Ladies and gents, the longest transfer saga in Scottish football’s recent history will officially end tonight at Celtic Park when, it is expected, that Patrick Roberts sits in front of the press corps after signing on the dotted line to rejoin the club on a year long loan.
It is unclear, as yet, if there is an option to buy, but Celtic are believed to have wanted one and I would be surprised if it is not part of the deal.
Roberts is Brendan’s fourth signing of the summer window, and arrives with a pedigree that needs no elaboration at all. He is a fantastic player, this represents a great piece of business, and he will add firepower and strength to our starting eleven and the overall squad.
We are lucky that such a fantastic young footballer wanted this move, and by the time this contract ends he will have been at Celtic Park for two and a half years … that’s more commitment than we got from some of the players we brought here on long term deals.
That’s what’s important to me here; that Roberts himself made the decision to push for this move, and that he appears to have realised that he has no future in Manchester. It is sad, in a way. I feel bad for the kid that his dream move has gone south like this, but he has found his true home at Celtic Park, and I expect he understands that.
A thousand thousand words have been written on this subject already; I know because I’ve written a bunch of them. It was the move I most wanted this summer, and even though it’s only a loan that does not mean that it’s come cheap; in fact, Manchester City are charging us outrageously for this, so much so that I would have fully understand had Celtic pulled the plug and bought someone with the cash. I would have been disappointed though.
Because Patrick is “box office.” Patrick is the business. Patrick is the sort of signing we wanted, and the kind of player who can light up a game and drive us forward to another Invincible campaign. He is that sort of footballer, a very special talent right out of the top drawer.
Welcome home, brother.
We’ve put so much work into this over the summer that it was never really in doubt; only the timing was.
It’s been some wait, but the deal is finally done.