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Celtic are set to kick off their UEFA Champions League qualifying campaign with a trip to Belfast on Friday to face Linfield at Windsor Park.

With no away supporters in attendance and with an atmosphere that is likely to be hostile to say the least, it’s an unexpectedly feisty affair for this stage of the competition.

Pre-seasons preparations have gone well with the club not yet defeated on their trips to Vienna, Prague or Dublin. Still, they are not up to peak match fitness and after the stumble against Lincoln Red Imps last summer, they know full well they’ll need to be on the top of their game.

The qualifying campaign will get much tougher in the following rounds should they get past Linfield and the Hoops will need top performers across the team if they are to reach the group stage.

Who will those players be? We’ve picked out THREE that we think will be the men to deliver success this summer…

James Forrest

With the exceptionally popular Patrick Roberts returning to Manchester City this summer, there is perhaps more pressure on James Forrest’s shoulders right now than at any other point in his Celtic career.

It’s easy to forget though that for large parts of last season, Forrest was Brendan Rodgers’ first pick in the right wing position, over Roberts himself. He was crucial to Celtic’s form in the early part of the season and showed remarkable progress that was actually on the verge of leaving the club after refusing to sign a new contract in the Ronny Deila-era.

He’s looked especially sharp in pre-season; fit and ripping defenders apart at will. He is going to be absolutely vital to this Celtic team over the coming qualifiers, not least because with the absence of Roberts, the Hoops have lost their leading man for assists last term.

Pace and the ability to go past a man has never been a problem for Forrest but it’s all about whether he can improve in his decision making and key chance creation.

Opposition teams are likely to focus on Scott Sinclair and with the spotlight on him, we’re backing the Scotland international to find space of his own and really punish teams.

Jozo Simunovic

Celtic’s qualifying campaign last season was dogged by injury problems in defence with the unlikely pairing of Efe Ambrose and Eoghan O’Connell even having to start matches. Jozo Simunovic didn’t feature in any of those games last summer. Going into this campaign, he is regarded as the Hoops’ best central defender by a distance.

His role has taken on new importance with the recent injury to Dedryck Boyata and fans will be looking to the Croatian to be the defensive rock they know he can be amidst question marks around the quality of his likely partner Erik Sviatchenko.

The giant defender has shown remarkable consistency, aggression and composure in his time at Celtic, especially across last season, but it’s time to show that he can replicated that on the European stage. If the Hoops are to make the group stages then you’d expect Simunovic to be a stand-out along the way.

Moussa Dembele

Since emerging onto the European scene last Autumn, Moussa Dembele’s reputation has preceded him. He’s now well known as being Celtic’s most valuable property and arguably their best player. On his day he has been unplayable in the Scottish Premiership.

With injuries impacting on the second half of the season, it feels like a while since Dembele had a truly massive moment in a Celtic shirt, especially so considering there were so many in the early part of the season.

Now though, he’s fit and ready to play a huge role in Celtic’s qualifying campaign. He’s looked sharp with his first touch and finishing in pre-season and looks hungry to add to the five European goals he has already netted for the Hoops.

He’ll be the man to punish Linfield and is a good contender for being the side’s most important player throughout the summer.

Seven years ago this summer, Manchester United completed arguably the most bizarre transfer in Premier League history, signing little-known Portuguese striker Bebe from Vitoria.

In four years at Old Trafford, Bebe made just seven appearances, scoring twice, and spent the rest of his time out loan.

Rather than simply falling into the category of flop, however, the circumstances surrounding United’s shock swoop for the then-20-year-old still raise eyebrows, not least because United could have signed him for free just one month earlier, and for less than the £7.4million they eventually paid a matter of weeks earlier.

Indeed, Bebe tore up his contract with second-tier side Estrela and effectively became a free agent, at which point United seemingly had no interest in him. He then signed for Vitoria but impressive performances in pre-season convinced them to raise his release clause to £7.4million. Not long after, apparently on the advice of Carlos Queiroz, Sir Alex Ferguson swooped.

To this day, it remains one of the most mystifying transfer sagas in Premier League history, but can any deals from the last 25 years rival it as the Premier League’s most bizarre signing of all time? FootballFanCast takes a look at the contenders…

Kim Kallstrom – Arsenal 2011 (Loan)

A Football Manager legend, a 131-cap Sweden international and a talented midfielder during his days in Ligue 1. The only problem with Arsenal signing Kim Kallstrom on a short-term loan in January 2014, despite it being the direct antithesis of the exciting mid-season addition Arsene Wenger had alluded to as the Gunners entered the January transfer window in first place, is that he had a broken back.

Nonetheless, Wenger persevered with the deal and the Swedish playmaker, allowing him to finish his recovery in north London (seemingly at Arsenal’s rather than parent club Spartak Moscow’s expense) just in time for him to make four appearances as the campaign drew to a close. Unsurprisingly, Arsenal elected not to sign Kallstrom permanently and his arrival did not sustain their title charge, eventually ending the season in their habitual fourth place.

Roger Johnson – West Ham 2014 (Loan)

Once upon a time, Roger Johnson was gaining a reputation for himself as one of the better centre-halves outside the Premier League’s top clubs, as one of the key components of a Birmingham outfit that finished in the top half during the 2009/10 season and won the League Cup the year later.

But by the time West Ham moved for him in January 2014, Johnson’s career had plummeted, falling all the way down to League One with Wolves. The first half of the season was spent on loan at Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship, after which Sam Allardyce unexpectedly swooped as he looked to jostle a relegation battle, the FA Cup and a run in the League Cup.

The criteria for signing Johnson appeared to be that firstly, he was very tall and secondly, that he wasn’t cup-tied. Come the close of January, after Johnson had started both legs of a League Cup semi-final that West Ham lost 9-0 to Manchester City, his use had already expired. The Englishman made one more start for the Hammers before returning to Molineux. He’s now without a club after being released by Charlton Athletic.

Bongani Khumalo – Tottenham Hotspur 2011

Signing an unknown, beastly defender from South Africa is the kind of move that likely would have paid off during the exceptionally attritional early years of the Premier League. In fact, Leeds cult hero Lucas Radabe provides the perfect example of such a cavalier recruitment strategy.

But in 2011, the Premier League had become a little more sophisticated – it was now arguably the hardest league in the world to walk into. Regardless, Tottenham Hotspur still saw fit to take a £1.5million punt on Bongani Khumalo from SuperSport United.

Four and a half years after his arrival, Khumalo returned to SuperSport United without a single competitive appearance to his name. The entirety of his White Hart Lane career of loan spells, four in the Football League and one 22-game stint with PAOK. £1.5million well spent.

Dong Fangzhou – Manchester United 2004

Manchester United aren’t getting off lightly. Bizarrely, the Red Devils boast an almost identical forebearer to Bebe in not-so-prodigious one-time Chinese strike prodigy Dong Fangzhou. Actually, that’s deceptively flattering description; before signing for United in 2004, Dong had scored just two goals in 26 league appearances, both of which came in the Chinese second division.

Nonetheless, Sir Alex Ferguson felt compelled to give the forward a chance, making him the first East Asian footballer to sign for United in a £500k deal. However, due to work permit problems, the Chinese international spent his first two years with United out on loan at Royal Antwerp.

34 league goals in 71 appearances and finally a British work permit earned Dong a new contract and even a shirt number ahead of the 2008/09 season. A few weeks after being named the new No.21, however, United and Dong parted ways by mutual consent. He bizarrely ended up playing two games for Legia Warsaw a few years later, but has spent the majority of his career back in the Far East.

Steven Caulker – Liverpool 2016 (Loan)

The most recent deal to make this list, Steven Caulker is a decent centre-back who’s sadly lost his way in football after not reaching the potential shown in his youth; although that may have something to do with the fact the two sides he started regularly for, Cardiff City and QPR, spectacularly plummeted out of the top flight with the one-time England international arguably their best performer in both instances.

Clearly a widely held belief, two Premier League clubs elected to sign him on loan from the Championship during the 2015/16 season. Whilst he simply couldn’t force his way in at Southampton during the first half of the campaign, however, largely due to the presence of Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool’s swoop for Caulker in January soon proved to have ulterior motives.

Indeed, as Liverpool faced a 3-2 home defeat to Arsenal at Anfield, eyebrows were raised when Klopp asked Caulker to warm up and get himself ready to come on in the 87th minute. But it quickly became apparent why the German international had signed him; Caulker was Liverpool’s new emergency striker. Three substitute appearances totalling just five minutes later, all of which came in January, and Caulker didn’t feature for the Reds in the Premier League again.

Julien Faubert – Real Madrid 2009 (Loan)

Depending on how you look at it, Julien Faubert was either a full-back who couldn’t be trusted in defence or a winger who didn’t produce enough to play in midfield. Either way, his £6.1million move to West Ham didn’t prove to be the greatest bit of business from the east Londoners.

Nonetheless, during his time in the Premier League, the France international had seemingly gained a fan in Juande Ramos, who ended up taking the job at Real Madrid just a matter of months after being sacked by Tottenham Hotspur.

And another two months after that, Ramos actually snapped up Faubert midway through a very unspectacular season at West Ham, signing him on loan for the remainder of the season with a view to a permanent deal.

In six months at the Bernabeu, Faubert made two appearances, was pictured falling asleep on the bench and missed training because he thought he had the day off.

As Paul Merson once said, his agent deserves a knighthood.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has been among a handful of Arsenal stars that have been linked with a move away from the Emirates this summer.

This is mainly down to the fact that the England international has just one year remaining on his current contract and is yet to put pen to paper on fresh terms.

According to a report in the London Evening Standard, Chelsea are growing increasingly confident that they can agree a £35m deal for the 23-year-old, who can play on the wing or through the middle.

The publication states that negotiations are underway, and it is safe to suggest that Oxlade-Chamberlain would fit into Antonio Conte’s system playing as a wing-back.

Chelsea are not the only club that have been linked to the former Southampton star; Liverpool are also thought to be admirers.

Earlier this month, according to the Liverpool Echo, Oxlade-Chamberlain appeared to hint that he was interested in a switch to Anfield when he ‘liked’ a tweet claiming that he could join the Reds for £28m.

From the bookmakers’ point of view, though, the attacking star is more likely to stay at Arsenal than move on this summer.

Unibet has offered odds of 11/17 on Oxlade-Chamberlain staying put, while Chelsea are second favourites at 5/4 and Liverpool listed at 5/1 by 888sport.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has indicated that the England international is in his plans this season after he named him in the first XI for the team’s 4-3 victory over Leicester City on the opening day of the Premier League season last Friday.

Jack Wilshere has become somewhat of a forgotten man at Arsenal over the past couple of seasons due to injury woes.

The midfielder has been plagued by setbacks for the better part of his senior career, but he appeared to making progress during last season’s loan spell at Bournemouth.

The England international made 27 Premier League appearances, 22 of which were starts, before he fractured a bone in his leg during the closing stages of the campaign.

Wilshere underwent rehabilitation back at his parent club, but widespread media reports suggested that his time at Arsenal was coming to an end.

Last month, manager Arsene Wenger told reporters that he was open to offers for the midfielder, but a transfer was not agreed before last week’s deadline.

During the Frenchman’s pre-match press conference on Thursday, he confirmed that Wilshere is improving his fitness day by day, but it remains unclear when or if the midfielder will be given game time.

Judging by the comments made by Arsenal fans, a large number are keen for Wilshere to be given another chance.

According to reports from Sky Sports, Serge Aurier’s much-awaited transfer to Tottenham is ‘imminent’ now that work permit complications relating to an assault charge in France have been cleared up.

As an incredibly dynamic and forward thinking wing-back, the Ivory Coast international seems like the perfect replacement for Kyle Walker, following his £50million departure to Manchester City earlier this summer.

The deal is believed to be worth £23million, a significant chunk by Lilywhites standards – suggesting he’ll be an important player in Mauricio Pochettino’s plans.

But the north London club already boast an incredibly talented No.2 in Kieran Trippier, who produced excellent form at the end of last season and has started two of Tottenham’s Premier League fixtures so far this term.

So, Spurs fans, who do you see as Pochettino’s first-choice right-back going forward? Should it be the summer signing or does the England international deserve to hold onto his status for now? Let us know by voting below…

Harry Kane scored his 102nd and 103rd Tottenham Hotspur goals in Wednesday night’s 3-1 win over Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League.The August curse struck the England forward once again, but he has scored four times in his two appearances for Spurs during the month of September.Wednesday proved to be another wonderful occasion for Kane, who is proving himself to be one of the best centre-forwards in the whole of Europe.However, Thursday was also a monumental occasion for Kane as he reached one million Twitter followers.The 24-year-old took to Twitter to thank those that continue to support him, but the Tottenham fans were quick to remind Kane that they were the ones who are thankful.Indeed, Kane has now scored 103 goals in just 170 appearances for Tottenham, who have bounced back from some early-season troubles to win their last two matches.There is no question that Kane, who is rated at £54m by transfermarkt.co.uk, has come a long way since loan spells at Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich City and Leicester City.

It has been a frustrating season for Everton fans so far as they watch their team struggle to get wins on the board.Ronald Koeman’s men have picked up just seven points from a possible 21 in the Premier League, and in seven fixtures, have won just twice.In the Europa League they are also struggling having recorded a defeat and a draw in their opening two group games of the campaign.The fans are growing increasingly frustrated and most have now turned on Koeman, who took the brunt of criticism on Twitter following Sunday’s 1-0 defeat to Burnley.BBC SportÂclaims that Everton mustered 23 shots, with only four on target, while Burnley only created five goalscoring chances, but the one that was converted by Jeff Hendrick was enough to give Burnley all three points.Expectations rose after the Toffees spent more than £100m on new signings, including Wayne Rooney, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Jordan Pickford and Michael Keane in the summer.Despite bringing in a handful of players, the club never replaced goalscorer Romelu Lukaku and his absence his heavy felt given that the team have scored just four goals in seven Premier League matches.Former striker Kevin Campbell, who played for Everton between 1999 and 2005, is feeling as frustrated as the fans, but his support of the team has not wavered.

According to an interview he did with German publication Bild, on-loan West Ham United defender Reece Oxford says he is determined to stay at Borussia Monchengladbach for the whole season despite struggling to make an impact so far.

What’s the word, then?

Well, Bild spoke to the 18-year-old about his future and with rumours that he can cut short his season-long loan with the Bundesliga outfit and return to the London Stadium in the New Year, but the young centre-back says he isn’t thinking about that option and wants to fight for his spot in the side.

What did Oxford say?

The teenager told Bild: “It’s true that I have the option to go back to West Ham early, but I’m not looking for it and I’m just going to play at Borussia.

“I’m only focused on the training and the possibility of playing.”

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How has Oxford done so far this season?

Not too well, to be honest.

While he has been named in the matchday squad for all of Monchengladbach’s eight Bundesliga fixtures so far this term, he has had to settle for a spot on the substitutes’ bench and is yet to play a single competitive minute for the German club.

Will he get his chance?

He should do, yes.

The 18-year-old only seems to be one injury or suspension away from getting his opportunity in the backline, and he will look to impress when that chance finally comes his way.

Andreas Christensen took time to make an impact with the Bundesliga side during a two-year loan spell from Chelsea, and perhaps it will prove to be a similar situation for Oxford.

Should West Ham be worried?

They will be a little concerned, yes.

The young central defender has failed to push on after impressing for the club at the start of the 2015/16 season, and after failing to appear for the Irons last term he then struggled to get a spot in Reading’s team after joining them on loan in January of this year.

There have also been a lot of rumours recently that the east London outfit would be willing to sell Oxford in January if they receive a good offer, indicating that his Hammers career might already be over.

Jesse Lingard gets a rough ride from Manchester United supporters.

It is difficult to say with any real confidence that the attacker is good enough to play every match for a team chasing titles. However, his attitude and application can never be called into question.

The 24-year-old has struggled to secure starts in the Premier League this season, but he was named in Jose Mourinho’s XI for the EFL Cup clash with Swansea City on Tuesday night.

A strong performance saw the Red Devils advance courtesy of a 2-0 win, and it was Lingard that grabbed both goals in Wales.

Lingard will not need telling that he has to score more goals in the Premier League to be considered as a potential starter, but there are a number of occasions where the attacker has made an impact off the bench this season.

The England international, who is valued at £12m by transfermarkt.co.uk, does get a lot of stick from United supporters, but there were plenty that backed him following a tweet on Wednesday afternoon.

Although David Unsworth’s audition doesn’t appear to be over just yet, two big names have emerged as the front-runners for the managerial vacancy at Everton.

While former England boss Sam Allardyce has admitted he would consider an approach from the Toffees, Sky Sports believe the Goodison outfit are interested in Burnley gaffer Sean Dyche – who continued his side’s impressive start to the season with a win over Newcastle United last night, putting them in seventh place.

Both managers are of relatively similar pragmatic style, prioritising results over glamorous performances, which appears to be what the 18th-placed Merseysiders desperately need at this moment in time.

The 63-year-old is vastly more experienced than the 46-year-old in the dugout at Turf Moor, but Dyche arguably represents the shrewder long-term appointment having transformed Burnley during his five years at the club.

So, Everton fans, which manager do you think is the better fit for your club? Let us know by voting below…