Celtic have 'awful lot of work' to do before LASK tie

The click is ticking towards Celtic's most important games of the season. The first leg of the Champions League play-off against LASK takes place at Parkhead on 19 August and the squad is in urgent need of reinforcements, with strikers Camilo Duran and Kasper Hogh the only new arrivals this summer. Paulo Bernardo's loan exit on Tuesday night was the 17th departure from the first-team squad, while Arne Engels and Alistair Johnston are being pursued by West Ham and Everton respectively. Stephen McGowan, football writer for The Herald, is expecting Celtic to spend big this summer but when will those deals be done? "The message from Martin O'Neill l is quality over quantity," McGowan told the BBC's Scottish Football Podcast . "I think that's fair enough. I think that's what people want to see to give them have a chance of succeeding in Europe. "I think they will spend a pretty substantial amount of money for a Scottish club at end of this window. I think it'll be in excess of £40m, they bring most of that in in terms of players they are selling. "But the frustration for supporters is how long it seems to drag on because you're looking at a Champions League play-off, the first leg is two weeks away and you're going to have to bring in a right winger, probably two midfielders, a right-back, they still want a goalkeeper, they don't really have a back-up left-back. "I just think it's an awful lot of work to give yourself to do in a relatively short space of time ahead of what is going to be arguably the two most important games of the season."