TalkCeltic - The Ultimate Celtic FC Forum

CELTIC have opened talks with Czech international Jiri Jarosik.
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Celtic has also had an offer for Dundee's 17-year-old starlet midfielder, Kevin McDonald rejected. The £75,000 bid, which could have risen to £125,000, was considered by the First Divison clubs board was said to be quickly rejected. McDonald, who has two years left on his current contract, made 33 appearances for Dundee this season. A Dundee source said: "The offer was swiftly rejected. If they want to offer a million pounds, that's fine. They started it, not us." It looks like Strachan and Lawell have a busy time ahead of them as they look to strengthen the squad in order to retain the SPL title and put up a challenge in the Champions League.

However, Celtic could be heading into the new campaign without the services of John Hartson, Neil Lennon, Roy Keane and Stillian Petrov, while the players Mo Camera, Stan Varga, Adam Virgo and Alan Thompson are expected to leave Celtic in the near future with Dion Dublin having already left the club. This...

As the World Cup looms imminently, Gordon Strachan’s plan of completing his business in the transfer market before it began has not come to fruition. However, the double winning manager however has already recruited former Hibs captain Gary Caldwell and his team mate Derek Riordan, along with Scottish International striker Kenny Miller all on free transfers for the upcoming season.

Gary Caldwell was officially unveiled as a Celtic player on the 1st of June after signing a pre-contract agreement in January on a three year contract. The 24 year old is Celtic through and through and couldn’t hide his delight after being given the No.5 Hoops jersey. The Scottish internationalist said, “It’s been a long time coming. I’ve wanted to play here all my life, I followed Celtic as a kid and to play for the team I supported is a dream come true for me. I’ve been brought up to play the ‘Celtic Way’ my whole life, and that is to pass the ball and play good...

The Champions ended a double winning season with a draw against Aberdeen at Pitoddrie. Strachan rotated his team to give fringe players like Marshall, Camara, Thompson, Lawson and Pearson a run out and Virgo made a rare appearance from the bench.

Celtic made the perfect start when Alan Thompson's free-kick from the left was only partially cleared to the edge of the box where Aiden McGeady met it powerfully, only for the ball to come back off the crossbar. But Hartson was in the right place at the right time and was left with the simple task to head into the net from 10 yards out.

Darren Mackie tried to reply for Aberdeen, and after neatly turning Stephen McManus he could only drag his shot wide of the far post.

Clear-cut chances were few and far between as the game struggled to get any fluency into it, but in the 34th minute, Andrew Considine just failed to connect properly with a Barry Nicholson free-kick from the left as Aberdeen pushed for an equaliser.

David Marshall...

Hearts took a massive step towards clinching second place in the SPL and a shot at the Champions League qualifiers as they comprehensively beat champions Celtic. A victory for Hearts against Aberdeen will guarantee them that opportunity rendering their clash at Ibrox on the last day meaningless.

The result could have been so different had McManus taken a glorious chance inside the first two minutes, but his shot was straight at Craig Gordon despite finding himself totally unmarked just seven yards out. Having failed to find the net at one end, McManus succeeded at the other end just five minutes later. After conceeding a soft free-kick, Hartley whipped in a free kick from the left and the ball spun off the head of the Celtic defender, past the helpless Boruc. It was a needless header as he was under no pressure and from a Celtic perspective, was a very dissapointing goal to conceed.

However, Celtic were to be even more dissapointed shortly afterwards. Hartley was given...