Martin O'Neill has revealed that signing a new left-back is Celtic's top transfer priority as the Hoops boss admits he is still coming to terms with Tuesday night's Champions League collapse against Linz.
The Scottish champions surrendered a 4-0 aggregate lead and tumbled into the Europa League, where Friday's draw handed them clashes with Benfica, Marseille, Ferencvaros, Union Saint-Gilloise, Celtia Viga, Omonia and Torreense.
Left-back cover and Engels replacement wanted
The club are in talks with PSV over midfielder Joel Van den Berg, but O'Neill is desperate to land cover for Kieran Tierney on the left hand side of defence, as well as a proper replacement for Arne Engels.
"We would need a few in, obviously, to supplement the squad," he said. "You would be definitely looking for a left-back for Kieran Tierney.
"With the greatest respect, Kieran won't play all the games at the end of the day.
"You'd probably need a strong replacement for Arne Engels, a box-to-box midfield player. We just would need strengthening and that's what we're going to try and do.
"I honestly think that is the club's aim. We've brought in a couple of players who I think will do really fine for us.
"I'm hoping that there's an opportunity before the transfer deadline to make the squad stronger and better. And to compete in European football, you need that."
Euro hangover and Falkirk focus
O'Neill is trying to shift the Euro hangover ahead of today's Premiership clash with Falkirk, with Callum McGregor struggling with illness.
He said: "I probably still haven't got over the game on Tuesday night, but the draw is something to look forward to, I must admit. There are some really good games there.
"I've got the list here in my pocket. I saw Benfica and never read any further!
"It's not the day for fun and games. Really disappointing, Tuesday night. We've had a little talk about it and you have to recover pretty quickly.
"You have to concentrate now, seriously, it's coming very, very quickly. The Falkirk game is right upon us and we need to really focus on it."
McGregor missed training on Friday but O'Neill added: "I'm hoping he's going to be okay. I don't know whether Auston Trusty passed that on to him in the last couple of days or not. And Callum never misses a training session.
"We've got a couple of boys with a few knocks and things like that but it's as much psychological as physical, I think, for us to get through."
