So today the least surprising transfer development of the summer involving Celtic comes to pass; Scott Allan is going out on loan, to Rotherham. Anyone surprised by that? Even a little? Choice of club notwithstanding, this one was on the cards.
Way back, this time last year, when we were linked with Scott Allan for the first time I made two predictions, one entirely right and the other entirely wrong. I said he would never, ever, in a million years, sign for Sevco. Hibs were determined not to do business with that club, at any cost. Whilst the papers predicted Hibs would fold and put pressure on them to do just that, Alan Stubbs and his board dug in their heels and said “not a chance in Hell.”
I also said he would never sign for Celtic. I said if he did I would eat a n entire concrete mixer full of humble pie, and when the day of the signing came I duly posted my apology (complete with a striking photo of a green and white hooped concrete mixer) and welcomed him to the club. But my reasons for thinking he’d never sign hadn’t been based on anything other than a look at the Celtic squad and a simple wondering of how he’d get in it.
It was the moment the transfer policies at our club looked most skewed and begged the question as to just who was running them. The manager certainly hadn’t wanted Scott Allan; he proved that, in the only way that mattered, by leaving him to rot in the reserves for the better part of the season. It made no sense whatsoever as a squad building option either; it was the one area of the pitch where we didn’t need another footballer, and even as he was being paraded the chronic need for a proven goal scorer to partner Leigh was glaring, and so were issues at the back.
It was a piece of business that was frankly incomprehensible at the time, and it remains incomprehensible to the present day.
None of this is to devalue Scott Allan as a footballer, but over the course it’s become clear that he’s the least gifted player in a bloated midfield that simply did not need him added to it. I hope he does well at Rotherham and comes back to play a role in the first team squad, but he’s a ways away from that right now and the simple truth is that he always was.
So how did he end up at Celtic Park? Who made that call? We can say it wasn’t Deila; Deila never bothered to hide his lack of interest in the kid, which must have made life at Celtic exceedingly hard for him. Whoever sanctioned that deal did Scott Allan an enormous personal and career dis-service, and that ought never to be forgotten.
Whoever brought him to our club, either without the consent of the manager or in the hope he would find a place for him, has cost this kid a full year of proper football development. That’s a disgraceful way to treat a young player. That he’s not going to spend another year kicking his heels is definitely for the best, but this is something Deila should have done on the first day if he wasn’t going to give Allan a chance.
A lot of mistakes have been made on this one.
The question seems especially valid at this moment in time too, with us now a mere six days from another Champions League signing deadline and no sign of life whatsoever from Celtic Park. When that bell rings, a lot of people inside our ground are going to have no hiding place from the barrage of criticism and vitriol if the manager hasn’t been given some proper backing. Too many people inside our club are being revealed in this close season as either selfish arrogant arseholes or rank incompetents, no matter how many people they have defending them.
Scott Allan was followed to Celtic Park by other incomprehensible signings, like Carlton Cole and, worse even than that, Colin Kazim Richards. I thought Cole might have been a risk-free punt, but he was better than useless and a drain on resources. Kazim Richards was every bit as big a waste of the jersey as I’d feared and as his patchy record suggested. Without tempting fate, it looks in this window as if the panic buys are over with, the experiments have been jettisoned and that the manager is at least knocking out the idea the idea of bringing in dross just to make up numbers. There’s enough of that going on across town.
We should have seen the last of the Scott Allan signings. That’s something to celebrate, at least, even if there’s been absolutely no sign of life of late except the signing of Toure on a free. It’s not good enough by a long way, but at least he and Dembele were most definitely players the manager fancied and wanted to work with.
That give us some reason for optimism, even if we’re all justifiably concerned about the chronic lack of progress or even signs of concern from people other than the manager.
The time for excuses was over long since.
People inside Celtic better give themselves a right good shake and start delivering for Brendan Rodgers.
In the meantime, I regard letting Scott Allan go as something good for the club and good for the player both.
I hope he does well at Rotherham and comes home again a better player for it, and more ready for the Celtic first team squad.
Best wishes, Scott, from everyone in the Celtic Family.
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