Martin O’Neill has affirmed that Celtic is “making some progress” in introducing new players to his squad as he addressed the team’s failure to re-sign Kelechi Iheanacho and Marcelo Saracchi.

The Scottish champions are facing renewed criticism from fans regarding their limited summer transfer activity, with some attributing the poor attendance at Saturday’s 1-1 pre-season friendly draw against Middlesbrough to the lack of new signings.

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Camilo Duran, a striker acquired from Qarabag, scored Celtic’s equaliser after David Strelec, who had previously been linked with the Glasgow club, opened the scoring for the Championship side.

The Colombian has now scored twice during pre-season, representing Celtic’s sole summer addition to date. O’Neill stated, “We will bolster the squad.

“We are making some progress. We’ll hopefully see a couple of new faces by the time that we kick the season off.”

However, the Northern Irish manager refrained from making any firm commitments, referencing the situation with Iheanacho.

Celtic aimed to keep the Nigerian striker following his one-year contract, but he has since signed with Bursaspor, recently promoted to Turkey’s second tier.

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“We thought we had a deal with Iheanacho and it didn’t go,” O’Neill explained. “It was something we thought we had sorted out.”

Celtic’s chief executive, Michael Nicholson, indicated that adding to their squad has been “difficult” as they compete with larger spending clubs in England’s top two divisions.

Reports have surfaced suggesting Bursaspor offered the 29-year-old a more lucrative contract, but O’Neill commented, “There are two sides to every particular transfer as there is to every story.

“I thought we had a deal with him at the time, but seemingly that wasn’t the case and so he’s gone to pastures new.”

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O’Neill also expressed hopes of retaining Saracchi following the 28-year-old left-back’s loan stint from Boca Juniors.

The Uruguayan announced on Instagram that he and his agent “did absolutely everything within our power to make a return to Glasgow happen”.

However, O’Neill remarked: “Saracchi’s done very well at the football club and there are circumstances which seemingly it was never going to happen.”

Celtic will begin their season with a home match against Dundee in the Premiership on 3 August.