O'Neill eyes 'couple of new faces' before Celtic season starts

Martin O'Neill insists Celtic are "making some progress" in introducing more new faces to his squad as he opened up on the failure to re-sign Kelechi Iheanacho and Marcelo Saracchi. The Scottish champions are again facing criticism from their own fans for their lack of summer transfer activity, with some suggesting it led to a poor attendance at Saturday's 1-1 pre-season friendly draw at home to Middlesbrough. Camilo Duran, the striker was bought from Qarabag, struck Celtic's equaliser after David Strelec, who had previously been linked with the Glasgow club, had given the Championship side the lead. The Colombian, who has now scored twice in pre-season, is Celtic's only summer addition so far, but O'Neill insisted: "We will bolster the squad. "We are making some progress. We'll hopefully see a couple of new faces by the time that we kick the season off." No panic, but Celtic not good enough yet - Lambert Who has your Premiership club brought in & let go this summer? Iheanacho rejects new Celtic deal as Saracchi gives up on return However, the Northern Irishman did not want to give any firm promises, citing the example of Iheanacho. Celtic wished to retain the Nigerian striker at the end of his one-year contract, but instead he signed this week for Bursaspor, who have only just been promoted to Turkey's second tier. "We thought we had a deal with Iheanacho and it didn't go," O'Neill said. "It was something we thought we had sorted out." Celtic chief executive Michael Nicholson revealed this week was proving "difficult" to add to their squad because they are competing with big-spending clubs in England's top two divisions. Reports suggested Bursaspor were able to offer the 29-year-old a higher salary, but O'Neill said: "There are two sides to every particular transfer as there is to every story. "I thought we had a deal with him at the time. but seemingly that wasn't the case and so he's gone to pastures new." O'Neill had also hoped to retain Saracchi after the 28-year-old left-back's loan spell from Boca Juniors. The Uruguayan posted on Instagram on Friday that he and his agent "did absolutely everything within our power to make a return to Glasgow happen". However, O'Neill added: Saracchi's done very well at the football club and there's circumstances which seemingly it was never going to happen." Celtic kick-off their season at home to Dundee in the Premiership on 3 August. Visit our Celtic page for all the latest news, analysis and fan views Get Celtic news notifications in the BBC Sport app