Celtic release pictures of first training session in Dubai

Celtic have released pictures from their first training session in Dubai where the club will be spending their winter break.

After their humiliating 2-1 defeat at home at the hands of the Rangers, Celtic have had a week to recharge their batteries and reflect on last Sunday’s performance. And now they are in Dubai, where they will spend their winter break getting ready for when the season resumes in mid-January with The Hoops taking on Partick Thistle in the Scottish Cup.

Celtic tweeted out pictures from the first training session today. And it is nice to see that Jozo Simunovic is back on the pitch after a long recovery period that has seen him miss almost all of this season. Scott Sinclair was also pictured but it is questionable whether he will still be at the club at the end of the month.

Celtic sent out this tweet earlier in the day:

Unfortunately, there are not any new faces that we can talk about as the club still have not managed to sign any new players in the January transfer window. But one can only hope that that will change soon. And after the list of names that Celtic have been linked with over the past few weeks, it will be a huge surprise if they do not end up signing any of them.

The club definitely need a new striker at the moment in order to provide some backup to Odsonne Edouard, who has had to carry the load of leading the attacking line on his shoulders for the first half of the season.

A new centre-back might also be a necessity. Although, Jullien and Ajer have formed a formidable partnership, there is not much depth beyond them and an injury to either of them could prove to be catastrophic. Nir Bitton is a makeshift defender and Jozo Simunovic’s continuous fitness troubles mean that he cannot be depended upon.

Thus, it will be interesting to see how long the board spend before loosening their purse strings and bringing some reinforcements to Parkhead.