Chris Sutton says Celtic could potentially look to Ecuador in the next step of their worldwide transfer approach.
Manager Ange Postecoglou has regularly raided the J-League for talent and has already signed Yuki Kobayashi ahead of the winter window opening, while Canadian star Alistair Johnston is also said to have a verbal agreement in place for heading to Glasgow.
Players from across the globe have come to Parkhead since Postecoglou took over in 2021, and Sutton has been impressed. Ecuador have beat Qatar and drawn with Holland in their opening World Cup matches, and the former striker writes in his Daily Record column that such places could be next on the Celtic transfer hitlist. He explained: "Celtic have managed to get gems such as Reo Hatate, who was signed for relative buttons and will go for big money in the future. You have to be ahead of the game. Get ahead of the curve. That’s always been the case, but it feels now more than ever.
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"Postecoglou says he is looking at every corner of the club and you can see that with the recruitment of Alexandro Bernabei from Argentina. There are other markets out there to get into. For example, I looked at the Ecuador squad during their encounter with Qatar and thought there were good players there.
"Brighton have been upwardly mobile on that score. Two of the players, Pervis Estupinan and Moises Caicedo, ply their trade on England’s South Coast. Some of the other individuals are in Belgium and France and doing well.
"There are surely players just on the fringes of that Ecuador squad, such as Hatate is for Japan, who have talent, youth and ability who are available for peanuts. It’s just finding the right ones.
"There is no doubt in my mind they are out there if you look hard enough, as Postecoglou has shown with his adept knowledge of the Japanese market."
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