Celtic brought in Nick Hammond to oversee their transfers last month.
Celtic have brought in their first two signings of the summer, landing defender Christopher Jullien and midfielder Luca Connell, but one big problem remains.
The contracts of right backs Mikael Lustig and Cristian Gamboa expired yesterday, meaning they’ve both left the club for free, leaving Anthony Ralston as the only recognised full back.
Ralston may not even play a role under Neil Lennon, so we may see two right backs heading to Parkhead, with a host of targets believed to be on the radar.
The Daily Record note that Celtic have made Luton Town’s Jack Stacey a key target, after seeing him hit four goals and eight assists in a superb attacking campaign last season.
The 23-year-old is an underrated talent, and it would be little surprise if it’s Celtic’s new transfer guru Nick Hammond driving the interest in Stacey’s signature.
Hammond was overseeing operations at Reading when Stacey was coming up through the ranks at the Madejski Stadium for 13 years, and Stacey was only sold a year after Hammond left the club.
Last summer, Hammond left West Brom, but just a couple of months later, the Baggies made a move for Stacey, which was rejected (Daily Mail). Hammond will have put in plenty of work in terms of finding summer targets for the Baggies, so it would be little surprise if he was the one who put Stacey on the West Brom radar.
Hammond will know all about Stacey from Reading and possibly from West Brom, so with Celtic’s interest suddenly being reported just after Hammond’s arrival at Parkhead, the Bhoys recruitment chief may well be the one driving the pursuit – and he may have found the solution to Lennon’s problems in the process.
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