Wow. Slow news day?
That’s the only possible explanation there can be for me getting up this morning to reports – widespread reports – that Brendan Rodgers wants to sign Jonny Hayes for Celtic, as our backup plan in case we don’t get Patrick Roberts.
Think on that for a moment. If we don’t get Roberts we’re going for Jonny Hayes. 29 year old Jonny Hayes.
Who we could have had at his peak when he left Inverness, if we were bothered at all.
A good player, if you’re looking to build an SPL grade side, but who will not make any kind of impact on the European level, which is what we aspire to.
His experience outside of Scotland is a handful of games in England, most of them in the lower leagues.
He has three Republic of Ireland caps, including one from the bench. The idea that he is a better player than James Forrest, far less able to fill the shoes of Patrick Roberts, is ridiculous. Even as a backup player he would be a poor excuse for a signing.
If we’re really looking to sign SPL players, there are two now that Callum Paterson has gone to England (turning down Sevco; was anything ever more likely?); Jamie Walker, his former team-mate at Hearts and John McGinn. Walker plays in the same position as Hayes, he’s younger and a far better long-term prospect and thus fits into the “Celtic model.”
Then there’s our own Ryan Christie, who plays wide and who the fans would far rather see get his chance. One report suggested, this morning, that he might be used as “makeweight” in the Hayes deal; what are we, Sevco? Offering our own players in part exchange?
Are we having problems making the rent or something? Difficulty finding quick cash?
The idea of us allowing Christie – a kid in his early 20’s with his whole career in front of him – to go to Aberdeen so we can get Hayes is enough to send you running to the bathroom with a hand clamped over your mouth. Not in this lifetime.
This story – which almost the whole of the Scottish press is writing – came from the pen of Steven McGowan, the resident bar-rattler at the Scottish Daily Mail, that well known font of all football knowledge. He slapped the word Exclusive on it too. As per usual, a story with zero backing it up, not a single quote, not a single “insider source” – nothing, in fact, except that Brendan “took him to Reading” thirteen years ago – has been taken up by everyone else in the media.
They really are lazy so-and-sos. One day they’ll have to do real work.
McGowan must have watched the cup final and thought Brendan talking to the player after the match was a sign of something in the wind.
But Brendan spoke to every player in the Aberdeen team.
Is he going to try and sign them all?
It’s one way to keep them from mounting a challenge, I suppose.