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Petrie Moves The Goalposts. So Yes, Celtic, It’s Time To Walk Away From McGinn. For Now.

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And so it ends as it began, with Petrie trying to throw a wrench in our planning.

And this will probably be the end. Indeed, it should be.

No more of this. No more of this nonsense.

At £3 million for McGinn, a deal was there to be done. Last night Hibs moved the goalposts and are now allegedly asking for £4 million. So yes, Petrie thinks he can play games and that is a game too far. And there is something we can do about it, and I’m certain that it’s the road we are going to take because what other option is there?

We’re certainly not going to give in and pay that ridiculous sum.

John McGinn is in the last year of his deal. Hibs say they are using Brown and the fee we paid for him as the benchmark; well try this for size. Brown wasn’t in the last year of his contract. McGinn is. There were other clubs interested in Brown. If that was the case here the papers would be running the auction or Hibs would have sold him already.

So the comparison is ridiculous and even insulting to our intelligence. This is clearly not about John McGinn, what’s best for him or even what is best for Hibs. This has Petrie all over it, playing funny buggers, trying to be a smart arse, looking to screw us whatever the cost.

Well as we’ve seen at Sevco, stupidity on that scale is expensive, and more for Hibs than for us, and especially for their manager Neil Lennon.

It is Lennon, and to a lesser extent, the player who will suffer the most direct consequences. But Hibs themselves are going to lose out as well.

Walk away Celtic, spend the money on another part of the team.

Retain the services of Scott Allan and see if he has something to offer.

That’ll plug the hole in the midfield vacated by Armstrong on a temporary basis, and really that’s all we need because in a midfield area which already boasts Brown, Ntcham, Rogic, McGregor, Eboue, Christie and Bitton we’re not exactly going to be short.

The money could be spent better, especially that much of it.

This is a piss-take and as I said in the original piece on this, Celtic has a valuation beyond which it will not go and £4 million exceeds that valuation by quite a way. Hibs know this, so this is effectively Petrie letting us know that he won’t sell McGinn to us, period.

I said in my last article on this matter that both clubs would have to be sensible; it’s clear that Hibs have no intention of doing that. This is a game to Petrie, and he’s going up against the wrong player in trying this on with Peter Lawwell.

In the end, this is going to cost him unless the decision is taken out of his hands. Either the manager will object in the strongest possible terms to a player like McGinn being allowed to run his contract down, or the other board members at Hibs will get a grip on this. Otherwise, January is when we’ll do our business with them for the kid and once he signs a pre-contract agreement their choices will be to lose him for a nominal fee or no fee at all.

The media has been well briefed; reports say Hibs don’t want to stand in his way. Which is why they have placed an exorbitant price tag on his head. The simple truth is that Petrie does not want him to go to Celtic, and that’s the issue and that’s the problem.

Well, no problem at all.

Walk away, Celtic. Call this one quits.

We owe Petrie nothing now, not even the courtesy of a call to tell him to forget it.

Bide your time, wait till January, make him pay.

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