Celtic sign £14m midfield gem and Chelsea star in bold January transfer window prediction

Celtic have reached a major crossroads – as we barrel into the winter, the Bhoys are searching for a new head coach, struggling for goals and trailing Hearts in the race for the Scottish Premiership title. The decisions they make over the coming months will likely define their season.

The appointment of their new manager will be the most important choice they make, but their work in the January transfer window will make a massive difference, too. This is a club that sold three of their best attacking players over the summer without adequately replacing them (to Brendan Rodgers’ vocal disapproval), and which may need reinforcements in other departments as well. So who will they target as they look to bridge the gap to Hearts and to build a squad that suits their new managers’ methods?

To build a picture of their forthcoming transfer business, we made use of the best simulation of the game available to us – Football Manager 2026, which released this week. We spun through to the end of the season to see what signings Celtic made, who was sold, and whether it solved any of their problems. Will FM26 prove to be accurate? We’ll find out…

Irish international Chelsea star among Celtic signings – according to Football Manager 2026

Jason Knight - £14m from Bristol City: Given the urgent need for attacking reinforcements, it’s somewhat surprising to see that the single biggest splash came in midfield, in the shape of Republic of Ireland international Knight. He didn’t make much of an impression, sadly, and by the end of the season had been relegated to a fringe player. Oh dear.

Sandi Lovrić - £2.1m from Udinese: Another box-to-box midfielder along similar lines to Knight, Lovrić is another experience international and another flop – he, too, wound up as a back-up after failing to break into the starting line-up.

Marlon Gomes – loan from Shakhtar Donetsk: Would you believe it? Another central midfielder. Gomes was only borrowed but turned out to be the best of the lot, and made regular starts as he helped Celtic battle their to way to a virtual title. They may have wasted money elsewhere, but this was a shrewd deal at least.

Lautaro Fedele – free from Atlanta United: Finally, a forward. Fedele doesn’t look like a starting-level player and the manager agreed, with the Argentine making just one appearance for the club. At least it was only a free transfer.

Kauã Elias – loan from Shakhtar Donetsk: Finally, an attacking player and one who actually made a difference. The young Brazilian scored six goals in 15 games before heading back to his parent club. For some reason, Celtic declined to sign him permanently.

Tosin Adarabioyo - £6.5m from Chelsea: You can’t accuse our virtual Celtic of being stingy. Given that Adarabioyo is getting minutes for Chelsea in real life, something that wasn’t happening in the game, we can write this one off as fiction.

Joel Ordóñez - £7m from Club Brugge: If this happens next February, as the game predicts, then Celtic will have pulled off a significant coup. Ecuador international Ordóñez is one of the rising defensive stars of the game, a massive presence at centre-half and is supposedly being monitored by a host of big sides.

£17m sale gives Celtic spending money in FM26

Arne Engels - £17m to RB Leipzig: If you were wondering where Celtic got all that money from and why they were signing so many midfielders, here’s the answer – Leipzig swooped in with a hefty fee to take Engels off the Bhoys’ hands, creating the void so poorly filled by Knight and Lovrić. A fair price, with the proceeds seemingly spent quite poorly.

Anthony Ralston - £250k to Hibernian: Hard to imagine this one in real life given that Ralston is the first-choice right-back so far this season, but perhaps the game still sees him as the rotational option he was in recent real-life seasons.

Michel-Ange Balikwisha – loan to buy for £4.8m to Olympiacos: The summer signing never established himself at Celtic Park in our game and lasted just a few months before he was packed off to Greece. At least it looks as though they got their money back, but whether getting rid of another attacking player mid-season really made sense is, shall we say, open for debate. Still, they won the league in the game, so what do we know?