Celtic managed to see off FK Qarabag after a nervy tie that seen the Scottish champions step into the next round of Champions League qualifying after a 1-0 aggregate win.

Over the two legs, Celtic struggled to breakdown the Azerbaijani league champions.

The Glaswegian side will now have to beat one of Malmo, Skenderbeu Korce, Astana, Partizan Belgrade or Maccabi Tel Aviv to reach the all important Champions League group stages.

After seeing his team struggle for goals in the last round, Hoops boss Ronnie Deila would probably like to bring in another forward to bolster his attacking options.

A player I’d suggest that the ‘Bhoys’ should take a look at is former West Ham United striker Carlton Cole.

Cole has vast English Premier League experience, where he’s made over 200 top flight appearances and scored forty Premier League goals.

Now I know that’s not exactly prolific but that’s not always important when it comes to scoring in Europe’s most elite club competition.

At Rangers, Peter Lovenkrands had a decent European goalscoring record due to his excess pace but failed to score regularly in the league. Former Celt Georgios Samaras had a knack of upping his game for the big midweek Champions League fixtures, his hard working style was more suited to the continental matches than the Scottish game.

Cole offers a double threat of pace as well as effective power that could trouble many European sides.

The thirty-one year old’s experience at leading the line could be vital. His speedy powerful style is just the kind of British style that panics foreign defenders as they aren’t used to it.

New signing Nadir Ciftci is still finding his feet at Parkhead and has yet to score a competitive goal for his new employers. Leigh Griffiths has had a fine start to the season, after enjoying a good preseason. But the Scottish striker doesn’t seem to have his managers backing for the big European ties and also suffered from a knock during the opening Scottish Premiership fixture.

Stefan Scepovic has still to show anything that can convince the Hoops fans he worthy of wearing the club’s strip. Longest serving striker Anthony Stokes looks set to depart Celtic Park after being told that he has no future with the Scottish champions.

Now I’ve not seen anything about Celtic being linked with Cole but i do believe he’s the kind of player that would offer the Glasgow side something different.

He’s available on a free transfer, which is a price that always suits Celts chief executive Peter Lawwell.

The lure of Champions League football could be enough to tempt Carlton to snub approaches from the likes of Leicester City or Aston Villa and move north of the border. It’s a stage that could revitalise the former England international striker’s career.

Now whether Celtic approach Carlton Cole or not, the fact still remains that the Scottish team still needs at least one more forward if they stand the best possible chance of returning to the golden Champions League group stages.

Posted on August 6th, 2015 by scott
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