Reports tonight, from all over the place, strongly suggest that Celtic is on the brink of their second signing of the summer window, the one that I thought might actually be completed first; the signing of Benjamin Siegrist, formerly of Dundee Utd.
This is a sensible piece of business. We know this guy and what he can do. We know that he’s not only a decent backup but that he’s well capable of stepping up and playing as our keeper if the circumstances dictate that.
He is a full international. He is talented and available for free.
The deal is an absolute no-brainer for us, and the only thing that really might have stood in the way was whether or not Siegrist was willing to come to Parkhead and fight for his place in the team.
I find it extremely encouraging if he does.
Some won’t consider this a particularly sexy bit of business; sometimes transfer deals aren’t. Sometimes they are about necessity rather than the making of headlines. Sometimes those deals are the ones that truly end up mattering over the course of a season.
I’ll be pretty pleased if we get this done.
It will solve a long-term problem and give us two excellent keepers to choose from. He had interest from elsewhere, and therefore we’ve obviously done a good job of selling him on the deal.
It might not be the deal we are all waiting for – I think we all know what this is – but it’s proof that the work is progressing behind the scenes just the same, and that’s all to the good.
In light of yesterday’s developments, wow well do you know your Scottish Football Governance Scandals? Take the quiz now! You’ll not be surprised how many of these feature Ibrox …Â
I honestly feel we could do better!
On another matter entirely( one I’ve been waiting on a blog tackling but haven’t seen yet), I’ve noticed, as I’m sure you all have, the ‘sectarian singing’ nonsense doing the rounds in relation to a convention overseas involving actors, past players and supporters.
No idea why its being labelled as ‘sectarian’ when its a group of ex-pats singing about the country of their origins past struggles!?
There is nothing sectarian about it!
Its no different to a group of English/British singing god save the queen, though that wouldn’t even make the news, unless it was in a positive light regarding some royal event; gstq actually has sectarian lines in it regarding the crushing of rebellious Scots!
Must’ve been a slow news day!
Lol sevco and that cinch deal all I can say is give them a cinch and they will take a mile.
Obviously he is the no.2 goalkeeper. I am pretty sure I recall some pretty dubious moments from him throughout the season. And now for the biggest heresy. I cannot recollect Barkas being that bad to be honest. One or two moments he could have done better. But he was not a disaster the way Duffy was though some have tried to blame Barkas for that too. Barkas could have been given a run of games pre-season to see where he was at given the money spent on him. It will be really interesting to see how he does at Utrecht
I agree that Barkas wasn’t really that bad – he certainly didn’t have any real howlers etc and he clearly wasn’t helped by the defence in front of him (Duffy!) – BUT he also wasn’t really that amazing either; he never made any top drawer saves or stopped any one or ones etc which a Celtic keeper has to make. I genuinely wish him all the best but its better for both parties for him to move on.
15 league appearances with 8 clean sheets in the worst season for a decade and beyond? He hardly got a chance