David Strelec to Celtic transfer revelation finally surfaces with Champions League sin 'niggling away'

Slovan Bratislava general director Robert Vittek has claimed that Celtic did not have enough time to submit a bid for David Strelec before the end of the winter window.

It comes amid fresh criticism of the Scottish Premiership leaders for allowing Kyogo to leave the club for Stade Rennes without a replacement being snapped up, following their Champions League exit at the hands of Bayern Munich. Daizen Maeda led the line in Munich before Adam Idah came off the bench in the second half - with the Hoops passing up a number of chances at the Allianz Arena before a late equaliser on the night saw Brendan Rodgers' side crash out of Europe's elite competition on aggregate.

In the wake of that painful night, Chris Sutton brought Celtic’s sale of Kyogo back into focus as he confessed the exit still "niggles away" at him. Alan Shearer said that all the club were missing to secure progress to the last 16 was a "finisher up top."

And Vittek has now claimed that Celtic failed to beat the clock on deadline day, telling Sport Web: "The Scots didn't even have time to send their offer, but we knew how much they were offering.

"However, every offer has its own structure, for us it is always important that the fixed part is at the required level. Often, the offer looks very lucrative at first glance, but when you look at it in more detail, you wonder whether the individual bonuses are actually realistically achievable.

"The bonus structure of a contract can have a number of criteria, such as the number of goals, starts, the club's position in the table, qualification for Europe... There are many factors that go into this component, and some of them are risky in their own way from an attainable point of view."