tokyo FC | Undisclosed fee |
Six exits, one signing. That is the ledger O’Neill and the board have to defend before the season starts.
Empty Seats at Parkhead
Celtic Park held a similar number of home fans to the 5,000 travelling Middlesbrough supporters on Saturday. Several supporters’ groups had called for a boycott over the board’s handling of the transfer market.
The football did little to calm nerves. David Strelec put Middlesbrough ahead after Celtic failed to clear a corner, spinning to shoot low into the net. Duran leveled five minutes later, chipping the goalkeeper after running onto a pass from James Forrest. Goalkeeper Vil Sinisalo made a smart stop to deny a second Boro goal, and Callum Osmand hit both posts before the game finished 1-1.
Why Can’t Celtic Compete for Transfers?
Celtic’s chief executive says the club is losing out to sides several divisions below the Premier League because of agent demands and wage inflation in English football. Minutes from a supporters’ meeting in Cork show manager Martin O’Neill pressing the board for reinforcements ahead of Champions League qualifying.
Michael Nicholson gave that explanation at a meeting with the Association of Irish Celtic Supporters Clubs in Cork on July 4. Minutes of the session, first reported by Sky Sports, quote him directly on the club’s transfer paralysis.
Nicholson advised of the difficulty in dealing with agents, competing with the Premier League and even the Championship.
That is how the chief executive’s position was recorded in the minutes. He added that Celtic were working on signing players who were out of contract, where competition for signatures is thinner.
O’Neill told the same meeting Celtic were in major need of signings, with a squad he felt was not strong enough to compete despite last season’s double-winning “heroics.” His preferred fix is recruiting younger players who choose European football over bigger wages elsewhere. Nicholson described the board’s long-term strategy as being the best club in Scotland, being financially sound and competing in Europe.
Rodgers Fought This Same Battle
Celtic have had this argument before. Duran is the first proven forward the club has bought since Kyogo Furuhashi left for Rennes in a £10m deal in January 2025, ending a spell in which he scored 85 goals in three and a half years at the club.
The gap that followed mattered. Celtic’s ongoing difficulties signing players led to major tensions with then-manager Brendan Rodgers and stoked divisions with supporters last season. Eighteen months on, the same complaint has landed on Nicholson’s desk, this time from O’Neill and from fans boycotting a friendly.
Rangers Sign Seven While Celtic Sign One
Across Glasgow, the contrast is stark. Rangers have made seven signings this summer under manager Derek McInnes, with a deal for Partizan Belgrade captain Vanja Dragojevic the latest to close.
- Ivor Pandur
- Cammy Devlin and Dan Neil, midfielders on free transfers
- Lawrence Shankland, striker signed from Hearts
- Ross McCrorie and Ben Godfrey
- Vanja Dragojevic, Partizan Belgrade’s captain, for around £4m
Dragojevic, 20, has two caps for Serbia and is rated as one of the best defensive midfielders in the Serbian league. That spending gap reaches beyond the Old Firm. Scottish Premiership clubs have been urged to share UEFA solidarity payments more evenly or risk falling further behind clubs with bigger television and prize money.
Motherwell Cashes In as Hearts Rebuild
Business is moving fast everywhere except Parkhead. Motherwell have agreed to sell attacking midfielder Elijah Just to Swansea City for what will be a club-record fee, plus add-ons. That beats the £5m Udinese paid for Lennon Miller last summer.
Just, a 26-year-old New Zealand international who scored three goals at the World Cup, is due in Wales for a medical this week. Fellow midfielder Elliot Watt has already completed a move to Turkish side Samsunspor on a four-year deal after being named in the PFA Scotland Premiership team of the year. “Twelve months that have changed my career and life,” Watt told Motherwell’s website of his time at Fir Park.
Hearts have rebuilt their goalkeeping department after Craig Gordon’s retirement at 43 closed out a Scotland career that included a World Cup training squad place. Alexander Schwolow is leaving for Mainz after 33 appearances, and Liam McFarlane has joined Partick Thistle on loan. Hearts replaced them with Beau Reus, a 6ft 6in shot-stopper who kept 48 clean sheets in 126 games for Beveren in Belgium.
What Still Has to Move Before August
Three deals remain open as the window enters its final weeks. Celtic want Real Oviedo and Egypt winger Haissem Hassan, and O’Neill confirmed there had been movement: “I don’t want to say something is absolutely until it’s absolutely done but progress is definitely being made.”
Daizen Maeda is the more complicated case. Ipswich Town have opened talks with Celtic over the forward, though no formal offer has been tabled. Maeda has made his ambitions plain, saying on the Japanese YouTube show Pivot that he developed “a strong desire to play in the Premier League” after moving to Glasgow in January 2022.
Rangers, meanwhile, are fielding interest from Portugal. Casa Pia have asked about signing winger Ross McCausland on a permanent deal following his loan spell at Aris Limassol.
What We Know
- Hassan, Maeda and McCausland are all yet to have a transfer fee agreed between clubs.
- Maeda, 28, is entering the final year of his Celtic contract and has won nine major honours since joining in January 2022.
- McCausland, 23, has one year left at Ibrox and spent last season on loan at Aris Limassol.
What’s Unconfirmed
- Whether Celtic will receive a formal bid for Maeda before the transfer window closes.
- How much Hassan would cost, or when a deal might be finalised.
- Whether Casa Pia’s enquiry for McCausland develops into a firm offer.
Rangers open their Europa League campaign against Polish side Jagiellonia Bialystok in the third qualifying round, with matches on August 6 and 13. The winner advances to the play-offs, and the loser drops into the Conference League. Hearts travel to Sturm Graz in Champions League qualifying, with the return leg at Tynecastle Park on July 25. They would meet Fenerbahce or Gornik Zabrze next if they progress, and St Gallen or Benfica in the Europa League if they lose. Just how many European places Scottish clubs can still earn this season depends on how those ties break.
Motherwell and Hibernian know their Conference League third round opponents too. Motherwell face Faroese side Havnar Boltfelag, with HJK Helsinki or Coleraine waiting next. Hibs play Kosovan club KF Malisheva, with NK Bravo or KF Shkendija next if they advance.
The Scottish Premiership season opens on August 2, with St Johnstone hosting Kilmarnock and Motherwell away to Hibernian. Celtic’s title defense begins a day later at home to Dundee, with one new outfield signing and a chief executive who has already told supporters why.
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