Ex Celtic boss lays out transfer blueprint as MLS cover broken amid £10m Kyogo Furuhashi rumour

Former Celtic manager Ronny Deila has outlined his desire to sign more leaders in the mold of Hoops heroes Scott Brown and Virgil van Dijk as he looks to strengthen his Atlanta United team ahead of the new MLS season.

Deila, who is currently preparing to start pre-season with his new club in America, continues to be strongly linked with a £10 million swoop for Celtic hitman Kyogo Furuhashi this month amid reports the Norwegian is ‘leading the race’ to sign the Japanese scoring sensation.

Earlier this week, the MLS even posted, then hastily deleted, a strange announcement on their website that Furuhashi has became Atlanta’s latest ‘designated player’ - meaning he can earn more than the league's salary cap.

The article read: “Atlanta United have a new Designated Player No.9, announcing Wednesday they've acquired Kyogo Furuhashi from Scottish Premiership powerhouse Celtic FC.” However, Atlanta then did confirm the signing of a new striker from Japan roughly an hour later in the shape of Cayman Togashi from rivals New York City.

It’s understood Atlanta are contemplating a move for the 29-year-old, but no offers have been forthcoming as of yet. And Deila has described the types of character he wants to bring to the Georgia-based franchise, having previously worked with a number of household names.

He stated: “It’s easy to say Virgil van Dijk and Martin Odegaard, but I think also Scott Brown at Celtic and Hans Vanaken at Club Brugge were fantastic. Scott was special. I feel that I should work with people and be a part of their development.

“That’s what we need, we need those players and then it’s my job to get them to that environment that they go every day thinking about getting better. If they don’t want to get better, they have nothing here to do.

“I can accept mistakes, but in three months you don’t need to make the same mistakes you did yesterday. If the club has a fantastic 20-year old, you don’t sign a player in front of him. I don’t care what kind of age you are, I played Martin Odegaard and he was 15. I’m looking for players with drive.”

Atlanta have previously conducted transfer business with the Scottish champions having nabbed Greek frontman Giorgos Giakoumakis, who went on to score 22 goals in 38 appearances before moving to Mexican side Cruz Azul last year.