Yesterday’s article on Scott McKenna went down very well, which reminds me again that everyone loves a transfer tale.
This is the Silly Season, and a lot of the speculation is just plain silly.
Some of it is not.
This is an overview of the best of the transfer rumours that I’ve heard over the past few weeks, and my thoughts on whether these are good deals, bad deals, likely or never going to happen in a million years. Speculation, yes, but the fun kind!
Yaya Toure
It’s obvious why we were linked with this one; Yaya’s brother is at Celtic right now and there’s always been talk of this deal being possible. We know that the player himself is keen on the move, or at least doesn’t dismiss it, but the question arises about whether or not Yaya is a footballer we necessarily need?
He might have the legs for one more year but so what?
Midfield is a crowded area at Celtic Park. Anyone who came into the club to fill the midfield role would have to be someone truly game-changing or a long term prospect. Does Yaya still have the stuff to be a “game changing” player? You have to doubt it.
He’s not played much in the last 12 months and just getting him up to speed would take forever.
I never thought it was particularly likely to come off. Celtic have apparently denied that they are interested although I hear something a little different.
They’ve said that the manager is looking at “other areas of the team.” Which makes another of the names on this list appear just as unlikely … except it isn’t … and Toure isn’t a dead issue either but it’s a long shot.
Scott McKenna
The big story from yesterday, and a complicated saga which may have to be resolved in the summer rather in the here and now. There are many facets to this, including Derek McInnes being highly resistant to the idea. That’s the main barrier within their club though.
Whilst Rod Petrie was willing to mess us about over McGinn, Stewart Milne, about whom this site has usually little good to say, is not a complete fool.
He knows the player is a saleable asset and he is willing to talk business with whatever club offers them the right deal, and if that’s Celtic so be it. He does have to appease his manager though, and players plus cash or some kind of loan back is seen as one way to guarantee that McInnes won’t go off the deep end.
In a way, what we know officially from Celtic supports the idea that a loan back agreement wouldn’t be an entirely ridiculous concept. Boyata is being retained after all, and anyone we did buy would have to compete with the Belgian and Benkovic for a starting slot.
Whilst I think that’s what should happen, it’s not difficult to see why Brendan and Lawwell might want to know they’ve got something in place for the summer whilst relying on what we have at central defence in the here and now.
I don’t agree with that, but if they go out and sign a quality right back for decent money, and announce McKenna as a done deal at the end of the season I don’t think many of us would have much to complain about.
This one is going to go to the wire, and maybe beyond.
Timothy Castagne
A quality footballer and no mistake. If we could pull this deal off it would be the steal of the century, even at the prices being quoted. He is a fantastic defender and has a great engine going forward; he is on the right what Kieran Tierney is on the left.
An exciting prospect this one, but there are significant obstacles in the way of getting a deal done.
His club wants more money than we may be willing to offer. There’s substantial interest in him from other clubs, and he appears to fancy Spain or Germany, even staying Italy, as an alternative to the SPL and you can’t really hold that against him or any footballer.
We’ve moved on in terms of looking at other targets, but nobody at Celtic has entirely given up on it either.
As long as there’s a whiff of a chance that something could happen here this is a light that won’t be switched off until an alternative deal is over the line, because he’s our absolute first choice and we’ll be disappointed if we have to sign someone else.
Difficult, not impossible. I understand why we’re moving forward with other targets, but I also know why we’re not entirely rejecting this one as a possibility yet.
James McCarthy
According to Jim White, there’s a transfer conference going on up at Celtic Park right now about James McCarthy coming on loan. If the club isn’t interested in Toure why in God’s name would they be interested in this? A few reasons actually.
First, I know the manager is actually looking at a midfielder, just as we were in the summer. Just because he’s sending Mulumba out the door it doesn’t mean we’re weakening that area of the pitch. Mulumba hasn’t worked out, but his signing in the first place, coming hot on the heels of the McGinn fiasco, should tell you that the midfield is still one of Brendan’s priorities.
Finding a replacement for Scott Brown remains critical. McCarthy is nearly six years younger than Scott and has a lot of football left in him. He’s 28, when a player is at the peak of his powers. When fully fit he is John McGinn five years down the line, with experience at the highest level under his belt, and ten times tougher in the tackle. You could not find a better replacement for Brown in terms of someone you know can hack it at our club unless you were willing to scour the Earth.
The guy is such a perfect off-the-shelf match they should be selling him on Amazon.
And selling him on the move itself is child’s play.
He would crawl up here through broken glass and over barbed wire.
His family would throw the biggest party the south-side has ever seen.
It makes perfect sense, all of it. And so too does the idea of a loan, because the board would not sanction a deal unless they knew they were getting value for money and really the only unknown here is James’ overall fitness.
That is what would need to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
Celtic would want to do a “try before you buy.”
Does that mean it’ll happen? Who can say for sure?
But if you watched that midfield at Ibrox it’s clear that they need a kick in the backside. A fully fit James McCarthy would be an immense asset to Celtic in a key area of the pitch. There are days when a team needs craftsmen on the pitch and others when it needs grafters. McCarthy can do both.
I’d take him in a minute … if he’s fit.
That’s why a loan deal is a no lose deal.
Daniel Sturridge
I had to put this one in here!
It comes up every single window since Brendan became boss.
Frankly I’d be astonished if the club hadn’t, at some point, inquired about the feasibility of this deal or one very similar to it. With us having brought in two front men already is there an argument for saying we don’t need another? Honestly, if it was viable we’d be mad not to do it.
I read online, when this rumour popped up, a lot of Celtic fans debating whether or not it would be a good move.
Are some of our supporters out of their minds? This would be a truly next-level piece of business, even on loan.
Has Sturridge been a bad signing for Liverpool? Only in terms of the last couple of seasons, where he hasn’t been great … but Rodgers made him look like a world beater and the club paid massive money for him in the first place on the back of enormous potential.
I put this one in here because the commentary surrounding it has been so daft, not because I actually think it would ever come off. But for the record, I would be over the moon if we did a piece of business as sterling as signing Daniel Sturridge on loan and I don’t know why any Celtic supporter wouldn’t be.
Likewise, if the deal was there to be done I have no idea why the Celtic board wouldn’t want to pursue it.
Because it’s a no brainer.
Omar Elabdellaoui
A good player.
Not worth £8 million though, when a transfer fee that size could probably get us in the ballpark of landing Timothy Castagne, who is the first pick for the right back position.
Nevertheless, if the club got real on its valuation then we’d certainly have something to talk about and this whole thing could move forward another notch.
He has experience at the very top of the game.
He is not huge, but he’s strong.
He gets up and down the pitch.
He’s a fine footballer and its certainly good to see people of this calibre on the short-list.
But as I said, that’s lot of money for the club to asking for him.
What would be a reasonable fee? The £4 million we’ve offered. Anything more than that and we could probably find a really good up and coming 20-25 year old in the same price bracket and that would represent a long term investment and much better business.
I certainly wouldn’t cry if we could carry this one though and our interest in him is real enough.
Victor Wanyama
My favourite of all the transfer rumours so far and the one I honestly wish I believed in or thought might come to fruition. Because I always loved the big man and of all the players we’ve seen depart from our club over the last ten or so years he is the one I regret going most and don’t think we tried hard enough to hold onto at all.
Big Victor is a magnificent footballer and that has not changed because he can’t get a game at Spurs.
From the very first match I watched him play in a Celtic shirt I knew this guy was special. He was strong on the ball, passed it well, he was aggressive in the tackle and physically intimidating. He was majorly dangerous at set pieces. Even as an under 21 you knew he had the lot.
His goal against Barcelona, in the 2-1 win at Celtic Park, will live in my memory forever.
That we let him go so meekly is still horrendous and I would be over the moon if there was the slightest chance of him returning even on a short term loan deal … and that’s pretty much would it have to be as getting him back to Parkhead would cost a bomb.
Yeah, I wish I believed it. I know the big man still has a lot of affection for the club and if he’s not playing at Spurs would probably leap at the move … but it never seemed likely and when Celtic sources denied it I wasn’t surprised.
Just very, very, very disappointed.
Micah Richards
Once upon a time, oh yes, this would have been a fantastic piece of business because he was a player who looked like having a wonderful career in front of him. What happened to this guy? I do not know, but he’s 30 now and time has devastated his chances of ever rising to the top, where he once looked as if he belonged.
He has played three games in two years.
And it’s tragic because what a player he looked like becoming.
He has 13 caps for England, but most of them were over ten years ago, won when he was still just a teenager, playing for the Manchester City first team. What a commanding footballer, what a fantastic centre back, he was back then. I could never have imagined him coming to this.
Serious questions have haunted him for years now, over his fitness, his attitude, his team spirt, his will to win. That alone rules him out because Brendan wants grafters and people willing to fight. Richards is more bling than anything else.
Five years ago I’d have said “grab him and get him on a five year deal.”
Five years later there’s nothing to credit this at all.
Frankly, it’s the kind of signing the Ibrox club would make.
Josh Maja
This one has reared its head in the last couple of days, and he’s a supposed to be a good prospect.
As a Bosman I can see this perhaps being something we’d explore, especially as Weah and Burke will probably go back to their own clubs in the summer … and there remains a degree of uncertainty over whether Leigh will be ready to come back or not.
Maja is a striker. He plays for Sunderland. He’s a Nigerian youth player but he was born in Lewisham. He broke into their team last season, but looked a little overwhelmed. This season, in England’s third tier, he’s improved out of sight and now looks like he has something.
Those who think the third tier down there isn’t somewhere should be finding players ought to bear in mind that we signed Gary Hooper from Scunthorpe when that’s the highest level he had played at. But he had those qualities – including a splendid eye for goal – which told you that he would do us a turn.
I would not write a footballer off for where he plays.
Is it going to happen? It would be a pre-contract agreement and that would let him finish the season at his current club, where I’m sure he’d continue to do well.
That would enable us to have him for the next campaign where his talents would be even more honed.
One to watch.
The next few weeks will tell the tale.
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