Brendan Rodgers has vowed that Celtic will be stronger come the end of the transfer window this evening, with the club closing in on deals for defender Auston Trusty and midfielder Arne Engels.
The club are also believed to have launched a late bid to add Dundee midfielder Luke McCowan to add depth to their squad as they look to navigate the challenges of competing both on the domestic front and in the newly expanded Champions League.
Celtic raked in £26m from the sale of Matt O'Riley to Brighton during this window, but Rodgers is hoping that the club can reinvest some of that money in what remains of the day so that they emerge from the summer window stronger than they went in.
“We're in a really good place in terms of that and we hope by the close of the market this evening," Rodgers said.
"We'll have a number signed and sealed and making our squad stronger. I think that's always the goal.
“I've said that we want to make the team and squad stronger and hopefully we can close the market and that is the case.
“That is certainly that's the aim. I think we don't want to just regenerate the squad, we want to improve the squad. And I believe that come the end that will be the case.
“There's been a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes and of course things sometimes don't happen until later on, either through availability or a club not wanting to sell a player.
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“But there's been a lot of movement in the last four or five days. The club have been great in terms of trying to push these deals through.
“I think quality always takes a little bit of time. But yes, I think we wanted to improve, I think that was the key. As I said, I don't want to take away the guys that have been here, they've been brilliant for me in this opening [part of the] season.
“But we want to continue to progress and that's absolutely key for us. I think the players that we've identified, I think the players that we've brought in until this point will really supplement the squad and have been great for us.
"And if we can add a number before the end of the evening, then we'll be in a really, really good place."
Should Celtic indeed land both Engels and Trusty, Rodgers says they may well thrown into the derby clash against Rangers for their debuts.
“Yes, they could be," he said.
“I think a number of the players that we're looking at have been playing [and are] up to speed.
“We always do an MOT on a player when he comes in, just to see where they're at anyway. But most of the players that we're looking at will be in a good place.”
