The Media Needs To Learn That Celtic Don’t “Enter The Race” For Every Player They Scout.
Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Celtic v Rangers - Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - May 1, 2022 General view outside the stadium before the match. Picture taken with a drone. Action Images via Reuters/Carl Recine
The hacks tonight are running the story that we’ve got “competition” in the race to sign Aberdeen youngster Connor Barron. The thing is, there’s no actual evidence that we’re even interested in signing this guy.
We scouted him. That’s not the same thing.
Celtic must scout dozens of players every month.
We sent the whole scouting team to watch a recent international where he was playing.
The last time I checked though there were 11 players on each team … so we could have been there to run the rule over him. Or it could have been 21 others. We have no way of knowing, and neither do the hacks.
But even if it was Barron, does that mean we were necessarily going to do business? Of course not.
We were keeping an eye on the guy.
That’s different from wanting to leap head first into an auction. It doesn’t even mean that we’ll make a bid even if there’s no-one else on the scene, even if the guy is going cheap. Even if the guy was available for free.
This is what the media does though.
They link us with footballers – see Semedo, who we’ve totally denied any interest in, but who they had “signing within days” this week – and then drum up fresh stories of how we’re moving too slowly or face opposition … all so they can write the famous “Celtic snubbed” story which they love so much.
I have no doubt that we looked at Barron. I have no doubt that we’ve looked at loads of young Scottish players; we have a long and distinguished history of signing them.
But if we were going to make any sort of bid we’d have done it.
If we had made a bid, then that would have leaked out of Pittodrie faster than a thirsty Sevco fan drinking out a toilet.
Whoever is in this race, it doesn’t include us.
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