Another day and another series of Celtic transfer rumours.
In some of them, Olivier Ntcham is off to Southampton in a swap deal for big Forster and/or Elyounoussi.
Others link us with former targets, including Jordan Ibe.
But how much of this can we take seriously? How many are realistic options?
Let’s start with this; the Scottish transfer window is due to open on 9 June. That’s under normal circumstances anyway. I think it pretty unlikely that we’re going to see a lot of activity. The window in England has technically been open since 17 May.
Have you heard of any big deals going down?
Too much is still up in the air right now, there is too much that is uncertain.
I am encouraged in a way; it keeps the chances of losing a top tier talent pretty slim, at least for the time being. It might well be that we lose people somewhere down the line, and key people, but there has to be more certainty to the footballing picture before that becomes clear.
We don’t even know, right now, if there will be European football.
I think you can rule out major moves, in any direction.
The reason the Ntcham to Southampton thing has traction is that we are known to want to keep Forster and Elyounoussi … but depending on what happens with the EPL the clubs there might be about to take the financial hit of all time, and those two might not be so far out of our reach as we thought.
As I have said in other pieces, what we have here is survival of the unfittest. Those leagues who have got mammoth TV deals are the ones scrambling to put the show back on; otherwise there are likely to be dire consequences right down the line.
Until we know what state English football is likely to be in, it’s impossible to predict what our club’s own signing policy will be. I expect us to try and secure some people on loans, and perhaps others on freedom of contract, but don’t look for big money.
I love a good transfer story as much as the next man; there are websites out there which rely on them and I frequent many of them. The mainstream press also loves them as it stops them having to ask hard questions of one club that might not answer them.
But I don’t think there’s any real news to report at the moment, which is why I am taking all this with large grains of salt.
There will be plenty of time for the real stuff later.
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