Celtic's assistant manager Mark Venus has cautioned against buying for the sake of it ahead of the Champions League qualifiers.

Venus, alongside manager Tony Mowbray and coach Peter Grant, aim to win the tie starting on 28 or 29 July.

"Obviously, we've lost a couple of players and we will be trying to bring players in," he said.

But Celtic would not want to buy a player only to regret it for the next four years, Venus stressed.

Midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura has joined Espanyol, while team-mates Paul Hartley and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink are out of contract, and defender Bobo Balde has left the club after his deal expired.

"Personally, and this is me speaking, I don't care how long it takes to bring people into this football club," said Venus, who is confident that Celtic can make a good start to the season.

"If we have to miss the Champions League qualifier, the bottom line is, I'd like to think we will manage this football club for a lot of years and I'd like to think the players we are going to bring to this club are going to stay with us for a couple of years.

We'd like to pit our wits against other European coaches Celtic assistant manager Mark Venus

"We have to bring in the players who we think are right."

Venus hoped Celtic's new management could raise the profile of the club - and of Scottish football as a whole.

"Overall, we want the whole nation to do better. We've followed the football team and I was at a few matches last season," he said.

Venus said he believed Celtic were a bigger club than previous employers West Brom.

"Everything about it is a step up; the size of it and the expectations," he said. "We'd like to pit our wits against other European coaches.

"Everything about it is a different dimension to where we've come from."

The Celtic assistant manager would not be drawn on the future of Hartley or Vennegoor of Hesselink.

"That's up to the gaffer really," he said. "That's not my remit at the football club.

"The manager will be in contact with the chief executive to speak to the players."

Venus said it was "a bit early" to say whether Scott Brown would be fit to play in the Champions League qualifiers after the Scotland midfielder had surgery on an ankle injury.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version