The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Quiet summer suits Kennedy
Celtic Coach content with squad for Champions League qualifiers
Celtic coach John Kennedy believes a quiet summer in the transfer market can help his side when they begin their Champions League qualifying campaign against Stjarnan of Iceland.
Celtic have been drawn against the Icelandic champions – who knocked Motherwell out of last season’s Europa League qualifiers – in the second qualifying round with the first leg scheduled to take place at Parkhead on July 14-15.
Ronny Deila saw his side despatch another Icelandic side, KR Reykjavik, 5-0 on aggregate in his first matches as manager last summer but then suffered knockouts against both Legia Warsaw and Maribor, after the Poles were punished for an administrative error.
Deila brought in a number of players last summer, many of them loan signings who failed to make a major contribution, including Aleksander Tonev, Jo Inge Berget and Mubarak Wakaso.
This summer, only Dedryck Boyata has come in so far to replace his former Manchester City team-mate Jason Denayer and Kennedy will be content if it stays that way.
“If we are going to add anybody, they need to be better than what we already have,” the former Celtic defender said. “If they are not, then there is no point adding numbers. If one or two come along, great and if not then we have a squad that’s good enough to go and compete.
“We are very content with what we have. We have brought in Boyata, who will be a very good signing for us, and the two boys from Dundee United (Stuart Armstrong and Gary Mackay-Steven) were bought in specifically for this season.
“We were lucky enough to get them in January which gave us a little boost for the second half of the season, but they were bought for this season.
“So that’s three signings and you don’t want to make too many changes, you want to make sure you are consistent. When you make multiple changes, it’s like going back to the start.”
Kennedy, who was promoted to working with the first team when Deila arrived, will try to tap into the knowledge of Motherwell, including recently-departed Rangers boss Stuart McCall, who was in charge when the Steelmen went down 5-4 on aggregate to the part-timers after an extra-time loss on the artificial pitch in Iceland.
Kennedy said: “Yeah, why not? He has experienced playing against them and there’s no reason why we can’t ask the question.
“We will do our homework and that will be the first stop, we will make sure we tap into the knowledge of players or management of teams who have played against them before.”
Kennedy also insisted Celtic had not made a move for Hibs midfielder Scott Allan amid reports that the former Dundee United player was a target.