Celtic manager Martin O'Neill claims convincing players to move to the Scottish Premier League is not proving the stumbling block to more transfer activity at Parkhead.

The summer departures of Alan Stubbs, Ramon Vega and Eyal Berkovic has left O'Neill short of back up and he is frantically trying to bolster his squad before they take on Dutch giants Ajax in the Champions League third round qualifier.

And while the Celtic boss champions his club's desire to move to England he is denying that his targets are put off by playing in Scotland's top-flight.

O'Neill said: "There's no point going into detail, but it isn't because they don't want to play in Scotland."

Paul Lambert, who scored two in the club's SPL opener against St Johnstone at Parkhead on Saturday, is remaining defiant despite the lack of transfer activity at the club.

The Scotland international doubled last season's scoring tally as the champions started where they left off with an impressive 3-0 victory over the Perth outfit.

But with the Champions League qualifying crunch just over a week away, the former European Cup winner has told the current squad that they need to be focused on Ajax or miss out on their debut in the Champions League.

Lambert said: "We must be ready for Ajax whether we've got players in or not."

On Saturday, Johan Mjallby opened the scoring for Celtic after 37 minutes. When Lambert added the second after 64 minutes it was plain sailing and they sealed a comfortable outing with a tremendous half-volley from Lambert eight minutes later.

It will certainly be much, much more difficult against Ajax.