Well this was a heck of a day on the old transfer rumour front.
The day started with us linked with another left back, this time the Finnish defender Jere Uronen.
He’s 26 and at this moment in time he plays for Genk in the Belgian league. He’s got a very decent pedigree and he’s exactly the kind of player we should be looking at in that position. His age group, his career progression and his international experience would make it a no-brainer.
He signed for his current club in 2016; that would suggest he’s almost out of contract, and that would give us a real shot at getting him for a decent price. We know our scouts look at Belgian football, and we have a nice back and forth thing going with Genk, so it makes good sense and leads me to believe there might be something in this one.
The second story is about Robin Olsen, the goalkeeper at Roma, the one the media over there claims we’ve been made offers for and would still like to take on loan. He’s been training himself, apparently, after really falling out of favour with the management team.
The question you have to ask yourself is, are we still looking for a keeper? If we are then it’s probably reasonable to assume we’re looking for a loan rather than a buy. We’ve bought a keeper for £5 million and he’s starting to look the part … we won’t pay for a reserve.
The PSG left-back Mitchel Bakker might have made the right decision in sticking with them rather than accepting a loan to us. Their regular choice left back has picked up a serious knock and it looks as if the kid might get his chance in the first team.
Good luck to him if he does. This is why he took the risk.
The media is still linking us with a move for Omar Colley, in spite of the manager’s flat denial that we were interested.
Now EPL clubs, including Liverpool, are said to be on the hunt … that really ought to nail shut the coffin on that particular nonsense story which has had more mileage than was rational considering Lennon’s total disavowal of it.
The big story of the day is the one involving the Ben Davies, and I really don’t know where this has come from at all. According to reports, he’s “likely” to move to Celtic in the summer on a pre-contract agreement.
I really don’t know if there is the slightest truth to that, but it seems awfully risky to me if we’re leaking that story to the media.
My thinking is that it’s his agents who have leaked that story, in the hope of bringing other clubs and more money to the table. I think the chances of us getting this guy on freedom of contract when the window has weeks to run and January is still three months away are remote to say the least.
Davies is a good player and will have plenty of options way before then.
If we want him, if we really rate him, we’re going to have to buy him in the here and now instead of putting our hopes on a wing and a prayer. Davies can play at both central defence and left-back, so to sign him now would cover two positions and be a real big win for us.
The question is, could we afford it?
In the meantime, a deal with the young midfielder Alfie Doughty continues to creep forward … but with no resolution yet this is another case of wait and see.
He’s a future prospect, rather than a first team ready player … so it won’t be a game changer either way.
The Rumour Guy is a Celtic fan and blogger who has spent the last week hiding under a rock.
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