Yesterday, watching young John McGinn, was a bittersweet experience for me.
I’ve been singing his praises on this site for an age, and I know Brendan and people at Celtic have been keeping their eyes on him. I would have preferred he not reserve his best performance of the season for playing against us, but if you’re hoping to attract interest from the club you grew up supporting I guess there are worse ways than having an absolute stormer at their ground.
John McGinn was born to play for Celtic.
I’ve been a fan for years and I believed that it was only a matter of time before we made our move and brought him in. This is not a Jonny Hayes signing, or a Scott Allan one … McGinn is a better player than Allan and is a lot younger than Hayes.
He plays in a position where we have a lot of talent already, but doubts continue to surround the long term future of Stuart Armstrong and, without being harsh, Scott Brown’s future can now be stamped with the words Short Term.
I wish it were not so. As far as I’m concerned a fully fit Scott Brown could hang around Celtic and keep playing as long as he liked. But reality trumps fantasy every time; Scott Brown is coming to the end of his illustrious career.
We need to be thinking about the future.
And John McGinn is as close to being his natural replacement as you will find.
The kid oozes class, and he does it in big games, where it counts.
I thought that was one of his finest performances for Hibs yesterday. He will have caught Brendan’s eye again, and no mistake. But also those of watching scouts from England, and that’s why I don’t believe Celtic can delay when it comes to going and getting him. If we wait, he’ll be gone and playing down there before we know it and then our chances of getting him will recede with every year he is exposed to the hype and the glitz.
Having watched the kid a lot, he is certainly good enough to play down there. He reminds me in some ways of a young Paul Lambert; he lacks the polish and the sophistication Lambert had to his game, especially later in his career, but the quality is obvious.
And the rest of it will come.
His ability to function in high profile matches is something Lambert had in spades too.
McGinn was the subject of interest from England last season; Warburton was very interested in taking him to Forest, and Hibs resisted. That suggests we’ll have to make a very decent bid if we’re going to get him, but the cash is there. If the will is too, this one is ours to lose. English clubs, in their arrogance, won’t pay what Hibs think this kid is worth … if Brendan sees potential in this kid like he’s talked about we know we’d be getting a bargain.
We weren’t at our best yesterday, and there are two ways of looking at that; either we allowed Hibs too much of the ball, and the dominance over key areas, or they pressed us and made us work hard. After a tricky European away tie this would have been tough anyway, but I thought Hibs were absolutely brilliant.
They forced us to push ourselves more than I think we’d have liked. You have to hope this kind of Euro hangover isn’t going to become common, but then I don’t think we’ll play against teams as well organised as this every time either.
And at the centre of it all was the young kid himself, who’s dynamic performance, including two goals, will have done his career the world of good and put him on the radar of watching clubs. The most important of those clubs was ours.
Brendan, Peter, and everyone else at Parkhead; this kid is the future of Scottish football.
That future should be at Celtic Park.