Martin O'Neill explains difficulty of ruthless Europa League squad decisions
Celtic boss Martin O'Neill has been speaking about his Europa League squad decisions that saw three new signings miss out on a chance to play in the European league phase.
The Bhoys had to submit their final squad by 11pm on Wednesday night, and the list notably saw new signings Joel van der Berg, Landon Emenalo and Shim Mheuka left off, meaning they cannot play European football in the initial phase.
Celtic will get the chance to resubmit their squad if they progress to the knockout stages or knockout play-offs, so those players do still have hope of playing European football this season.
But for now, they will have to concentrate on their league football, and speaking in his latest press conference, O'Neill said the UEFA squad size played a part in deciding whether to sign more players despite a late flurry of arrivals.
"Well, I think that the difficulty, when you think about it, is that you only have to look at the UEFA list about the places that we would have had available for players, and some young lads here, players will be disappointed not being able to make that particular UEFA squad," said the veteran boss. "So, there's only so many places that we could fill.
"If we can avoid serious injury to the players here, people not being out for endless lengths of time, then yeah, I'm happy with it."
Asked about the difficulty of making those Europa League squad decisions, O'Neill added: "Yeah, very much so. In an ideal world, I would have had them all on board and give people an extra incentive.
"But our bread and butter is the league. And players, young players coming to the football club now, either on loan or permanently, let's go and prove yourself at league level here. And if we were fortunate enough to stay in the Europa League until after January time, we may not do, but if we are, then these next three or four months will prove whether they will join that list in January time, if we are still there.
"So, yeah, it was difficult. I would have loved to have had them all in, but I had to learn from last season that I didn't know the rules."
Celtic's Emenalo decision had to be related to his injury, otherwise it is hard to explain given their lack of left-back depth, while the Mheuka one is understandable based on the fact there are three senior strikers ahead of him. The Van der Berg decision is a little strange, but it perhaps speaks to the fact he is not an experienced signing, and there are more midfielders O'Neill knows he can rely on.
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