Celtic continued to rack up the wins, even though the results are closer than they would like, with a 2-1 win over Livingston. That means that they restored their 9-point lead over the Rangers at the top of the table. But the upcoming January transfer window has worried the Hoops fans, with a number of key players being linked with moves away from Parkhead.
Of course, the most likely player to exit Celtic in the near future is Josip Juranovic, who had a stellar World Cup campaign with the Croatian national team and has surely caught the eye of some of the biggest clubs in Europe.
On top of that, Giorgos Giakoumakis is being linked with an exit as well, as there have been suggestions that he has failed to agree a new deal with the club. And rumours are never really far away from Matt O’Riley either.
All of them are key players for Celtic though and surely the club would not want to see them leave in the middle of the season, with three trophies still to play for. Ange Postecoglou has sent a clear transfer message though.
Postecoglou gives clear Celtic transfer message
Despite all the exit rumours, it looks like Celtic are yet to receive a single transfer offer for any of their players. As reported by the Daily Record, Postecoglou said:
"“All this speculation, let me tell you right now; we don’t have an offer for any player. People can talk about offers and clubs wanting them but I can’t spend my time chasing shadows or what’s in the press every morning, because I’d be spending my whole day talking to players.“As I keep saying to people, what I see is what’s before me every day here at training. If there’s an issue or players have things put in front of them about their future, I’m sure they’ll come and see me and Michael (Nicholson, CEO) will speak to their representatives.“But right now, there’s nothing. Zero. Zip. Nada. Nothing going on.”"
Of course, we are still more than a week away from the January transfer window opening and the situation could very well change after that.
It is pretty clear that Juranovic will be a man in demand after the World Cup that he had and the Hoops should expect big offers to come in for his transfer.
The club have already brought in a potential replacement for Juranovic though, in the form of Alistair Johnston, who had a decent World Cup himself while representing Canada.