Charlie Nicholas has made one of those bizarre interventions of his today, one of those that leaves you scratching your head. It’s an obvious dig, but for what purpose? He claims that we don’t have a right to buy Fraser Forster and that we are paying him £40,000 a week.
His point seems to be that this is Southampton saving money whilst conceding nothing to us.
What a bitter man Nicholas is. Even if it were true – and we’ll get to that soon – we have secured the services of a top, top player for this campaign who has already proved his worth in several different ways and in massive high profile matches.
£40,000 a week is about £2 million a year.
For that, look at what we got for our money.
The cup final would not have been won without him. The big saves in Europe have secured us the top spot in our group and a pot of money for the ties we won. Our place in the knockout stages will generate even more cash, and this is to say nothing of saves in the league.
Fraser Forster would have more than earned his keep.
Beyond this campaign, who knows? Forster will either be available to us or he won’t.
He will either sign for us or he will not. But for a year at least, he has come in and done a fantastic job and it is to the credit of all at Celtic that they pulled off such an audacious deal, and I say that as somebody who was unsure about it in the first place.
Lastly, how would Nicholas know a single thing about what goes on inside Celtic Park?
This guy isn’t even on the Christmas card list far less welcome in the boardroom. The number of negative stories this guy generates with his constant bitching about the club have closed every door to him, and that’s been the case for years now, maybe even decades.
As far back as April 2010, Neil Lennon – in his first spell as manager of the club – told the media that “I’ve been here 10 years and I’ve never seen Charlie walk in through the door. So what Charlie knows about this club I do not know … I’m really annoyed that I have to give somebody like Charlie – who does nothing but bang away at Scottish football, bang away at Celtic – any press time at all when he’s a negative force. It irks me. He’s nothing but a destructive voice.”
As recently as last month – not more than three weeks ago – Lennon had to slap back at Nicholas again over his criticism of Leigh Griffiths. Odsonne Edouard has famously had a pop at him after his goal celebrations came in for a bit of stick.
It’s easy to say we should just ignore this guy, but he has the twin platforms of a place on Sky Sports and a column in a national newspaper from which to make mischief. All inside Parkhead know exactly what he’s about, but he still bears keeping an eye on.
|
|