Croatian midfielder Ljuban Crepulja close to Celtic switch

Celtic are closing in on the signing of Croatian midfielder Ljuban Crepulja.

The 22-year-old's club, Croatian top-flight team Slaven Belupo, have revealed the player travelled to Scotland on Tuesday for transfer talks with the Glasgow side.

Belupo is a holding midfielder who has made 81 appearances for Slaven in two-and-a-half years, scoring two goals.

Celtic have been missing both Scott Brown and Charlie Mulgrew from their central midfield in recent months, but both are making good progress in their rehabilitation from injuries.

Ronny Deila made his first signing of the transfer window on Sunday when he signed 24-year-old Denmark central defender Erik Sviatchenko from FC Midtjylland on a four-and-a-half-year deal.

The new signing was not needed on Tuesday night as Celtic thrashed Hamilton 8-1 to extend their lead at the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership to six points.

The champions had only scored four goals in their previous five home games and winger Gary Mackay-Steven revealed they were determined to entertain the Parkhead faithful.

"We wanted to get an early goal and that's important, especially at home," he said. "We managed to do that and we put in a great performance, especially in the first half.

"We've all seen in the last few home games we haven't scored too many goals. Teams have come and made it really hard for us so we were determined to get that early goal as the game might open up after that.

"We just took confidence from it and carried it on so it was really enjoyable. We feel we can go on a good run now and hopefully take teams apart like we did against Hamilton. We feel we can do that to anyone on our day."

Mackay-Steven made his first league start since October and hopes to put a difficult spell behind him.

"I knew it'd be tough," he said. "Last season, signing for a big club like Celtic, I knew there would be spells where if you're out the team and they do well, like we've been doing, it would be tough being out and watching from the sidelines.

"But I've enjoyed every minute I'm here. I'm just trying to work as hard as I can in training and catch the manager's eye, and hopefully I've done that."