I am pleased to read this morning that we’re going to test Hibs’ resolve over Kevin Nisbett.
There’s a player there and it’s easy to see that.
He has done what so few players with potential manage to do; he’s levelled up.
It is much harder than it seems.
A few years back he was playing in the Scottish First Division. Now he’s an international. It’s a remarkable journey and it stands to reason that the next phase of it would be at a bigger club.
If Celtic is willing to pay the money for him, we’ll get a top player.
You have to say, if we signed this guy then there would be three obvious questions; first, where does it leave Alban Ajeti? Are we retaining him, or is he going to be allowed to go for a nominal fee?
Ajeti is a good footballer. He is certainly capable of doing a job.
But the real questions are over Edouard and the target whose name flared briefly and then vanished from our radar; the English striker Charlie Wyke, who I wrote about yesterday in the context of Leigh’s new deal and who was in talks with the club but dropped out of all the coverage. Did something go wrong with the negotiations?
There’s no talk that he’s chatting to anyone else, so what has happened?
I like the idea of signing Wyke. He gives us that thing we’ve not had in a while, a physical edge to our play. He scores in the air. He has the predatory instinct in the six-yard box. I understood exactly why we were scouting him.
Nisbett is a different type of forward. Play them together and you’ll really see a show.
Someone online asked me this morning I thought Ajeti, Griffiths and Nisbett was a league winning forward line. The short answer is that all of them would have to be on top form. Add Wyke to that list and I’m a lot more optimistic although I genuinely believe that we need to go out and pay a premium fee for an Edouard replacement.
But clearly, five strikers at a club would be too much.
So if we’re after Nisbett and manage to get him then you would think that one of three things is happening.
We’re going to ditch the pursuit of Wyke or we’re going to dump Albian Ajeti or we’re going to replace Eddie with Nisbett and Wyke’s goals and take our chances that our Swiss bhoy comes good.
There are obvious upsides to not spending on a fortune on a replacement for Edouard. All that matters is can we replace the goals, and Wyke is capable of scoring 20 plus in the league, we know that Griffiths is and Nisbett has already proved that he can.
If we don’t spend a fortune on replacing Edouard some will say it’s penny pinching.
Others will look at the strikers at the club and recognise that the money might be better spent elsewhere in the squad.
These are the choices Ange will have to make, and we should trust the decisions he comes to.