So today, the hacks are gleefully reporting that there has been an “inquiry” about Olivier Ntcham. Not an actual bid, an inquiry. Like me tweeting The Washington Post to ask if they need another writer about Donald Trump.
Just inquiring, you know? Just in case.
This nonsense was expected, and like a diarrhoea pandemic it has already leaped from one source to another. That this was inevitable does not make it any less tiresome. The guy has been at Celtic Park for just over a year. I expect him to be at Celtic Park for many, many, many of them to come … yes even beyond the current term of his contract.
The clickbait sites are having a ball with this one, although it has all the substance of a wet fart. The mainstream press will stir it mercilessly. Good. Let them have fun. It won’t be long before the same headlines are being generated about Odsonne Edouard.
Hey, look at it this way; if West Ham are interested in Ntcham it means that we can pop a pin in that ludicrous story of yesterday which had them interested in Josh Windass only for Sevco to be holding out for a higher fee.
No chief scout comes back from Scotland saying “you should go for this Windass guy, but if his club won’t sell take a chance on Ntcham …”
I do find these stories aggravating, but this is the consequence of having a squad that is filled with saleable assets. Someone, somewhere, will always want to buy and especially when, in English football, even dreck like Waghorn are going for major sums.
There is a kind of collective insanity down there that I have never wanted us to join in.
Sevco has none of these sort of players. Waghorn himself is not and has never been a player remotely worth £8 million; it is the kind of signing that would once have got a manager the sack. Celtic has done its work right down through the years, and we have a squad of fine talents to prove it.
Ntcham is only the latest of them.
I expect that when we do finally get our act together and get a signing or two over the line that we’ll be pleased at the overall quality of them. I certainly do not expect that we will lose any player of note from the current squad. Ntcham is here for the long haul. The media can invent all the nonsense it wants and EPL minnows can dream like they do and Sevco can only fantasise about having serious money on the table for any of its deadbeats.
This is how it feels to be Celtic. Yes, it’s maddening at times reading this kind of bollocks, but I’d certainly rather be in our position that that of a certain club across town. More on them later. You could not invent their level of disarray.