No panic, but Celtic not good enough yet - Lambert

• Published 4 minutes ago

Paul Lambert believes former club Celtic are "nowhere near good enough" without further recruitment but has guarded against "panic".

Striker Camilo Duran is Celtic's sole summer arrival so far, while midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has signed a new contract after a short-term deal last term.

But forward Kelechi Iheanacho and former left-back loanee Marcelo Saracchi, who had been linked with returns, will not be back in Glasgow this season.

Iheanacho has joined Bursaspor as a free agent, while Saracchi bid farewell to Celtic fans on social media and said he and his agent "did absolutely everything within our power to make a return to Glasgow happen".

Furthermore, centre-half Maik Nawrocki has been sold to Lens.

"The squad's not strong enough," Lambert told BBC Radio Scotland's Sportsound.

"I've seen Celtic, they're nowhere near good enough at this moment in time, nowhere near it. Everybody recognises it.

"They'll compete, but I don't think they're strong enough to go and win it again at this moment in time. The problems were there last season, so they're not going to change again this season.

"The squad was very, very limited on what it was last season. They won't get away with that again - the manager knows it."

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Chief executive Michael Nicholson said this week that Celtic were finding it "difficult" because they are competing with English Premier League and Championship clubs for players and dealing with agents.

Lambert believes Celtic need to spend around "£8-10m" on recruitment infrastructure alone.

"I don't think it's time for panic stations," Lambert, who captained Celtic during manager Martin O'Neill's first spell at the club, said.

"What I do know from being in the Championship and being in the Premier League, the Championship now is a league where the Premier League was about 10, 15 years ago.

"You're talking off the scale in some of the clubs in the Championship.

"Celtic is not a development club, it's a winning club where you have to win titles. You have to compete. You have to compete domestically and you have to compete in European terms.

"You can't buy young kids to come in there and grasp that club because it's too big and it's too demanding. You need ready made players to come into the club, especially if they're going to compete in the Champions League.

"They're in a little bit of predicament. How they do it and the only way you can do it is spend the money. If you don't spend, you stand still. You have to improve."

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• Celtic

• Published 18 June 2023