Camilo Duran on Celtic’s radar since April, says Martin O’Neill | OneFootball

Camilo Duran was on Celtic’s radar since April Martin O’Neill has said, in light of the former Qarabag forward’s record-breaking £5.5 million move to the Scottish Champions…

The Colombian has been snapped up by O’Neill, as he sets about repairing a squad that has been run into the ground in a variety of ways and in different areas too.

Such is the rebuilding job this summer, it appears that it will eclipse the overhaul Ange Postecoglou had to undertake during his tenure in the summer of 2021, when he first joined after the now infamous Covid-19 pandemic season.

That was no picnic and required well thought out and thorough scouting and business acumen to get the appropriate deals finished and over the line.

The manager needed the right profile of player at the time to help implement the style of play and the system he was going to use regularly at Celtic Park, just like O’Neill will require too, if he is to be successful again.

Camilo Duran, Celtic new summer signing at the club’s training camp in Portugal. Photo Celtic FC

Duran certainly fits with what Martin is looking for in terms of holding up the ball from his centre-forward, a key asset he admitted sold him on the idea of Duran when it was presented to him.

The Hoops gaffer has now claimed that Camilo was scouted way back in April of this year, with the club biding their time and then moving in for the kill.

Opening up on the scouting and recruitment process which brought the South American attacker to Parkhead, he said: “We’ve got the scouting process. We’ve looked at him for a couple of months. We thought about him as far back as April time.

“Again, he’s one of those where, if you’re not going to be the manager, then you’re sure that the next manager fancies some of the players.

“So he was one of those,” he said, as reported by Glasgow Times. “We’ve got it over the line now. The scouting reports are more vast now than ever before. People’s opinions, people’s judgments of players, that type of stuff.

“Some of that has to align, I must admit, before you do things. But there’s so much data now anyway that you could pick up on some things, you could pick up on weaknesses – it is what it is. I think he’ll do fine.”

Paul Gillespie

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