Celtic looks increasingly likely to make at least one more signing before we play in the next round of the Champions League. Today the media has us linked with several players, and the rumour mill has us linked with several more. Some are more likely than others; a few are obvious flights of fancy put about by agents or people with an axe to grind.
It would be remiss of me not to tackle this Steven Davis nonsense first.
Quite where that has come from I do not know. Frankly, an ageing has-been like him wouldn’t get near Brendan’s squad. But what I find interesting about the rumour isn’t the rumour itself – started God knows where for the purposes of God knows what – nor even his much publicised reaction to it, but the reaction of the Sevco fans to that.
How quickly they forgive certain people, and how easily pacified they are. After all, wasn’t Davis one of the guys who was on the Hate List for the way he refused to accept that the NewCo and the OldCo were one in the same?
Yes, whatever Davis might now say on Twitter, he and other players were happy enough to kiss the blue jersey, but he couldn’t wait to walk away on a free when administration turned into liquidation. His talk of “one team in Glasgow” is hilarious considering that he was one of a number of people at the time who talked of “the death of Rangers” and accepted it as a fact. All the Twitter backtracking in the world doesn’t change that, nor what he and others did.
They all did walking away.
The story about Paddy McNair doesn’t look as if it’s going away. He’s a central defender, which makes me wonder if that’s not just a lot of hot air. Does Brendan really want more cover at the back? If you accept that Efe is probably gone there’s still Sviatchenko, Simunovic, Toure, Boyata and now O’Connell. Is that enough? If we accept that O’Connell is still a kid and that Boyata can looks clumsy, that makes a case … but the McNair stories all suggest that it’s a loan deal, which makes me suspect it’s crap. Brendan doesn’t seem to like those.
There are still rumours about Callum Paterson. We’ll see how those turn out. As I said in an earlier piece, one of the possible answers to the central defensive situation, during a bad injury crisis, would be to make Lustig play there. He’s getting on a bit, so perhaps playing him as a full back is an idea who’s time is just about up. Paterson can therefore compete with Janko to be the long term solution to that, whilst Lustig gives us cover at centre half.
Another defender whose name has come up, and one that’s more intriguing than McNair’s or Paterson’s, is the Dutchman Jerry St Juste. That’s an interesting one, because he fits the classic profile of a Celtic signing; he’s young, he’s clever on the ball, still a wee bit raw but tipped for big things and at that part of his career before big money interest and smart agents have turned his head. He plays for Heerenveen and a Dutch website has just tipped him as one of the rising stars of the game over there. He’s got a lot to offer, and would be a great purchase.
Most interesting of all is the news that we’re after a goalkeeper with the name Michel Vorm being tossed around down south. The Spurs number 2 wouldn’t be coming to Celtic Park to sit on the bench again, that’s for sure. This one is interesting because Gordon has been the subject of a lot of scrutiny recently, for a series of silly mistakes. He sometimes doesn’t seem to command his box as a top class keeper should, and although a very good shot-stopper I would be surprised if Brendan didn’t already know there are major weaknesses in his game.
Vorm would cost though. A transfer fee might be negotiable, but he’d have to take a major cut in wages if he was going to come to Celtic Park. He is 32, about the right age for a keeper, and was almost an ever-present feature of Brendan’s Swansea side. Indeed, he played there for three seasons and impressed throughout.
The manager is slowly, but surely, putting his mark on this team.
At least one more signing before the “wild card” deadline is certain.
It’ll be interesting to see which area of the team it’s in.
In Brendan We Trust.
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