Ange Postecoglou admits his capture of Tomoki Iwata has been a year in the waiting as he revealed he's had 'no contact' from clubs over his Celtic stars.
The Hoops boss snapped up his third signing ahead of the January transfer window in the shape of the midfielder from former club Yokohama F. Marinos. He's arrived on loan with the deal made permanent in the summer - a similar approach with Daizen Maeda last year. Partly the signature of the latter played a role in not moving for Iwata last year as the 57-year-old admitted he didn't want to go there again 'out of respect' for his old club.
But he's got his man now as he joins Alistair Johnston and Yuki Kobayashi in putting pen to paper ahead of the second half of the season. Outgoings wise, there has been major talk over the future of Josip Juranovic with top clubs like Chelsea and Barcelona mentioned while there has been reported interest in the likes of Giorgos Giakoumakis and Stephen Welsh.
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However, Postecoglou admits nothing has landed at Celtic's door over any of his top stars as he also provided an update on Greg Taylor ahead of the Old Firm showdown with Rangers.
He told Sky Sports: "Really pleased to get him [Iwata] in. He is somebody I know very well and I actually brought him to Yokohama. To be fair he was probably one of the ones I wanted to bring in last year but we had already taken Daizen Maeda and being my old club I had a respect more than anything else that I didn't want to go there again.
"But he made the decision he was going to leave this year. He is a really good footballer and can play a couple of different positions for us. Really hard worker at training and someone who will add quality not just to the starting XI but to the squad."
Asked about interest in his players, he added: "No contact. If it does happen then we will deal with it.
"From our perspective having already brought three players in we are comfortable with the situation we are in. If the do come for the players we will access each situation individually and see what the benefits are for us, the player and the club but the key thing for me is we don't need to be too stressed about what could potentially be incoming as we have kind of already done our business."
On Taylor and his fitness ahead of Rangers, he added: "He's fine. He will train this morning. Still got a training session tomorrow as well."
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