Celtic's transfer inactivity is 'an unchanging and wearying story'
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Celtic's lack of transfer activity is "an unchanging and wearying" story, according to The Times' Scottish football correspondent Michael Grant.
The Parkhead club have signed only one player this summer - striker Camilo Duran - although manager Martin O'Neill insisted they are close to further deals after Saturday's sparsely attended friendly against Middlesbrough.
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At a recent fan Q&A in Cork, chief executive Michael Nicholson said the club were finding it "difficult" to compete with English Premier League and Championship clubs, as well as dealing with agents.
However, Grant says that is not a situation unique to Celtic.
"It's really weird," Grant told the BBC's Scottish Football Podcast.
"It's an unchanging and pretty wearying story around Celtic, isn't it?
"It's as if they feel they have unique issues and problems getting deals done, talking about agents in the Premier League and Championship clubs and so on.
"Every club has got this to deal with. Every club in world football has issues at their level.
"We just mentioned Aberdeen signing 10 players, Hearts have signed a raft of players, Rangers I think are on six and they're about to get another deal over the line.
"Celtic have just got Duran in - for decent money admittedly - but we know that squad isn't good enough.
"It came as close as you can possibly get to not winning the league against a team with a fraction of their resources. Since then, the squad has been weakened in terms of numbers and in terms of overall quality.
"You saw what Celtic fans think about it because they weren't there [against Middlesbrough]. Their signings in the past couple of windows have been really unimpressive."