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Celtic’s Latest “Target” Has “Power, Strength & Quality” But Also Too Big A Price Tag

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When Brendan spoke the other day and promised “power, strength and quality” the Serbian winger he signed for Liverpool and who withered on the vine is exactly the sort of player who comes to mind. Reports down south say we’re favourites to sign Lazar Markovic, but they have to be taken with a pinch of salt the size of Utah.

Because he does tick the boxes.

And he’d be a bonanza player, a high-profile purchase, one which would signify intent to a fare-thee-well.

It would also shatter the Scottish transfer record; not our club record, mind, but the one Rangers set when they purchased Tore Andre Flo. I expect we’d get more value for money, but for all that I very much doubt we’re about to spend an eight figure sum on anyone. We might never. That remains to be seen. Whilst I feel Brendan will break our current record, he won’t obliterate it in this fashion, no matter how much he fancies this guy.

Markovic is a player of the highest quality. He is strong, fast and technically gifted. He’s just the player we need to play wide right if Patrick Roberts is definitively not coming back. But he cost Liverpool somewhere in the region of £21 million … and whilst willing to take a hit on him, and a significant one at that, most reports agree it’ll be closer to an £8 million one than the sort that would put him within reach of a Celtic shirt.

Now it’s possible we’re looking at him on loan; I would not be devastated by that but if our transfer business pre-qualifiers amounts to a loanee, a kid from Ipswich and Jonny Hayes serious questions are going to be asked about our intent.

Put bluntly, our board isn’t going to get by on playing it cheap here.

Brendan is entitled to a proper transfer kitty.

He earned the right to expect one.

For all that, Markovic would be a major coup, even as a loanee.

I just don’t see it happening. Even at the EPL price tag this guy will command there will be major interest in his signature. We’ve not got the cash for such an endeavour; it would eat up the whole transfer budget in one go. And I don’t think any of us would be comfortable with that.

Markovic is 23. He has huge re-sale potential; that would be the upside of spending serious coin on a player like that.

But it’s a risk beyond which our board will go.

I don’t know where this story has come from, frankly. But overnight our club wound up favourites to sign him, at least according to the bookies. Someone, somewhere, has taken a serious flutter on this, enough to move the markets significantly.

That suggests the interest is real enough … but I just don’t see it going anywhere because of the likely costs involved, and that’s just the transfer fee. Can you imagine what kind of salary this guy has to be on? It’s unlikely at best, I think.

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