Martin O'Neill continues to squeeze wins out of a Celtic team that is clearly not good enough. The winter transfer window failed to meet expectations. The club did not strengthen the squad enough, despite knowing that they were trailing the title race after a poor spell from Wilfried Nancy, during which he lost six of his eight games in charge.

O'Neill was brought back to steer the ship in the right direction. He is only in the job on an interim basis until the end of the season though. As a result, the club seemed reluctant to make any additions on a permanent basis, as they might not end up fitting the next manager's plans.

The club did make five loan additions in the winter. Julian Araujo of Bournemouth, Tomas Cvancara of Borussia Monchengladbach, Junior Adamu of SC Freiburg, Joel Mvuka of FC Lorient and Benjamin Arthur of Brentford were all signed on a temporary basis. On top of that, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was brought in as a free agent after the close of the window, and he ended up scoring a 91st minute winner for Celtic against Livingston, which was his debut for the Hoops.

One loan player seems to have caught the attention of O'Neill permanently. Incidentally, it is someone who had been signed in the summer itself, not this winter.

We are talking about none other than Marcelo Saracchi. The Uruguayan left-back is on loan at Celtic from Boca Juniors. He opened the scoring for the Hoops in the aforementioned game against Livingston.

O'Neill seems to be of the belief that the club should try to sign Saracchi on a permanent basis. According to The Celtic Way, he said: "Yeah, I think they will. I think they should do.

"If you're asking me, I think Tierney's playing brilliantly for us at this moment. Brilliantly. Back to the Kieran Tierney that Arsenal ended up buying. So he's doing really well. He’s back to his very best.

"But Saracchi scored the goal for us. He's a strange wee character. He hasn't a clue what I'm saying to him. Not a clue! I mean, I could be saying anything to him, and he would still say yes to it. I think the club should be looking at something like that."

Saracchi had impressed earlier in the season as well, and at one point, fans were calling for him to start ahead of Kieran Tierney. That just goes to show how highly he was regarded by some. Unfortunately, he then missed a decent bit of time through injury.

But now, Saracchi is back available and starting to impress again. This time around, it is not just the fans who have been left impressed but the manager as well. Will the club sign him on a permanent basis in the summer? Only time shall tell.

It is also worth mentioning that Tierney has picked up form as well, having struggled earlier in the season. So, Celtic have two very good options on the left-hand side of their defence.

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