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Some Of Celtic’s Rebuild Answers Are Right On Our Door

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Last month I was chuffed to bits to be invited back onto the Endless Celts podcast, where I enjoyed yet another nice chat with the lads. One of the subjects we discussed was whether or not some of the answers to the rebuild conundrum might be here on our own doorsteps.

The question arose as to who the best players currently in Scotland are, and whether any of them would be of interest to us.

I named three on the night, but actually when I thought about it I realised I could have named ten, easily, who are worth a closer look.

There are players here in most of the positions we need to fill, and whilst I’m not suggesting that we sign every one of them it will be madness if we don’t move for at least a couple of them.

None are going to take us to “the next level” in the Champions League or anything – not right away at least – but the real priority next season is re-taking our title and all of them would be capable of playing a role in a newly developing Celtic squad.

And in case anyone wonders why we’d waste our time with SPL players remember this; our current midfield wonder-boy is David Turnbull of Celtic now … not David Turnbull of Motherwell.

It’s how you grow into the jersey that matters.

Oli Marciano

The Hibs keeper is going to be available this summer and he already has interest from a number of clubs in various parts of Europe. He is a full international and a known quality.

At 6’4 he’s physically imposing and dominates his goal.

Numerous online outlets have already linked him with a move to Parkhead. He would be available on freedom of contract, and thus would represent good business.

There are a lot of folks who would have doubts about a signing like this; I think that he’s a safe pair of hands and an obvious, and cheap, solution to the problem if we need a top backup.

As a number one, we’d have to see. Is he good enough for that level?

At 31, this is the time for him to make a big move … why wouldn’t Celtic be that club?

Benjamin Siegrist

Another goalkeeper, the big Dundee Utd man is even more imposing than Marciano, at 6’5.

He’s Swiss, but not a full capped international. At 29 you’d have hoped he’d had a more impressive career; most of his games have been in the last few years with the Tannadice club.

Yet for all that, he’s been impressive for them and it’s not for nothing that he’s linked with us as a low-cost option if we’re going with Barkas next season and need an able deputy.

Neither he nor Marciano is good enough to be a first pick; I think we can all agree on that. But both are very respectable options if what we’re looking for is a better number 2 than Scott Bain, who I think should probably leave the club.

Either option would suffice, and if I had to go for one of them it would be Marciano for no better reason than he’s free whereas Siegrist would cost us £1 million. That’s money that could be better spent.

But in terms of options, these guys are both better than Scott Bain is and would represent good business.

Josh Doig

He’s a recent graduate to this list, and a surprising one, but there are reasons why I like him not least of which is that he’s just won the Football Writers Young Player Of The Year Award, and we have a happy history with that one as strange as that will sound.

Amongst its previous winners are two players who were at Celtic at the time – Forrest and Tierney. But we’ve also gone on to sign Derek Riordan, Scott Brown, Stuart Armstrong, Ryan Christie, David Turnbull and Craig Gordon either right after their winning the award or later in their careers. For a long time, we were linked with Steven Fletcher.

Only Riordan was a notable failure; the rest were successful.

This is a happy hunting ground for us. Another recent winner is also on this list.

Doig has had an outstanding debut season, of that there is little doubt.

But I’m going to be blunt; he’s played in empty grounds, devoid of screaming fans, and we have no idea how we will cope under that sort of pressure. If we’re interested in him – and it’s a big if – he’d need to be significantly better than our current left back option … and I doubt he is at the moment.

He has a lot to prove, and the club can’t afford to make a mistake. On top of that, there’s the fee which Hibs would hope to command. I have a feeling it would be wholly unrealistic and that’s a reason on its own to hold fire on this one.

Nevertheless, I find it hard to ignore his winning that award.

Almost everyone who’s won it has gone on to win honours and play for their national teams … the kid certainly has something.

But we’re looking for a first team starter in that position … he would have to be very good to accomplish that.

Still … he’s got potential, and it would be no bad thing to snap it up.

Ryan Porteous

A fantastic footballer who I think could be a genuine contender for a first team place right away.

A guaranteed starter? I’d hope we’re looking at a really top drawer central defender to partner up with a fit Christopher Jullien, but there is no question in my mind that Ryan Porteous would be an excellent purchase and would prove himself a top player in time.

He has all the qualities we would want to see in a promising young player, and that includes a lot of first team experience. He would command a nice fat fee, but it wouldn’t be prohibitive.

I have rated him for a while and he’s been on my list for at least a year.

Someone in England will sign this guy if we don’t’ get in first.

I don’t know what we’re waiting for if I’m being honest.

We should go and get him as soon as the manager is in place.

Ali McCann

A double winner last season and another late addition to the list, and what’s more is that Celtic seem to be interested in him anyway. I think he’s a definite talent and would be a good squad option.

That he’s coming off the back of two successful cup campaigns is huge; he would arrive at the club with a winner’s mentality and that’s hard to beat.

Like Porteous, he has played enough first team games for his club to leave scouts in no doubt about his talent and his potential. That’s important.

So too is the position he plays; the defensive midfield role where we only have Soro in the ranks now that Brown has departed. He is strong and aggressive, but most important is that his aggression doesn’t translate into a lot of bookings or sending offs.

He’s like Brown in that regard; he keeps a tight rein on himself.

This is huge, and it’s clearly because of that Celtic are scouting him.

McCann would probably not be a steal; he would cost us a few bucks.

But he’s 21, and his best years are in front of him … and he’s already a double winner.

Allan Campbell

A stand-out player and after Porteous, he’s the footballer of this bunch who’s signing is a must.

The 22 year old is out of contract and I would be astounded if we were not making him an offer in the next few weeks, because he could easily play for Celtic as part of a three man midfield unit.

He has proved his quality over and over again.

He has four seasons in Motherwell’s first team and over 20 under 21 caps for Scotland; he’s a fantastic prospect and if we’re not interested in him – especially on a free – then people at our club aren’t playing with a full deck. He has to be considered.

When we were looking at Turnbull, there were people who reckoned Campbell was the better footballer, but at that point the boy wonder we went for was scoring goals and getting assists and thus hogging the headlines. Campbell had the hard-working, more selfless role, the one that didn’t get the headlines. He’s a more defensive player.

Like McCann, in other words, but with more experience and available free.

It’s a no brainer Celtic, go and get the guy.

Lewis Ferguson

The more I see him the more I like him, and like the aforementioned Doig he’s another young player of the year winner. The one worry I have is that Aberdeen have already rejected an offer from Watford, labelling it insulting, and they may want stupid money.

The question is, how much do the club want him?

I know they like him and have scouted him extensively; how much do they want him?

When we signed Scott Brown and then Christie and then Armstrong and then Turnbull we got those guys because they were, head and shoulders, the best footballers in the country not already at Celtic.

Is Ferguson that good? Is he a stone certain future lynchpin of the team?

Because if you’re going to pay big money for an SPL player – and they would be wanting that – then you need to be sure that you’ve got exactly that.

But Ferguson is a superb footballer, and there is no doubt about that.

In the right team he will develop into a real top star. We would need to know where we wanted to play him and what his future role would be, but if Howe likes him we could do a lot worse.

Thomas Robert

We need wingers and he is one, and apparently a good one at that.

He popped up on the radar, we were supposed to be in pole position for his signature, and then we dropped off again.

The son of Laurent Robert, he’s spent the last while at Airdrie where he quickly caught the eyes of our scouts.

I heard good things. The club took him on trial.

But he’s been a victim – a low profile victim if you like – of the stasis in which we’ve found ourselves.

He was supposed to know whether the club wanted to sign him, but he continues to wait.

There were other clubs interested in him. He has offers.

One of them is from Aberdeen. There are others from England.

This is a story that’s dropped totally off the radar, and I wonder if some kind of provisional agreement with Celtic is already in place.

Got to be honest, I’ve not seen enough of him to make a judgement in any way.

But Celtic’s people have spent a while watching him and a move to Parkhead seemed inevitable at one point … will he get the move or will we take a pass?

The next manager will decide that … when we appoint one.

Martin Boyle

His name has come up the last two summers in a row.

We should have signed him last summer and then we’d have had cover on the right of midfield when Forrest’s injury hit.

That we didn’t go for such an obvious option was an example of our utter stupidity.

Boyle is a proven talent with a proven record.

He is easily able to play in a good Celtic team, and even if he’s not at the standard to play every week and in Europe he is more than capable of being a very useful squad player in an SPL campaign.

So I don’t know why we didn’t take the chance these last couple of times.

Might we finally want to make the move?

I don’t know, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we did.

Forrest will probably remain our first pick, unless Howe has very ambitious plans, so we’re really looking for a squad player and backup and Boyle would be a very decent signing in that regard.

Lawrence Shankland

A year or so back a lot of people were touting Shankland for a Celtic Park move, as a backup to our main strikers.

A year on, how many people still think he’s worth a shot?

Shankland isn’t a bad player, that’s not what we’re saying here.

But has he proved that he can make the leap, successfully, from the second tier to the top flight?

And the answer is that his record in the SPL is patchier than those pushing him would have hoped.

He hasn’t been terrible, but nor has he exactly set the world on fire either. Shankland has not grown as a player as much as he should have.

He’s a decent option, because he’s still young and can learn a lot.

He has found the leap a little harder than many anticipated, that’s all, but he’s not been a flop and it would be wrong to give that impression. For one thing, he’s now a full international.

So whilst he’s not blown the competition away he’s still taken baby steps of progress; that makes him in some ways a better bet than a year ago … but in the SPL he’s not proven to be the free-scoring footballer who was getting such headlines in the Championship.

Kevin Nisbett

Shankland’s real problem isn’t anything that he’s done or not done, it’s that there is a player who was in the same league as him last season, in the same position, but who got a move to the SPL and showed instant improvement and a grasp of what’s needed to play in the top flight.

Kevin Nisbett is the surprise package of the campaign, and a far better bet than Shankland because he has proved that he can “work up”, that he can handle the pressure of a major step in class and present himself as a genuine option.

Nisbett is a genuine option; after Porteous and Campbell I’d regard him as the third “must have” purchase on this list.

He is an outstanding prospect, and his debut season in the league has made me think he’s only going to improve.

Taking a shot on him last season – as some commentators and pundits were suggesting – was horribly premature.

Consider his progress; at Raith Rovers in League One he scored 29 in 34 league games.

So he got his move to a better league.

At Dunfermline he got 18 goals in 25 games in the Championship.

Hibs then took a chance on him and he’s got 14 in 33 games in the SPL.

It is a hugely impressive demonstration of his ability to improve year on year.

He also has an international cap.

He is 24, older than a lot of players on this list, but this is the point in his career where he’s really starting to hit his stride. He would be an excellent addition to the squad, in a position which is emerging as the critical one at the club.

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