Celtic

Johnstone, who won the last of his four England caps in 2023, made 17 appearances last season but lost his starting place at relegated Wolves in December and has not played since an FA Cup loss to Liverpool in early March.

“I’m buzzing to be here and I’m excited to get going,” said the goalkeeper, who began his career at Manchester United and has had spells at Aston Villa, West Bromwich Albion and Crystal Palce.

“I didn’t need convincing by anyone, but Joe Hart rang me the other day just to reiterate what a place this is, what a great group of lads and how the fans are unbelievable.

“You hear about the size of the club, but just being here for a day, you notice how big the club is. And the pressure to win, which is what I like – pressure to win, pressure to perform and we all want to win trophies.”

Kasper Schmeichel had been first choice at Celtic since the summer of 2024, but played his last game in February and subsequently retired due to a shoulder injury.

Manager Martin O’Neill said Johnstone would be “a very good addition” and that Mheuka has “great quality”.

O’Neill also said new left-back Emenalo “has many attributes which I think can benefit us”, adding he is “very quick on the ball and, while he can defend, he certainly gets up the pitch into attacking positions too.”

In the open air of the Raiffeisen Arena, with bedlam all around, there was nowhere to hide for Celtic or Martin O’Neill.

The Scottish champions had endured one of the darkest nights in their European history.

After going out to Kairat Almaty on penalties last year at this stage of the Champions League play-offs, that is saying something.

Four goals up on aggregate against LASK, O’Neill’s Celtic somehow conspired to implode in a second half with little sign of a response on the way to a 5-4 aggregate loss following extra time.

There was no hiding place, and the Celtic manager was frank when put in the spotlight at full-time.

“I’m responsible for this one,” he said.

“Without a doubt. Naturally it took me a long time to get over the Uefa Cup final in 2003 but this was majorly disappointing.

“In the context of things, one was a final which it would have been terrific to win, this was a qualifying game which we should have been able to get through.

“We know that we are a million miles from the finished article. That’s absolutely true. I think we thought that anyway.”

The Swede set Celtic on their way and Duran’s double did the rest, a gorgeous volley – on the back of hustling and harassing of the LASK defence – and then that sumptuous team goal that rounded it off.

O’Neill said the club has a bargain in Duran and the early signs are that he was an absolute steal at somewhere between £4.5m and £6m, depending on who’s talking.

The Colombian has intelligence and guile but he’s also got the work-ethic that means every bit as much as his other qualities.

In the 72nd minute, Celtic were 3-0 ahead, and yet there the 24-year-old was darting back into defence to help out, tracking LASK men until they were hounded out of possession.

As much as his goals, his lung-busting effort to put in a shift made him a hero of the night for Celtic people. Honesty counts for a lot.

It’s easy to say that Celtic learned their lesson from a year ago and splashed the cash. They spent close to £30m and now they’re getting their reward. It’s never that simple.

Spending is something that Celtic have done a lot of over the years. Spending wisely has been their problem. Splurging money on last-minute loans who, surprisingly, turn out to be duds.

Forking out multiple millions on recent and not so recent failures – from Balikwisha to Barkas – has been the problem. The decision-making has been awful too often.

Duran represents a return to form, a reminder of the days when they found value, mostly under Ange Postecoglou.

We’re too quick to write off players and we can also be too quick to brand them as stars in waiting. You should tread carefully at all times. With Duran we’ll take the plunge – this guy looks special.

Beyond offering a physical distraction, Kasper Hogh was quiet against LASK, but he will score plenty in the weeks and months ahead. At £11m, he, too, looks like money very well spent.

Handball’s loss was football’s gain as Baur chose a different sport to father Markus, who made 228 appearances for his country as he helped Germany to Olympic silver in 2004 and world championship gold in 2007.

So far, Baur Jr has played for Germany at every level up to under-21s and will hope moving to Celtic helps him make the step up to the senior side.

Moving to Scotland may seem an unusual choice given he had the opportunity of playing in his country’s top flight for the first time had he stayed with Paderborn, or moved to another Bundesliga club.

Baur did make match-day squads as a youth after coming through the youth ranks with Freiburg without making the breakthrough.

Indeed, he credits his experience on loan to Dynamo Dresden last year for his breakthrough season with Paderborn – that together with advice from a mindset coach and the arrival of Ralf Kettemann as head coach.

Having started as a winger then attacking midfielder, the diminutive, two-footed Baur was used more as a deep-lying playmaker with a style similar to Rangers’ Nicolas Raskin.

It helped steer Paderborn to their greatest success since the turn of the millennium.

It was reported today that Osasuna have enquired about Tierney, although that same article suggested Celtic chiefs will knock back any offers for the 29-year-old.

Given the lack of options in that position, and also Tierney’s importance to the league champions, that is hardly a surprise.

“Kieran’s going nowhere, he loves the football club,” said his former captain Scott Brown on Sportsound.

“You never know what can happen, but I love watching the wee man play, I love his passion. When there’s a 50-50 he wins it, when a ball goes into the box he puts his head on it.

“It’s the quality on the other side as well. You can see why he went down to Arsenal. Other teams will want that, and Celtic are lucky to have these three [Tierney, McGregor and James Forrest] for that long a period.”

Club captain McGregor is another who impressed in the league opener, but there’s also been whispers that he might be on the way out. Those rumours seem to have died down in recent weeks.

“Callum has retired from Scotland so he’s had the time off, and he looks really fresh,” said Brown. “He is the brains of this time, he’s got the understanding and leadership.

“If any young kids are watching, watch Callum McGregor, watch Kieran Tierney, watch James Forrest. You’re not at a football club like this for that long if you can’t understand the other side of the game.”

Rangers manager Derek McInnes has been given a four-game touchline ban, with one suspended, for calling the decision to award Celtic a late penalty at Motherwell “disgusting”.

The comments, made at the end of last season when McInnes was in charge of Hearts, related to a stoppage-time spot-kick given for handball that was converted by Kelechi Iheanacho.

Celtic’s 2-1 victory at Fir Park kept them one point behind Hearts, who they beat to the title a few days later in a final-day decider.

Speaking to Sky Sports after a win against Falkirk at Tynecastle, McInnes said: “When you heard Celtic got a 96th minute penalty that was going to VAR and they were checking it, you just assume what’s happened is they get the penalty.

“Having seen it again, it’s disgusting. It is.

“I don’t think it’s a penalty kick.

“But we’re up against it. We’re up against everybody.”

Following the late drama at Fir Park, referee John Beaton’s contact details were posted online, with police keeping his home under surveillance. A teenager was then charged “in connection with a data protection offence”.

SFA head of referees Willie Collum backed the call, citing “clear evidence” with Sam Nicholson’s hand and arm “in an unnatural position” and the resulting contact “a punishable handball”.

Motherwell and their former midfielder Elliott Watt have already been sanctioned over social media posts on the matter.

Watt, who has since joined Turkish club Samsunspor, received a four-match suspension, having described it as “the worst VAR decision in history”.

Motherwell were fined £5,000 for releasing a video with the caption: “As the world of football mocks our game, we simply have to draw a line in the sand and shift the focus.”

The Scottish FA compliance officer issued complaints to all three parties under disciplinary rule 72 stating that: ‘No recognised football body, club, official, team official or other member of team staff, player or other person under the jurisdiction of the SFA, shall in an interview, a ‘blog’ on the internet, on a social networking or micro-blogging site, or in any other manner calculated or likely to lead to publicity (i) criticise the decision(s) and/or performance(s) of any or all match official(s) in such a way as to indicate bias or incompetence on the part of such match official; or (ii) make remarks about such match official(s) which impinge on his character.”

The suspended ban for McInnes will be applicable if he is in breach of rule 72 again before the end of the 2026-27 season.

Rangers and Celtic face disciplinary charges over the unrest that followed their Scottish Cup meeting at Ibrox in March.

The Scottish Football Association has issued identical notices of complaints to both clubs as it published the independent review on the events surrounding the quarter-final tie.

Both are accused of breaching the SFA’s rule 37, which centres on “good order and security” and “unacceptable conduct”.

The rule covers “policies and procedures” and whether clubs take appropriate measures to identify and deal with supporters who engage in unacceptable conduct.

The clubs face hearings on 13 August.

There were clashes on the pitch after eventual cup-winners Celtic prevailed via a penalty shoot-out on 8 March.

Some visiting fans spilled onto the playing surface to celebrate, with home supporters then trying to confront them as fireworks were thrown back and forth.

At least 37 people have been arrested over the trouble, which resulted in injuries to police and stewards.

Meanwhile, the review describes the events of 8 March as as “a near miss”, saying the ugly scenes “came within a very small margin of becoming a violent mass confrontation”.

Lead author Mark Blackbourne also states that a “crushing incident was a real and foreseeable risk” due to “non-compliant Ultra group fans surging past police and stewards”.

The report adds: “Ultra groups exercise a power over clubs and the wider supporter base that is disproportionate to their size” and that “there seems to be no independent external scrutiny of the clubs’ or Police Scotland’s operational plans for high-risk fixtures”.

Paul Lambert believes former club Celtic are “nowhere near good enough” without further recruitment – but has guarded against “panic”.

Striker Camilo Duran is the sole summer arrival so far for the Scottish champions, while midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has signed a new contract after a short-term deal last term.

But forward Kelechi Iheanacho and former left-back loanee Marcelo Saracchi, who had been linked with returns, will not be back in Glasgow this season.

Iheanacho has joined Bursaspor as a free agent, while Saracchi bade farewell to Celtic fans on social media and said he and his agent “did absolutely everything within our power to make a return to Glasgow happen”.

Furthermore, German centre-half Maik Nawrocki has been sold to Lens.

“The squad’s not strong enough,” Lambert told BBC Radio Scotland’s Sportsound.

“I’ve seen Celtic, they’re nowhere near good enough at this moment in time, nowhere near it. Everybody recognises it.

“They’ll compete, but I don’t think they’re strong enough to go and win it [the league] again at this moment in time. The problems were there last season, so they’re not going to change again this season.

“The squad was very, very limited on what it was last season. They won’t get away with that again – the manager knows it.”

Goalkeeper Craig Gordon has announced his retirement from football, bringing an end to a 25-year playing career.

Gordon, 43, ended his second spell at first club Heart of Midlothian this summer and was part of Scotland’s World Cup squad.

He first left Tynecastle for Sunderland in 2007, with the Black Cats paying a then £9m British record fee for a goalkeeper. Gordon made one of the most famous saves in Premier League history when he denied Bolton Wanderers’ Zat Knight from close range in 2010.

However, a serious knee injury affected his time at the Stadium of Light and, at the end of his five-year spell, he entered a two-year spell out of the game rehabilitating and coaching.

Gordon joined Celtic in 2014 and won his first league title, adding four more during a medal-laden six-year spell before returning to Hearts. A double leg break in 2022 resulted in another lay-off but the veteran keeper again recovered to return to playing.

As O’Neill throws himself into planning for the new campaign, he has had little time to digest last season’s success.

Celtic secured their 14th Premiership crown in 15 years in remarkable fashion, winning their final seven matches to snatch a title that had at times seemed to be edging out of reach.

“I feel as if, no it hasn’t [sunk in],” O’Neill said.

“If I’d no longer been at the football club, I think I would have more time to digest it and say, oh that was really great, surreal.

“It feels as if you’re just back in again, and so I probably haven’t got the time. Maybe the first league game at Celtic Park, maybe I’ll think about it then, but genuinely, no I don’t think it has really sunk in.”

The gruelling, draining nature of the job and title triumph left O’Neill unsure if he was open to taking the post full-time this summer. But the potential for regrets pushed him back into the dugout.

“It was strange in the sense that if I’d been asked about it a day after we’d done it, I don’t think I would have had the energy,” he said.

“And I suppose deep down really, if I felt okay by maybe late July, August or September time and things had moved on without me, then you think, oh gosh, maybe I would like to have stayed on.

“So I tried to project myself a couple of months further forward.”

The Champions League incentive also played a part. Celtic’s play-off tie is looming large – the first leg takes place on 18 or 19 August – and O’Neill is well versed in the competition’s importance to the club.

Celtic, then under Brendan Rodgers, suffered a calamitous qualifying exit to Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty last summer to set the tone for their turbulent season.

“Absolutely vital,” O’Neill said of reaching the league phase.

“If we’re going to do it, first of all, we’re talking about trying to augment the squad. Secondly, it’s getting players prepared both physically and mentally for those games, and that becomes very, very important.

“The disappointment of last season, not making it into the Champions League because of having a good run the previous year, I think that carried over to league performances. Malaise is far too strong a word but disappointment and concern about everything and as a consequence I think we fell down a little bit but we raised it at the end.

“Now this tie that we will be in, whoever it may be, becomes very important.”

Celtic have announced that Shaun Maloney, Mark Fotheringham and Stephen McManus will continue to work under manager Martin O’Neill next season.

O’Neill’s return on a permanent basis was confirmed on 11 June, with the 75-year-old agreeing a one-year contract with the option for a further year.

Maloney and McManus stepped up from other roles within the club to assist O’Neill during his two interim stints last term, while former Huddersfield Town boss Fotheringham was added to the group.

Coach Gavin Strachan has recently departed for a post at West Bromwich Albion.

Having replaced Brendan Rodgers, then Wilfried Nancy, O’Neill, who first managed the club between 2000-05, steered Celtic to a league and Scottish Cup double.

“Everybody at the club played their part in our achievements last season and we now look ahead as again we strive together to bring our supporters more success,” said O’Neill in a brief statement.