Mika Baur signs for Celtic as O’Neill’s exciting new-look side takes shape
Mika Baur has completed his Celtic move as Martin O’Neill’s new-look squad continues to take shape ahead of an exciting season.
Phillip Cooney 
Mika Baur is a Celtic player – and suddenly this squad is beginning to look seriously exciting.
After weeks of negotiations, delays and frustration, Celtic have finally completed the signing of the highly-rated German midfielder from Paderborn.
Baur arrives as a Germany Under-21 international following an excellent campaign in Germany. He produced four goals and six assists across 36 appearances as Paderborn won promotion to the Bundesliga.
At just 22, there should be plenty more development to come.
Mika Baur gives Celtic another exciting option
What makes this particularly interesting is Baur’s versatility.
He can operate centrally, further forward or from wider areas. That gives Martin O’Neill another technically gifted and energetic player who can fit into different systems.
More importantly, look at how the Celtic squad is beginning to take shape.
Haissem Hassan has arrived to provide another attacking option. Kasper Høgh gives Celtic a new focal point through the middle, while Camilo Durán has already shown glimpses of what he can bring.
Add Baur into that mixture and there is suddenly a very different feeling around this team.
Then remember Jota is working his way back.
There is pace, creativity, youth and genuine competition beginning to appear throughout the attacking areas.
Mika Baur signing adds to Celtic excitement
This is exactly what Celtic should be doing.
Nobody needs to start handing out medals to the board for spending money that was already available. Recruitment is their job, while strengthening the squad should never have taken this long.
However, supporters can still be excited about the players arriving.
Baur looks like another signing with genuine potential rather than simply another body added to the squad.
O’Neill is beginning to assemble a side with different attacking weapons and plenty of room to improve.
For the first time in a while, I’m looking at this Celtic squad and genuinely feeling excited about the season ahead.
Hopefully, Celtic are not finished yet.
Another couple of quality additions would transform the picture even further. If they follow Baur and Hassan through the door, this could become a very exciting Celtic team indeed.
We have to make sure the backdoor remains shut (Sugir/Emenalo/Taylor?) along with a GK waiting to take on Sinisalo for the jersey
Credit where it’s due, but what kicked them on? Fans “not another penny” or did MON threaten to walk away?
Will this be our MO in future windows? I seriously doubt it, but if we can reach and make a dent in this year’s CL who knows how they would see it, I imagine when the UEFA cash comes into our bank it just maybe their back to school thinking.
Under serious pressure from all directions of our supporter organisations ( and rightly so) The Celtic are finally back!…i hope this is the start of a new direction from the club in signing real quality players and not just taking punts on unknown and inexperienced players from all over the place and just crossing fingers and hoping they can make it in the first team, it has been scatter gun and desperate looking for a few years now.I am starting to feel really excited for the season ahead by how the recruitment has gone down this last 2 weeks long may it continue, though there is still plenty of work (serious work) to be done in and around the boardroom but for the moment I can’t wait for the next game I always feel like that but this time it’s feeling we could really do something in Europe here’s hoping COYBIG HH
Those SMSM scoops will be bricking it now that the Celtic board has opened the new recruitment floodgates ? I wonder how they will play the negativity cards with Celtic looking like a seriously well stocked team full of talent ..at last ? And that’s not the last of the new guys either . McInnes will be begging for more new recruits after tonight’s game and Inaction over at the daily Record will be whistling into empty Blue Nun bottles after tanning the contents ? It looks like for every £5 theRangers spend … Celtic FC spends £50 ! Now that’s a bullseye !
Hogh and Duran both look like serious additions to our squad and should improve our chances of getting into the CL.
Hopefully Baur and Hassan do the same.
Not getting ahead of myself here as far as the Lask game goes. Haven’t seen them but we all know what happened last year against a so-called lesser side. However after only two games into this season I’m more confident particularly given what was on display against an albeit poor Kilmarnock. Our appetite in that game was only better in recent times on that glorious day against those bottlers from Edinburgh.
We’ll never know if these signings are due to fan pressure but if that’s what it took then fair play to all those who have boycotted ridiculous pre-season friendlies that should have cost less at best and should really be included on an already-expensive season ticket.
Fair play to all those who have boycotted merchandise, again, if that’s what it took.
Fair play to all those fans who have not kept quiet and have voiced serious concerns about how our club has been run by those in the suits. Hopefully those fans will feel as though they’re getting some reward now for all that needless grief should the board have done what it should have been doing.
On that last note, credit where it’s due. The board has rightly taken pelters over recent times and so to loosen the purse strings and bring in some badly-needed quality is greatly welcomed.
Here’s hoping this is a sign of how things will be going forward and Celtic will soon be back to playing exciting football the Celtic way on a regular basis with hopefully the right amount of quality to at least challenge in the CL should we make it there.