Despite winning the Scottish Premiership title and the SFA Cup, there is a huge summer of decisions ahead for Celtic and the board before next season gets underway.

There is, of course, the future of the manager that is still to be decided. Martin O'Neill remains in contention to take the job into next season, but a final decision has not been made by the club.

The Hoops also need to dip into the market to improve their squad after they struggled in Europe and needed to win on the final day to win the Premiership title.

Celtic need to add more goals to their midfield after Benjamin Nygren, who scored 16 goals, was the only midfielder who found the back of the net more than five times in the league.

Reo Hatate and Callum McGregor both scored two goals from midfield for the Scottish giants, whilst Arne Engels scored three non-penalty goals and two from the spot.

Celtic could see £4.5m bid accepted for Premier League transfer target

The Hoops need more players like their former star Matt O'Riley, who scored 27 goals and provided 35 assists in 124 appearances in all competitions for the club.

Now, the Premiership champions have the opportunity to sign a star who can score and assist goals regularly, just like O'Riley, for a potential bargain.

O'Neill reportedly went in person to watch Preston North End attacking midfielder Alfie Devine in action in the English Championship back in April.

According to the Lancashire Evening Post, the Lilywhites have now activated their option to sign the English playmaker on a permanent deal for a fee of around £5m.

Devine spent the 2025/26 campaign on loan at Deepdale from Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur, and they are now looking to bring him back on a permanent basis.

However, the report claims that Celtic and Wolves have also been credited with interest and that Preston still need to convince the player to make the move.

This suggests that the Hoops still have a chance to submit a £5m bid to be accepted by Spurs to win the race for his signature, as the Championship team have not sealed a deal yet.

How Alfie Devine can be Celtic's new Matt O'Riley

The Premier League youngster could arrive at Parkhead as their next version of O'Riley if O'Neill, or whoever replaces him in the dugout, can unearth his potential.

As aforementioned, the Denmark international was a superstar for the Hoops because he delivered goals and assists on a regular basis from an attacking midfield position for Ange Postecoglou and Brendan Rodgers.

Devine's form on loan at a Preston team who struggled in the Championship, finishing 14th, suggests that the potential is there for him to explode in a dominant Celtic team that competes for titles.

The 21-year-old talent scored eight non-penalty goals in the Championship for the Lilywhites, five more than any Celtic midfielder other than Nygren managed in the Premiership this term.

He also created more 'big chances' than Nygren, Engels, Hatate, and McGregor, despite playing in a low-possession midtable team, which suggests that he would add some much-needed creativity to the club's midfield options.

At Celtic, he would play in a team that has more of the ball and would have more opportunities to showcase his ability at the top end of the pitch, which means that his already impressive offensive numbers could inflate.

Devine, who scored 13 goals in 49 games for Spurs at U21 level, already ranked in the top 3% of his positional peers in the Championship for goals (eight) and the top 3% for xA (6.78).

The England U20 international, who was once hailed as "outstanding" by former boss Andy Crosby, is a fantastic player in the here and now, given his form for Preston, but there are still steps for him to take to get to O'Riley's level.

Playing in a dominant Celtic team could help him to take those steps so that he starts to hit double figures for both goals and assists, as the Dane did, instead of just coming close to doing so.

Therefore, the board must submit a £5m bid to match Preston's option to buy so that they can formally enter the race to sign the star and then attempt to convince him to turn down a move to Deepdale to make the switch to Glasgow this summer.