As we prepare for tonight’s match, there are some interesting transfer stories doing the rounds, and as this is my personal purview I thought we might take a look at that.
The first involves our apparent quest for a second good quality goalkeeper, and reports continue to link us with the Roma keeper Robin Olsen. This would be a loan deal, and he would be coming in strictly as a backup option.
This story has been repeated so often that there has to be something in it.
This is the Italian media who are constantly linking us with this guy, not our own pitiful Scottish hacks, so my feelings are that there’s probably something in it.
Celtic had three quality keepers last season, so this would not be unusual for Lennon to do.
The manager likes competition in all areas of the pitch, and although Scott Bain is a decent enough keeper if something happened to Barkas it would be him and some kid as a backup … this is a smart strategy, although I think most of would feel pretty secure with things as they.
The second story is about Shane Duffy; Celtic opened talks with him the other day, as this site and others reported, and there are various stories about what the potential “stumbling block” could be. If you presume he knows he has to take a wage cut that shouldn’t be one, or they would be no point in the negotiations. If you assume Celtic is willing to pay the loan fee, or that Brighton aren’t asking for as much as the press says, then that explains why we’re talking to the player.
My feeling is that the loan fee and the player wages are negotiable and that we think we’ll be able to come to a compromise on both. Otherwise what would be the point? If I had to stick my neck out, I’d say we’re going to get the deal for Shane Duffy done.
The third player to pop up on the radar today is David Turnbull. James has written about how we need a core group of young Scottish players in this team, and if the reports about this kid from Motherwell are correct today I imagine he’ll be well happy.
As everyone knows, we tried to buy Turnbull a couple of years back but the deal collapsed when he failed a medical. Celtic has been monitoring him closely ever since and it would not be a great surprise if we popped up with an offer.
It would mean that one of our current midfielders would be on the way out of the club; I think most of us realise by now that it would likely be Tom Rogic.
So three decent transfer stories doing the rounds today, and I find them all interesting and all pretty likely. It stands to reason we want a third goalkeeper, it stands to reason that if we’re talking to Duffy there’s nothing insurmountable in the deal and we have scouted Turnbull extensively and since it was only last summer that we tried to buy him it wouldn’t be a great shock if we went back in to get him, although I think that would spell the end for our Aussie bhoy.
Tonight we’re back in business after a short hiatus due to the stupid actions of Bolingoli.
We need a win tonight, and if possible a big one just to ease us through.
The next round will be harder.
It would be good to have the Duffy deal done prior to it, although that would require the club moving very fast indeed to get it tied up in time for the registration deadline.
The Rumous Guy is a annonymous Celtic fan and blogger living on the run from fans angry at his crap rumours.
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