Where do Celtic need to strengthen this summer?

Champions League group-stage football is secured, which is both an enticing carrot for potential arrivals and a reason for star players already in the building to stay put.

Ange Postecoglou’s fabled second-season growth is an exciting prospect too – given phase one of his Celtic rebuild brought a double, he’ll no doubt be out to add the Scottish Cup to the trophy haul next term too.

To complement our recent assessment of the many fringe players likely to be heading for the Parkhead exit, this offering will analyse the positions in the squad that need to be supplemented.

First things first…

Settle the Carter-Vickers and Jota deals… one way or the other

So much of the post-season discourse has centred round the deals to make Cameron Carter-Vickers and Jota permanent fixtures at Parkhead.

No wonder, to be fair. Both were integral to the double-winning campaign and finished in the top three of our seasonal power rankings.

READ MORE: Jota and Cameron Carter Vickers owe Celtic swift decisions - Alison McConnell

Jota’s throwback, bums-off-seats wing play is combined with considerable direct output (he finished the season with 13 goals and 14 assists and was the only player in the Premiership to finish in double figures for both) while Carter-Vickers was a noticeably stabilising presence at the back and the main driving force behind 22 clean sheets.

Settling the matter as soon as possible – one way or the other – is vital to the rest of this summer’s business.

What about the goalkeeper position?

Or, more accurately, do actually Celtic need to recruit another?

Joe Hart answered any lingering critics he had following a poor few seasons spent mainly as a backup option in England. He is 35 years old and ultimately probably not the long-term option Postecoglou would hope for with some drawbacks in his style of play from between the sticks.

Yet his influence extends beyond just his own performances and it’s unlikely the club signs a bonafide first-choice who immediately comes in to oust the Englishman.

While he modestly suggested amid last month’s title celebrations that he is taking nothing for granted about his involvement as first-choice, the contract extension for main backup Scott Bain and links with the likes of former Dundee United keeper Benjamin Siegrist – a thorn is Celtic’s side and a good shot-stopper but someone with the same ball-playing caveats as Hart – suggests that’s exactly where he will be.

Left centre-back

Carl Starfelt’s improvement over the second half of the season was both impressive and perceptible. If Carter-Vickers is signed up permanently it’s very likely the Swede remains as first-choice left centre-back.

It’s taken him some getting used to that role though – and a viable left-footer to challenge his status as the automatic starter there would be ideal. Some would say it’s necessary.

Christopher Jullien – although a right-footer – played left centre-back regularly for Toulouse before joining Celtic but his future at the club remains in doubt after over a year out injured and then very few opportunities for game-time.

READ MORE: Carl Starfelt's Celtic improvement is indisputable... but is it enough?

Both Manchester City defenders who have been linked with Celtic, Ko Itakura and Taylor Harwood-Bellis, are similarly right-footed with left centre-back experience.

Stephen Welsh – also a righty – played both right and left centre-back last term but with Postecoglou’s noted belief in not rotating centre-backs very often if he can help it, his on-pitch minutes next season will likely be restricted to the deputy role he took on once the Carter-Vickers/Starfelt axis was solidified. A loan move might not be off the cards if a workable left-footed option is found this summer.

Left-back

Ah, left-back. The great constant in the Celtic support’s collective wishlist over the past few seasons.

Greg Taylor has the jersey – and he deserves to have it. The 24-year-old overcame the injury problems that disrupted his start to life under Postecoglou to become one of his most reliable lieutenants on the field and quieten the vast majority of his critics with outstanding displays in Celtic’s biggest games of the campaign.

All that can be true and a left-back is still required though. Preferably one with the athletic qualities Taylor lacks, Velez Sarsfield’s Francisco Ortega and Mohanad Jeahze of Hammarby have both been linked for some time now.

In addition, Adam Montgomery has returned from a spell with Aberdeen and Liam Scales is still at the club amid loan links with the same club. Boli Bolingoli is still technically a Celtic player too.

The difference now is that the new recruit has to be instantly good enough to usurp Taylor – or at least talented enough to do it relatively soon – rather than automatically getting his jersey as once might have been presumed to be the case.

A new midfielder… or two?

Postecoglou said part of the reason he recruited three midfielders – Reo Hatate, Matt O’Riley and Yosuke Ideguchi – in January was in preparation for the close-season.

That brought the departures of long-serving duo Nir Bitton and Tom Rogic. O’Riley’s presence combined with David Turnbull’s return to fitness arguably covers Rogic’s absence but it is arguable whether Bitton’s curious role as occasional starter/late-game closer will be.

READ MORE: Why Celtic's 'irreplaceable unicorn' Callum McGregor represents a recruitment problem

Callum McGregor will be as ubiquitous as ever whether he starts as the 6 or the 8 while Hatate is set to compete for game-time at the latter. Beyond that, though, James McCarthy is yet to inspire confidence and Scott Robertson will need to make a pre-season impact after his return from Crewe Alexandra to put his name in the frame.

Even with Postecoglou referencing Ideguchi’s forthcoming opportunities in the new season, there is still at least one gap there for a box-to-box, athletic option; the trick, as it always is with Celtic of course, is for such a specimen to ally those qualities with technical skills required to thrive in a possession-heavy midfield.

A third striker option?

This automatically prompts a debate into the wing slots too.

Daizen Maeda played himself into the first XI with his end to the season while, if he signs, Jota will take the other role. With James Forrest signing a new deal and Liel Abada coming off the back of an all-time impressive debut campaign, supplementary Celts such as B-teamers Owen Moffat could be enough depth-wise.

Where it gets sticky is if – like the season just finished – the main two strikers suffer injury problems again. Kyogo Furuhashi (20 goals, two assists) and Giorgos Giakoumakis (17 goals, one assist) are the main men through the middle.

Currently Albian Ajeti is the other bonafide centre forward in the first-team fold but his expected game-time is minimal to the point of a looming exit, so if either or both of Kyogo and Giakoumakis are out it’s likely Maeda is the man to lead the line and that has the knock-on effect for the wing roles.

Elsewise it’s Johnny Kenny, Joey Dawson or another B-team striker if not loaned out. A decent third option wouldn’t go amiss, even if there are other positions to worry about first.