Today the young right back from Rennes, Sacha Boey, has apparently turned down a move to Parkhead.
The press is reporting this as a snub, but if it’s a snub it’s not the move itself which doesn’t have appeal, as the reports from France have made clear.
Boey has snubbed the involvement of certain people peripheral to the deal.
We don’t know who these people are, or what role they have played in collapsing the talks – if, indeed, the talks were even as advanced as the press reports suggest – but this had nothing to do with Celtic and what the player himself has “snubbed” is this interference.
This happens in transfer deals from time to time.
The transfer world is murky, and a lot of the things that happen in it would shock the average fan. It is not uncommon for people to pop up out of the woodwork claiming to represent one party or another.
They get away with it sometimes because the clubs want the deal concluded quickly, the player wants the move and between all the parties they throw some scratch at these folk to move things along.
But sometimes people on one side or another decide that’s not going to happen and they pull out of the talks. It doesn’t harm these shady individuals; they take their shot and if they get a hit, great, and if they get nothing they move onto the next one.
Celtic conducts its business privately and professionally.
This may be a case of McKay not being overly familiar with certain elements of the business; this is why professional football operators should be in charge of transfer deals and not the CEO’s, but again that’s not to say that this is our fault.
Nobody on the French side is blaming Celtic for this.
It’s the media trying to promote that narrative.
Postecoglou has voiced some frustration at the speed things are moving at, and I actually welcome his intervention.
We do have to move more quickly, but it’s stuff like this which complicates what should be simple business.
McKay needs to learn on the job, and he needs to learn fast, but there are things that will remain out of Celtic’s control however we do things.
This is one of those things, and actually fair play to the player for calling time on it.
A lot of footballers would have been content to allow this “interference” but he isn’t.
That focus will stand him good in his career, whether it’s at Celtic Park or not.
In the meantime, we move onto the next target.
And now that the manager has had his say on the matter people need to get their backsides into gear.