Deila refuses to rule out loan deals

In December, the optimism in Ronny Deila’s voice as he said there has to be an option to buy if there are any loan moves has faded.

Now, the Norwegian has seemingly surrendered that hope of a permanent move after any loan spell with the latest players involved.

After two weeks of rumours and links, Celtic shocked everyone when news broke that Erik Sviatchenko was having a medical in Glasgow ahead of a proposed move.

The deal was wrapped up just over 24-hours later as the Danish international put pen to paper on a four-and-a-half-year deal.

Fans were delighted to see money being spent on quality that can still develop and become a key player for Celtic.

However now it seems like all other options have been exhausted and the backup plan is in full swing – loans moves.

In the past year they have proven to be fairly effective, with Jason Denayer and John Guidetti coming in – but neither had any option to make the move permanent.

As quoted by the Glasgow Evening Times, Deila spoke about those loan moves and said:

I learned a lot last season. We played some excellent football in the second-half of the season and we were looking very good but then we lost Virgil Van Dijk and Jason Denayer finished his loan spell.

It meant that there was a lot of work to do there. It would be better if we know that we are going into those summer qualifying games with more or less the same squad and then we know each other and where we are.

But, of course, that is an ideal. Football is not always so straight as that.

I wouldn’t rule out a loan deal because you never know what might happen, but it would be fair to say that we would hopefully be looking at it becoming a permanent move.

Celtic have been linked with various players including two Manchester City youngsters Bersant Celina and Patrick Roberts.

The latter is supposedly set to complete a six-month loan move but the Hoops want him for 18-months.

With a view to buy Roberts very unlikely as he only singed for City from Fulham in the summer for £12 million, it seems like Celtic are taking the easy option again and failing to prepare for the Champions League.

Who knows what will happen in the next week, and by the time the window closes, let’s hope we are all pleasantly surprised and confident going forward.