Musings On The Mystery Striker

If you’ve been following the Twitterati this week you’ll know that there are rumours of Celtic swooping for a mystery front man should we reach the Champions League Groups.

In the main this looks like typical transfer window speculation but it actually has a semi-credible source, and I say that thinking much of what we read, see and hear from our “professional media” is nonsense.

The source for this appears to be Alex Rae, who said on Clyde not long ago that he had spoken to someone very senior inside Celtic Park about a transfer saga that was ongoing and would hopefully wrap up with our qualification to the Group Stages.

According to Rae, there wasn’t much left to do in the deal and that Celtic were very hopeful of getting this one over the line.

He said it was a big name.

When asked if the player was Gary Hooper he also allegedly said the player was not based in England.

That last part is one of many reasons the Twitterati scoffed yesterday when the name Javier Hernandez surfaced.

That and the fact he’s West Ham bound unless we can match their ludicrous wages and a £10 million plus transfer fee.

Mark that one under “Unlikely Unless On Magic Mushrooms”.

Two questions automatically arise from this.

First, do we believe it? Any of it?

Well the first hurdle you have to get over in the first place is whether you think Alex Rae has friends in high places at Celtic Park, high enough anyway to start talking about confidential transfer deals with him over tea and biscuits.

The knee jerk first reaction to that question is to say no, that it’s nonsense, and move on.

But football is a funny business, and people talk all the time.

Even some of the most close-hold deals in the game – like when Judas signed for Rangers – were known to a handful of people beforehand who really ought not to have had a clue about them.

I’ll give you one example, one that I know about personally.

When Martin O’Neill’s wife Geraldine fell ill midway through his fourth season in charge the club offered to release him from his contract if he opted to take care of her full time.

That particular scenario was so far advanced that they sounded out a replacement, who was very receptive to the idea.

I heard this at the time, and told a few people about it.

Now, I had no great sources.

That particular story came from a friend of a friend who I trusted implicitly because he was a former player and coach.

In the event, Martin stayed for that season and for the following one before he departed.

And the guy I’d heard had been sounded out the year before – Gordon Strachan – took over right on cue.

I wish I’d bet on it.

That’s how these things work sometimes.

So if you’re asking me, is it possible that Alex Rae does know something about Celtic’s next big name signing, I’d have to say yes, of course it is.

Ronny is clearly still looking for a front man.

We’ve been linked with enough of them, and we’ve even gone to watch a few.

The experiment of playing Nadir Ciftci up front on his own in Europe clearly has a purpose beyond just giving him games.

Ciftci isn’t at his best in that position, but Ronny definitely has the one man holding role in mind for European games.

So if we assume that Rae isn’t hallucinating this and that Ronny is on the lookout for a certain type of footballer, then what does that leave us with?

A big bloody mystery is what it leaves us with.

Now, I didn’t hear the interview myself but I’ve talked to people who did and Rae seems to have definitely ruled out anyone playing in England.

Which narrows the field significantly and leaves a lot of very good players out of the running.

Hernandez is but one of them.

On my wish list, Emmanuel Adebayor would also need to be removed from consideration.

More’s the pity.

I had looked at last night’s rumour and did some thinking outside the box; former Manchester United striker, spent last season on loan, now available and wanted by West Ham … and thought that maybe the rumour mill had got this half right.

Dimitar Berbatov, currently a free agent, ticks those boxes too, and he isn’t based in England, having played last season on loan at Monaco.

I didn’t know it last night, but the rumours about him have been going steadily all through the summer.

Does it sound likely?

I wouldn’t go that far … but possible.

There are enough potential names out there to fill a telephone book, and if the stories doing the rounds online, about Deila and Lawwell having been in London to talk to someone recently, are true then we clearly are in advanced negotiations over something …

But it could just as easily be a commercial deal as a transfer deal.

Celtic has disappointed us so often in recent years when it’s come to getting big deals done that I really won’t hold my breath over this one.

But Ronny is on the record as having said that if we get to the Group stages then he’d have greater latitude to go and get in someone a bit special.

Will the deal be done before the Malmo qualifiers?

If I had to guess, I’d say no.

If it’s real – and not just more transfer window fluff – it will almost certainly depend on us reaching the Groups.

That would make sense financially and it would make sense that a big name player would want to wait to see if we made them.

So much of our transfer business – ins and outs both – is contingent, these days, on us making it to that Promised Land.

The one horrible exception was Neil’s second to last season where he had to watch as his team was weakened during the qualifiers themselves … a scandal for which other people at our club should have been handed their walking papers.

We do seem to have learned from that searing experience though.

We’ve done what business we’ve had to very well, and in a timely fashion this year.

But certain things were always going to depend on how far we got in the tournament.

Fingers crossed we make it past Malmo.

Fingers crossed that this time we get our man, whoever he might be.

As if it wasn’t nail biting enough already …