Celtic sign bargain £4m Bundesliga striker and £8m gem according to bold January transfer window prediction
Brendan Rodgers’ Bhoys must improve in the Scottish Premiership and the Europa League
Celtic aren’t languishing in 11th in the Scottish Premiership like their bitter rivals, but they’re had precious little to celebrate so far in the 2025/26 season.
A draw in the Old Firm at Ibrox represents 25% of Rangers’ points tally five games into the season while Hearts are level on points with Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premiership, and after last season’s European heroics, a 1-1 Europa League draw with Crvena Zvezda hasn’t exactly got the blood pumping.
Celtic have rallied since the humiliation of their Champions League qualifying defeat to minnows Kairat Almaty, spearheaded by the addition of four new players since the fateful second leg penalty shootout, timing which frustrated Celtic fans even more.
"We need to improve the squad," boss Brendan Rodgers said after the first leg against the Kazakh champions. "There's been clarity around that for a long time. Supporters see that. Hopefully between now and the end of the season, the club will get that and that will support us.
"It's not my decision in the end. I can prepare the players that are here. We are clear on where we need to improve, and for whatever reason we haven't been able to. There's only so many ways that I can dress up that we don't have the players here. It was pretty clear. You don't need to look into the future too far.”
Immediately after they’d been dumped out of Europe’s premier competition, in came Kelechi Iheanacho, Sebastian Tounekti, Marcelo Saracchi and Michel-Ange Balikwisha, who’ve already combined for 599 minutes in less than a month. But with more reinforcements needed, what will the January transfer window look like? We asked Grok for a prediction.
Familiar face among January influx
Jonas Wind - £4m from Wolfsburg: The 26-year-old Dane has scored 20 Bundesliga goals over the past two seasons but seems to have fallen out of favour, and hasn’t started a match for Wolfsburg this season while his contract winds down. Available for free in a year, the AI estimation is that Wind would be worth around £4m and that his current employers would be happy to sell. Which a strong pedigree from a ‘big five’ league and plenty of international experience, Wind would be a pretty exciting signing on paper.
Josh Brownhill - £8m from Al Shabab: If this prediction does come true, Brownhill would continue the fine tradition started by Jordan Henderson of English midfielders leaving clubs from the north west, sticking it out in Saudi for less than six months and then returning to a ‘foreign’ league.
Surely the only former Preston North End player to have been signed to the Middle East, Brownhill notched 24 goal contributions for Burnley last season, played 33 games in their last season in the Premier League and aged 29 is simply too good to waste away in Saudi Arabia - if Celtic can convince him to take a wage cut.
Jeffrey Schlupp - £3m from Norwich City: Grok helpfully predicted Iheanacho to sign with Celtic in January, but it served up another more useful one of Rodgers’ former charges here.
Schlupp linked up with Celtic on loan in 2025 and joined Norwich on a free in the summer after picking up a Scottish Premiership winners medal to add to his Premier League necklace. Could he and Kasper Schmeichel team up a third time?
Club legend Forrest departs for Italy
James Forrest - £1m to Juventus: This would be a pretty strange one wouldn’t it? One-club man Forrest’s Celtic contract is set to come to an end and while it’s understandable that he may want to test himself on the continent - former Bhoy Roy Keane has expressed regret that he turned down an opportunity to play for the Old Lady. However, it doesn’t make much sense why Forrest would choose to make that switch mid-season with six months left on his deal.
Ben Summers - £1m to Sunderland: Grok previously predicted Crystal Palace to sign Chris Rigg from Sunderland, and in our 3AM Cinematic Universe the Black Cats immediately bring in a replacement to develop. Summers hasn’t really broken through from Celtic B yet but the talent is certainly there to replicate Riggs’ potential impact on Wearside.
AI-predicted 2026 Celtic starting XI: Grok parachutes two of the signings straight into the starting lineup, selecting this 4-3-3: Schmeichel, Johnstone, Carter-Vickers, Scales, Valle, McGegor, Engels, Brownhill, Kuhn, Wind, Maeda.