Shortly before I shut the computer off last night, there was a story in a national newspaper which suggested I’d be waking up to news of an imminent signing. I got up this morning, logged on, checked the news and it wasn’t done yet.
But it was still lingering there, a story I hoped not to read.
Jonny Hayes. To Celtic.
As I wrote about earlier in the week. It’s the transfer story that doesn’t want to die, although God I wish it would already. Because it would be spectacularly underwhelming. Hayes is 29. The SPL is the highest level he’s ever played at save for a few minor forays into European football with Aberdeen. He is an SPL level player, that’s the simple truth. He is not near to the standard or the quality the Celtic fans were expecting from this window.
If he was being brought in to represent a challenge to Forrest, in place of Patrick Roberts, I think most Celtic fans would be appalled at the low calibre of that replacement. If the move was costing us more than money, and involving the sale of Ryan Christie it would be disgraceful and something we would regret a hundred times over as Christie becomes a top player.
The saving grace on that score might be Ryan himself; if he decides he’s got a future at Celtic Park and wants to fight for it then it is job done. I don’t know a single Celtic fan who would prefer Jonny Hayes in our squad to this kid and the idea of a swap deal for them would be sickening.
The prospect of us having to pay cash on top of it? Ridiculous.
This story doesn’t look like it has much grounding in reality; the thing emerged last night from a click-bait site and immediately jumped from there to McGowan at The Daily Mail. From that point it does what these stories always do, it ended up right across the media like a disease that was catching. There’s nothing from Celtic – who’s entire top tier team are on holiday – or from Aberdeen who have been linked with several players including Mackay Steven and Shaun Maloney, in anticipation of Hayes departing.
But the destination was always believed to be England.
Where is this story coming from?
Two places, it would seem.
The “embrace” at the end of the cup final and the fact Brendan signed him once before.
Brendan embraced every Aberdeen player at the end of the game; he’s a class act. Hayes had missed a glaring chance at a crucial point in the match; is it outside the realms of possibility that Brendan was simply telling him to keep his head up and not dwell on it?
And yeah, he took the player to Reading when he was there as a youth coach.
It was thirteen years ago … and Hayes never played for him. Not even once.
That the media has been able to get a story out of a link as tenuous as that is mind-boggling.
In the event that this story is true and not simply Lazy Journalism taken to the extreme, would Jonny Hayes do a job for us? In the SPL? Probably. He is a decent SPL player.
But is that what we’re focussed on? The greater question is what would he add in Europe and the answer to that is very, very little indeed. If the guy was signed and neither Roberts joined nor a high calibre replacement for him, and we were told that Jonny Hayes was it, who, really, would be satisfied with that?
We trust Brendan Rodgers, and believe that man knows what he’s doing.
I don’t doubt for one second that he could find an extra edge to Hayes’ game, and as far as Scotland goes we’ll have a very effective player.
But as a symbol of ambition, this would be a non-starter.
If it happens I will recalibrate my hopes for this window and for a real attempt at making a show of it in the Champions League accordingly and I would advise you all to do the same rather than wind up sorely disappointing when the window shuts.
Roberts is a player of dazzling natural ability, and on that every single one of us is agreed. This is why we’re talking of making him the marquee signing even if it costs us a substantial part of the transfer budget Brendan has available.
We cannot hold that view on the one hand and then say it would be fine if he was replaced by a player from Aberdeen who’s been in Scotland for the last eight years, and has never been deemed good enough to bid for before.
And now he’ll get into The Invincibles? Really?
We spend millions on scouting every single year … and so there’s no-one out there anywhere better than this? Because a team which replaces an outstanding young talent from the EPL with a 29 year old from the SPL isn’t to be taken seriously when it talks of ambitions beyond these shores.