Europe holds key to O'Neill building on Celtic squad
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Your support makes all the difference.Martin O'Neill admitted yesterday that he would still like to add to his title-winning squad as long as there is the money available at Parkhead.
The Celtic manager has been shrewd in the transfer market over the summer, paying out just over £4m to sign David Fernandez, Ulrik Laursen and Magnus Hedman. However, he is still looking to strengthen his squad especially, if they make it through to the Champions' League group stages, although that depends on whether the board are ready to provide the necessary funds.
"I would be looking to strengthen the squad," the former Leicester City manager said. "I haven't spent a fortune. If that was the case I would obviously say that was the end, but if we want to progress in the Champions' League proper and build on last season then I would say that we would still need to strengthen and I will try and do that."
The Scottish champions must first negotiate a tricky qualifying match against the Swiss team Basle if they are to make it through to the first group stages. "They are no mugs," the Celtic striker Chris Sutton said. "It's going to be a tough qualifier to get through.
"It's important not just for Celtic [as a club] to get through, but for everybody to progress to the group stages. Every player wants play on the big stage. It's going to a big boost financially for the club, but we all want to play at that level."
Celtic play Aberdeen in the Scottish Premier League at Pittodrie today and O'Neill admits that Ebbe Skovdahl's men often reserve their best form for Celtic and as a result he is expecting another tough match in the north of Scotland.
"It's going to be a hard game for us because Aberdeen are one of those tricky games for us," O'Neill said. "Their players keep improving each year and have done over the last two seasons."
Celtic will again be without Didier Agathe, John Hartson and Alan Thompson, although all three men are making good progress from groin, knee and ankle injuries respectively. Aberdeen have slight injury doubts over two players: Derek Young has an ankle problem and Ben Thornley a calf injury.
Rangers, who host Dundee at Ibrox, have rested the winger Neil McCann and ruled out the midfielder Christian Nerlinger, who is still lacking match fitness. The Dutch playmaker Ronald de Boer, who came off early at Kilmarnock last week with a calf problem, is back in contention.
Meanwhile, the SPL has agreed to bring Celtic's Premier League match against Partick Thistle forward by 24 hours. After a personal plea by Celtic's chief executive Ian McLeod, the SPL and BBC Scotland have agreed to move the fixture from Sunday 25 August to Saturday 24 August at 12.30pm.
BBC Scotland has secured live action for Celtic's Champions' League qualifying tie with Basel on Wednesday. The BBC has also reached an agreement with the SPL to enable it to broadcast live radio coverage of today's top-flight fixtures and tomorrow's Edinburgh derby.
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