The summer of 2026 tested Celtic‘s recruitment department like few windows have before. By late August, what started as an organised, well-funded rebuilding project had turned into a scramble against the clock. Six players walked through the door in a single 48-hour block before the European registration deadline. That’s not a plan. That’s crisis management executed at speed, and somehow, it worked.
Celtic Transfer Window Review: Six signings, one frantic week, and a squad that looks nothing like it did in May
Start with the headline business. Celtic broke their club transfer record in June, paying £11 million to Norwegian side Bodø/Glimt for Danish striker Kasper Høgh. The fee raised expectations across the fanbase. If the board was willing to spend that kind of money up front, the rest of the window should follow suit. It didn’t, at least not for a while.
The middle stretch of the summer was brutal. West Ham United came in with £22 million for Arne Engels, and Celtic took it. You can see why. Engels was excellent, genuinely one of the better midfielders in Scottish football, and that fee represented serious profit on a player signed from Augsburg. Burnley then moved for Reo Hatate on a permanent deal, while Ipswich Town secured Daizen Maeda. Three influential figures gone. The midfield stripped bare.
The Gineitis situation made it worse. Celtic chased Torino’s Lithuanian international Gvidas Gineitis across the whole of August, only for the deal to collapse in the final hours because Torino wouldn’t budge from a valuation north of £10 million. The timing couldn’t have been worse. Celtic had already dropped into the Europa League group stages following a Champions League qualifying exit, and a squad light in the middle of the park now faced a tough continental schedule with a gaping hole at its core.
Midfield reconstruction and the Celtic transfer window review of loan deals
Joël van den Berg arrived from PSV Eindhoven as a £3.5 million permanent signing. Nineteen years old, previously captained the Netherlands under-19 side, tall, technically capable. Celtic gave him a four-year contract, which tells you they see something long-term in him rather than treating him as a stopgap. Oliver Sørensen came in alongside him on a season-long loan from Parma, a Danish midfielder who brings a different profile; less physically imposing, more mobile and rhythmic in tight spaces. Between the two of them, O’Neill now has some options in an area of the pitch that looked completely bare two weeks earlier.
The business didn’t stop there. Alistair Johnston picked up an ankle injury that’s expected to keep him out until late October, which left Celtic short at right-back. Jordan Lotomba fixed that problem immediately. The 27-year-old Swiss international arrived on a season-long loan from Feyenoord, brings experience at a decent European level, and can push forward without completely abandoning his defensive responsibilities. Celtic needed exactly that kind of balance given how much they ask from their full-backs in this system.
Landon Emenalo, 18 years old and on loan from Chelsea, fills in at left-back but needs a few weeks of fitness work before he’s available. Youth, but with pedigree. Chelsea don’t hand out contracts to players they don’t believe in.
Goalkeeper sorted, attacking options added
Kasper Schmeichel retired after a distinguished career that took in some serious peaks. His departure left a gap in experience and presence inside the penalty area. Rather than promote from within and hope for the best, Celtic moved for Sam Johnstone, a 33-year-old former England international currently at Wolverhampton Wanderers, on a season-long loan agreement.
Johnstone may not be pulling up trees week to week in the Premier League at this stage of his career, but he brings exactly the kind of authoritative, organising presence a squad full of teenagers and loanees desperately needs. His debut in a 3-0 Premiership victory over Aberdeen at Parkhead was composed throughout, and the back four clearly responded to having someone behind them who communicates clearly.
Shumaira Mheuka is the loan deal that got supporters most excited. The 18-year-old Chelsea striker signed a contract extension with the London club until 2033 before heading north, which says everything about how Xabi Alonso’s setup views his long-term future. A debut cameo off the bench against Aberdeen drew genuine enthusiasm from the Celtic Park crowd. He’s raw, he’s quick, and he’ll get better with game time.
The departures picture and what it means
Luis Palma left for Lech Poznań for £3.5 million. Johnny Kenny moved to Preston North End for £3 million. Added to the Engels windfall, Celtic generated close to £28.5 million in outgoings across the summer. Reinvestment came to roughly £14.5 million on permanent deals. Høgh, van den Berg, plus the earlier arrivals of Colombian forward Camilo Durán, French winger Haïssem Hassan, and German midfielder Mika Baur, all of whom came through the door before the window’s chaotic final stretch.
That’s a significant net surplus. It keeps the books balanced, keeps the board comfortable, and gives the manager working capital for January if the injury list grows or a loan deal collapses.
Celtic Transfer Window Review: The verdict as of September 2026
Five loan deals in one window create dependencies. If Johnstone picks up an injury, or Lotomba returns to Feyenoord having underperformed, the holes reappear. That’s the inherent risk when you build a squad with borrowed players. The Europa League group stage places demands on squad depth that the Scottish Premiership simply doesn’t replicate. O’Neill’s side can win the league title playing this squad at 60%. Europe requires everyone available, fit, and functioning.
Read: Celtic’s €9M bid for the 23-year-old Serie B sensation with 15 goals
What Martin O’Neill did in those final 48 hours of the window was stop the bleeding. Six signings to patch a squad that had been systematically dismantled across the summer. Some will work. One or two might not. That’s the reality of deadline-day recruitment. It’s rarely clean, and it’s never entirely what the manager originally had in mind.
