{"id":554559,"date":"2026-04-28T06:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T06:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/554559\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T06:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T06:00:11","slug":"martin-oneill-makes-celtic-transfer-clearout-confession-as-new-daizen-maeda-contract-addressed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/554559\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin O’Neill makes Celtic transfer clearout confession as new Daizen Maeda contract addressed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The interim Hoops boss admits he underestimated the task of the club’s impending summer rebuild\"Daizen<\/p>\n

Daizen Maeda and Martin O’Neill(Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n

Martin O’Neill admits Celtic<\/a> have a huge clearout on the horizon this summer.<\/p>\n

The Hoops are set to undergo a major overhaul with a host of players heading for the exits. Six loanees are due to return to their parent clubs, while top stars like Daizen Maeda<\/a> and Arne Engels could bankroll the seismic rebuild.<\/p>\n

But with a string of forgotten fringe players – including Maik Nawrocki, Luis Palma and Johnny Kenny – also due to report back to Lennoxtown for pre-season, O’Neill<\/a> expects a mass exodus.<\/p>\n

The interim boss said: “There will be a number of players who, for one reason or another, will have to leave the football club because we are really top-heavy, do you know? And that becomes an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

O’Neill – who is expected to step down from his role – confessed he underestimated the scale of the surgery required.<\/p>\n

Asked if trimming the bloated squad was just as vital as making new signings, he said: “To bring new people in, you’ll have to. Absolutely. You couldn’t cope with that. You couldn’t cope. And that might not be the easiest thing in the world.<\/p>\n

“Of course we’ve got some players here that other teams in big leagues will probably want. And that’s something to consider.<\/p>\n

“But if you’re talking about players coming back from loans and stuff like this here, who maybe have another two years to run, those things might be difficult.<\/p>\n

“So it is, yeah. I suppose the last thing that those players want to do is having been out on loan, then going back out on loan again.<\/p>\n

“Either they want something permanent or they want to feel as if they could do the job here.<\/p>\n

“The answer is I haven’t seen those players. So I should really be looking at what they can do. But I honestly haven’t at the time at this minute.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, O’Neill insists he’s in the dark over reborn talisman Maeda’s future after the Japan star rejected a new deal last summer.<\/p>\n

Maeda is entering the final 12 months of his contract<\/a> and is widely expected to leave the club after seeing a dream move to Bundesliga side Wolfsburg fall through last year.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old has rediscovered his spark in recent games after a mixed spell this season – netting a crucial brace in Saturday’s 3-1 win against Falkirk.<\/p>\n

Maeda now has the chance to put himself firmly back in the shop window over the next few weeks.<\/p>\n

O’Neill would love the fans’ favourite to extend his stay at Parkhead but says there have been no fresh discussions.<\/p>\n

He said: “I think there were contract talks with him… was it last August time or was it the time before that? I do know that there were talks and there was a contract in front of him, which he didn’t sign at the time. I don’t know the position now.<\/p>\n

“I think there Wolfsburg were coming in for him and it didn’t materialise. I think obviously he became a bit despondent because it was a chance for him to play in the Bundesliga and all that type of stuff.<\/p>\n

“So that didn’t happen. Maybe his head was all over the place for a while, but he has certainly settled down. But in terms of what’s happening in the future, I don’t know.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know how long he’s got left. He’s got one more year, has he? Well, I don’t know. That would be something the club and he would have to be talking about.<\/p>\n

“If he didn’t want to stay any longer, then that would be a choice for the football club to try and sell him with a year left to run.<\/p>\n

“I just assume that would be the normal thing. But he’s come back to a bit of form, which is great. And I’ll look short-term at this minute and see how he can cope with the next five games.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The interim Hoops boss admits he underestimated the task of the club’s impending summer rebuild Daizen Maeda and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2817,35119,218,30905,8058,11728,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-554559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-celtic-fc","tag-daizen-maeda","tag-football","tag-martin-oneill","tag-scottish-premiership","tag-scottish-professional-football-league","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}