SPL: O’Neill targeting four players

Celtic manager Martin O’Neill wants to make at least four summer signings to turn his squad into Champions League contenders.

While Hoops fans are still celebrating their treble-clinching Scottish Cup final victory over Hibernian, O’Neill has already turned his attentions to next season.

Celtic must negotiate their way through the third qualifying round to make it into the lucrative group stages of Europe’s Premier competition.

And as it is already known that the Scottish champions will not be seeded because their past record in Europe is not good enough, O’Neill has already made it clear he regards getting that far as an achievement in itself.

The former Leicester boss has already been linked with plenty of players, the majority of whom play abroad.

But while he insisted he was not yet on the verge of making a signing he also made it clear he had already decided on the number of required additions.

He said: ‘‘I will act as quickly as I can. I would be looking at bringing in an extra four players, net.

‘‘Some players might leave but numerically I would be looking at an extra four.’’

O’Neill has already shown faith in youngsters like Shaun Maloney, Jamie Smith, Stephen Crainey and Colin Healy but is not expecting them to be ready for a full-scale European campaign.

The Ulsterman admitted that if it came to a straight choice of retaining all the domestic trophies or getting through to the second group stages of the Champions League he would plump for the latter.

That is the benchmark for European teams of distinction and Celtic fans are desperate for success on the Continent, with the club having consistently failed to stay in any of the various UEFA competitions past Christmas since 1983.

But O’Neill also insisted he expected next year’s domestic battle to be far tighter as fallen champions Rangers regroup after licking their wounds.

He said: ‘‘I know Rangers will not take it lying down and I expect them to come roaring back next season. They have a lot of top-class players.’’

The Ibrox dressing room appears to be in a state of flux at the moment and Rangers manager Dick Advocaat seems destined to make as many summer purchases as O’Neill, if only to plug the gaps left by departing players.

The Dutchman had known nothing but success in Glasgow until O’Neill arrived on the scene to condemn him to the torments of a trophy-less season.

Plenty of criticism was soon directed his way and O’Neill joked that he feared the same could soon happen to him, forcing him to seek a new job at Maidenhead United.

He added: ‘‘He won five out of six and I’ve only got three. I have immense respect for Dick Advocaat as a manager and I know how difficult it is to win any competition.’’

Fortunately for O’Neill the only Celtic fan who has not been happy with the new manager’s contribution so far was one who had lost money at the bookies.

O’Neill said: ‘‘One supporter sent me a betting slip saying it cost him money when we lost against Dundee.

‘‘I felt like writing back and saying ‘‘well, we did win 31 other matches you know’’.