Today there are reports in the papers which suggest that we’re closing in on a deal for Patrick Roberts, and that the stumbling block appears to be the price that we’re willing to pay for him. Before I start, I’ll say this comes as no surprise at all. We’ve had this discussion many times on here, and on Facebook, I’m sure, about how Celtic have been working behind the scenes to get this deal done. Our interest in making the move permanent isn’t new.
Indeed, Celtic have wanted to keep Roberts almost from the minute he walked through the doors. The length of the loan deal itself – two seasons instead of one – showed you how highly rated he was by the club. The intention has always been there. The only issues were going to be whether City saw him as having a future there, whether the player himself was interested in the deal and, of course, how much it was going to cost us.
Let’s start with the first; Patrick Roberts has been awesomely unlucky in many ways. The deal to take him to City was negotiated with Manuel Pellegrini in the chair. He lasted a year. It was clear that Roberts was part of an attempt to give the club a backbone of English players, so that they wouldn’t fall foul of EPL and UEFA rules on home grown footballers. One of the others they signed was Fabian Delph, who as it happens we’re also sporadically linked to.
Pellegrini is gone, and in his place is Pepe Guardiola.
With his unveiling as boss, Roberts’ chances of ever playing for their team began to recede rapidly. Guardiola was brought in as the high-profile glory-getter, the kind of top appointment City fans have come to expect. And with a superstar boss in the dugout, superstar players were always going to follow.
And of course, Patrick wasn’t the only one who was going to be on the fringes as a result of that. Other young players at City, including Delph, found themselves in the same boat, and what made it worse was that Guardiola didn’t mount a successful title challenge in the first campaign, adding to the pressure on him to make a success of it this time.
Which means big signings and the spending of big money.
Patrick’s chances there are liited, as a consequence. He wanted to go back and find out if he had a shot; he’ll already know the answer to that question, I think. He always has. As good a player as he is, he’s spent two years in what the arrogant EPL types see as a backwater. His chance at rapid progress was to play where their eyes were ever on him. He might get a move to such a club now, if he wants it – it’s almost certain that if they made him available for transfer, by listing him, that he would wind up at a Premiership club – but he wants more than that now, now that he’s played in front of 60,000 fans and tasted Champions League football.
Patrick Roberts knows what it’s like to play at a global club.
Nothing less will do now.
The kid can have whatever kind of future he wants, but short of cracking the City first team anything else will look like a backward step. Celtic is his club now; he has friends here. He is loved here. He will win trophies and be part of even more history.
Which brings us to the cost. That’s the only question left.
£6 million should seal the deal.
In spite of what a lot of the more feverish press reports claim, that’s more than City initially paid for him. There are reports which put the actual, cash, transfer fee as low as £2 million. All the talk of £12 million is on the majorly high side. They didn’t pay Fulham anywhere near that. It is speculative nonsense. The number may rise to that level, somewhere close to it anyway, with add-ons and sell on clauses but anything else is guesswork.
City are in the process of rebuilding their entire squad. A good offer will close this deal, and numerous sources have confirmed that we’ve made one. There’s a little haggling going on, of course, but that’s to be expected. The latest reports suggest that the manager will be handed every penny of the Virgil Van Dijk bonus in order to do this, and that’s great news because it doesn’t even impact on our general transfer budget.
£6 million plus add-ons, plus a sell on clasue … that would give City a very nice return on their investment, which is all their owners really care about.
Unlike some clubs, we have no need for a major rebuilding job. More importantly – and this is the real difference – we have the funds to get done what we need to. A marquee signing sends a real message about our intent, and this would be one for sure.
Roberts has been at Celtic Park for two years already; some will laugh this off as us simply retaining the current level of the squad; they could not be more wrong. If Roberts commits his future to the club that’s enormous. It will be the first time in decades that a major emerging talent from England has pledged his long term future to a team here, and that buys us credibility right across the spectrum. We are on the up and up.
Close this deal, Celtic.
Start this summer off in the best possible way.