Celtic are understood to be on the verge of securing a deal for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – and are keen to finalise the agreement within the next 24 hours to ensure he can be registered for their upcoming Europa League squad. The unattached midfielder has attracted strong interest from Parkhead as he searches for his next destination, and there was no requirement for Celtic to expedite matters before the transfer deadline given that free agents can be registered at any point.
The Herald reports that discussions between the club and the player have progressed, with an agreement ‘moving closer’ that could see him immediately join O’Neill’s squad for the Scottish Cup fixture against Dundee at the weekend. It’s suggested that the matter is a top priority for O’Neill, who is eager to complete the deal on Thursday so that Oxlade-Chamberlain can be included in the European squad to face Stuttgart.
The deadline for that is Thursday evening – a fortnight before the first leg at Parkhead on February 19. He would become Celtic’s sixth winter acquisition following the deadline day captures of Joel Mvuka, Junior Adamu and Benjamin Arthur, which came after the earlier additions of Julian Araujo and Tomas Cvancara.
O’Neill was candid about discussions with Oxlade-Chamberlain during a Sky Sports interview on Wednesday, prior to their match against Aberdeen being called off due to a waterlogged pitch. He revealed to Chris Sutton during the conversation: “We were speaking to Oxlade-Chamberlain.
“I think he’s working down on his training at Arsenal at this moment. Arsenal may even offer him a contract, I think that that’s the case. I was astonished that it hadn’t been picked up.
“I know it, he was talking about the difficulties out in Turkey. But someone of that sort of experience would have been, would have been great.
“It may still happen because he’s out of contract, he will have a number of options probably closer to home. But if that materialised, that would give us something.”