It's quite simply an emergency.

In an ideal world, Celtic wouldn't be motoring around Europe with flashing lights and a siren, trying to cuff right-backs and their representatives for questioning with the start of a league season only a few days away.

Maybe one will have signed on the dotted line at the weekend but by then the CL qualifier second-leg against Midtjylland will have come and gone and The Hoops will know if they're off to Eindhoven in the next round or Jablonec nad Nisou in the Europa League.

From the outside looking in though, it hasn't looked like the smoothest operation.

Rennes' Sacha Boey was heavily linked for a week, as was his clubmate Brandon Soppy, but the former has now signed for Galatasaray and it appears any link to the latter may have been a misunderstanding or gone cold.

Man City's Brazilian Yan Couto has been rumoured and although the clubs share a healthy relationship, any potential move seems to have stalled, despite Sky Sports' reporting there's still interest.

READ MORE: What players will Ange Postecoglou pick for Celtic in CL qualifier versus FC Midtjylland?

If you're a Tony Ralston fan and think he should be playing, no harm to you, football is a game of opinions and it's not his fault he's the only option the club has right now.

Regardless of his capability in being Celtic's first-choice right-back, the last few words in the previous paragraph sum up the issue. He's the only one.

It's a harsh truth for a club that's about to try and skate over the thinnest of ice into the next qualifying stage for the Champions League and start the domestic campaign against Hearts this weekend.

The signings of Kyogo Furuhashi and Carl Starfelt, along with Liel Abada's debut versus the Danes in the first leg, give cause for optimism, but a right-back is pivotal to the team's improvement.

He might come in the form of Royal Antwerp's Portuguese, Aurelio Buta.

Belgian journalist Florian Holsbeek aired earlier he expects formalities of a £3.5m transfer to be completed soon.

Buta, 24, is certainly of the creative mould, keen to beat opponents and get forward.

In last season's Belgian top flight, of which he missed two months due to a torn muscle, he rampaged forward with a progressive run nearly three times a game on average, literally spending more time with the ball in the opposition half than his own over the course of the season. 

Celtic Way:

He created at least one chance in every game he played in the Jupiler League, which was by no means 90 minutes every week, in fact, he only played 90 minutes twice between the opening day of the season and Christmas Day.

In 2021, he played 90 minutes just twice again, with the other occasion coming during that run of days just before Hogmanay when nobody knows what day it is. He tallied four assists in total.

His forward thinking is direct but not always productive.

Buta lost the ball nine times per game last season, but he does recover it well and did so nearly six times per game, a third of which were in the opposition's half, conducive to the high-pressing Postecoglou wants.

READ MORE: Celtic may not need world class shot stopper to be goalkeeper in Ange Postecoglou's side

But a look at Buta's heatmap doesn't paint a picture of a full-back well versed in the inverted system Postecoglou has been asking Ralston and Taylor to participate in, in which they drift inside to offer an extra passing lane or allow a central midfielder to drop into the half-space to receive the ball.

And he's not a visionary passer by any means.

Buta plays around one through ball every two games and harbours a success rate of 25 per cent. His final ball and crossing are harder to judge with his success rate less than 50 per cent, registering an xA once every five games.

From the data and numbers on Wyscout, it's evident Buta is a ball carrier and a touchline hogger with an overwhelming urge to get into the opposition's final third.

He's lightning fast, which can get him out of trouble, and extremely positive in his role as an attack-minded defender.

It's also fairly obvious he's a player with potential and given transfer guru Fabrizio Romano is openly discussing the right-back's potential transfer on Twitter, there's mileage here.

With Couto and Croatian Josip Juranovic linked too, Celtic may be aiming to bring in more than one before this window draws to a close.