Aaron Hickey
This was a deal I wasn’t initially interested in seeing get done, because the kid plays in a position where, until recently – this week – I wouldn’t have said we needed another player. Of course, Bolingoli has changed all that and a left back is suddenly a priority.
I wouldn’t pay a bit of notice to anyone who says we’re after ex-Dundee Utd boy Barry Douglas; our current plans are to sign footballers who can actually stay fit and his injury record is atrocious. We’d be asking for trouble there, and to be blunt I don’t think he has the quality.
Does Hickey though? Well, he’s certainly in the right age group and he’s certainly got the growing reputation.
There are top clubs talking to him, but it might just be that he longs for Celtic Park after leaving as a youth player.
There is interest for Europe – including Bayern Munich if you can believe that.
Watching them last night you can see how he’d grow as a man and as a footballer, but not where he would fit into that world class, Barcelona annihilating team at the moment, or for years.
Would he play at Celtic?
Well, he already has enough SPL experience that we could throw him in there without worrying, and we gave Tierney his debut younger than Hickey is now. Greg Taylor is doing just fine out there at left back but we need cover and competition and there will be squad rotation, and that means Hickey would play a lot of football.
Is the deal realistic? If you believe Craig Levein we made more than a few attempts to sign him before, when Hearts were in a position – so they thought – to turn our money down.
But they aren’t in that position anymore, and they know it well.
One other thing to consider; we have a 30% sell-on clause should Hearts actually punt him.
It would probably be better for them, and more lucrative, if we were the buying club as we could waive that fee and they’d get maximum value from the deal.
Until he signs for someone else, this is a live one.