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Only A Handful Of Scottish Based Players Are Good Enough To Sign For Celtic

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You might have noticed a story doing the rounds on one of the click-bait sites this morning, about whether or not we should “hand Liam Boyce his dream move.”

Which would be to Celtic Park. This isn’t a story I would normally comment on, but today I’ll make an exception to the rule. Because at the heart of this story is a fundamental truth; Celtic has always benefited from having a good core group of Scottish players and as we move into the future I don’t expect that to change.

With it in mind, it behoves us to consider the current crop of Scottish based players and ask how many of them, realistically, would command a place not in our first eleven – that’s a non-starter, no matter how many non-Celtic players the hacks managed to squeeze into the Team of the Year – but in the actual Celtic squad.

And that number is painfully small. I can think of two, off the top of my head, who are without doubt possessed of the appropriate skillset. They both play in Edinburgh for the respective clubs there. One is John McGinn, who we’ve copiously lauded on this site, and the other is Callum Patterson of Hearts who’s flitted on and off the radar for a few years.

Patterson would be a good squad player, and in particular if we moved Lustig to a central defensive post. With Gamboa starting to look like a player it’s unlikely that he would be sold to accommodate the Scot. But the idea had resonated with Ronny and his backroom team and there were supposed to be moves afoot to make it happen, although it never did.

John McGInn would also be a squad player, but he would play a lot of games even in a debut season. He is clearly one of Brendan’s targets, and he and the backroom team have spoken highly of him.

Those two aside, I wonder who else there is. Kenny McLean of Aberdeen maybe? Other than that, I struggle, I really do.

The obvious area to improve would be wide right, where Forrest has been excellent but was not amongst the player of the year contenders. Every other position in the team has at least one and possibly more players who are better than our regular opposition. If Roberts goes that leaves James on his own as the last man standing in the role. The manager has clearly identified the slot as one he wants to fill, but are there Scottish players who could step into it?

Jamie Walker at Hearts is a class act, but we’re looking for a Champions League player, someone who’s at that level. He is thus ruled out, as is Johnny Hayes who the media touts as the only player in the country good enough in that spot. Indeed, he made many team of the years in front of Forrest. I don’t think he’s nearly as good a player.

There was brief talk about Lionel Ainsworth at Motherwell but he’s an SPL player and nothing more. He has nowhere near the quality that spot requires.

We were also linked, at one time, with John Souttar of Hearts, whilst he was a Dundee Utd player of some potential. It’s impossible to imagine him getting into the team ahead of Boyata, Sviatchenko or Simunovic.

Leigh Griffiths was the last truly exceptional Scottish striker. It is hard to imagine anyone emerging in that role who would tempt Celtic to make an offer. We were linked with Adam Rooney several years ago but it was never a likely move. Now this suggestion has emerged that we look to Liam Boyce, who only a few weeks ago was being lauded by the Ibrox fans.

They can’t afford him. We wouldn’t want him. Boyce is a good player who’s scored a lot of goals this season, but he’s better than the quality they can attract and far below the standard we should be shooting for. As a Hearts of Aberdeen player he would be excellent, and would give both clubs something extra in next year’s campaign.

John McGInn may well be on his way to Celtic Park; as far as players in the domestic game goes he’s the only one I could see making that step. Which in some ways is a shame. There is no truly outstanding talent, like Armstrong was, out there.

A measure of how far Scottish football has fallen? No. A measure rather of how good a player Armstrong was and is, and of how far we’ve risen above the rest.

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