Celtic today ramped up its search for new players, with a guaranteed £30 million plus change now secured via our qualification for the Group Stages of the Champions League. With that cash now guaranteed, and the lure of the big games with it, the rumour factory went into overdrive last night, and one of the stories we’ve talked about here exploded onto the back pages.
James McCarthy is most definitely a priority target. The talk is not even of a season long loan, which is in line with what many of us expected, but a transfer record matching bid to bring him here on a permanent basis, as a key part of the Rodgers team.
I’m told he wants to return home, and with that in mind Everton are willing to accept a bid of just £6 million if it grants the player that wish. The inconvenience of having to come up against him in the EPL, where there’s a tendency for former players to haunt teams, would be avoided with it.
McCarthy is a Celtic fan to his core. Glasgow looms large in his thinking. If it’s true (and I’m assured that it is) that he and Koeman have had a frank discussion about his future and he’s not been given the assurances he wanted, then it’s over on Merseyside.
McCarthy is 26. Like our bid to sign Roberts’ that deal represents a long term investment.
He could play for Celtic for near on ten years. Those of us who argued that Stuart Armstrong was the long-term replacement for Scott Brown have been disappointed thus far. McCarthy, without question, could fill those rather big shoes with ease. It’s the job he was born to do.
All of this isn’t to say that the chances of the Roberts’ signing are receding. One interesting suggestion that I’ve heard would be for Roberts to arrive at Celtic on a three or four year deal, for around £6 million, with the one caveat that Manchester City could, if they wanted, during the terms of his initial contract, buy him back for a set fee, effectively giving them first refusal. That may work for some people. It worked for Barcelona when they sold us Marc Crosas.
They had the ability to bring him home for the first two years.
It may not even be a case of one player or the other; there’s an argument that says with the £30 million in the bank and the stands now full, that Celtic could front-load their transfer spending and bring the key elements of Brendan’s team in this season, giving him the maximum opportunity to mould the team and get them up to speed, giving us not only the best chance of doing well in these group stages but setting us up well in advance to qualify again next year.
In addition to that, a deal for Roberts, who’s at the club at the moment of course, could wait until January. McCarthy could be brought in right now. That would spread the spending over two windows and give Celtic a chance to move some of our bench-warmers out of the club; the futures of Stefan Johansen, Gary Mackay Steven, Efe Ambrose and probably even Kris Commons now have to be in the gravest doubt. Those guys all deserve the chance to go and play football elsewhere, and I’d be surprised if they were all still at Celtic come the end of this month.
Things are heating up! There’s money in the kitty, and for the first time in a long time we’ve not only got the ability to spend big but a manager with the plans and the will to do just that, to forge this team in his own image.
It’s exciting stuff, and we haven’t even had the draw yet.
In Brendan We Trust.
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