The press is at it again this morning, trying to suggest that we’re on the verge of entering into some kind of “bidding war” for John McGinn. That could not be any further from the truth if the hacks were trying. We will not take part in any such thing.
First up, as Hibs’ manager Neil Lennon has admitted, there’s been no actual Brighton bid, just speculative nonsense which is coming from one of three place; it’s someone inside the club (and we can guess who), it’s media stirring or it’s coming from Brighton, who have a history of this kind of thing having trailed nonsense for months about Dembele only to never actually submit an offer. They seem to like being in the papers.
My suspicion is that this has come from Hibs, in an ill-judged effort to try to bounce us into upping our last offer.
We are not going to up our last offer, at least whilst the English transfer window is open.
We have made our final offer to their club until then, and if there is one more after that window shuts but before ours does it will be of the “take it or leave it” variety, a minimal increase on the last if we decide to improve it at all.
There will be no bidding war even if another club comes along.
We are no longer bidding. We’ve told them what we’ll pay in cash terms, and there’s an unspoken understanding of what benefits Hibs already get from a good relationship with us … and that’s that. Petrie has a choice about how stupid he allows this to get, and how much his club pays for it.
People inside Celtic know what they are doing with this one, and they know that the fans are onside with it. There is no reason to rush, no reason to panic, and certainly no need to get into an auction. With all respect to John McGinn, most Celtic fans don’t believe he’s worth an auction.
We’ve made a fair offer.
We now wait to see whether Hibs wise up.