Another Deal On The Brink At Celtic, Or More Nonsense For The Hacks To Prop Up?

There are a rash of transfer stories doing the rounds today, and most of them aren’t original in the slightest. The one significantly new one is a link to Saed Haksabanovic, who is an attacking left-sided midfielder and would be available for a reduced fee.

This name is at least a fresh one for us to get our teeth into.

But along with him, there are a plethora of names we’ve heard before and about which is there is not the least evidence that our club is actually interested. From strikers to midfielders, this is what our lazier hacks do; they invent a story and then they regurgitate every other day in order to prop it up. Barkley is only one daft case in point.

Ryan Mmaaee is one of those whose name has come up over and over again, with no actual proof that we’re even looking at another striker.

We have three who are full members of the first team and Jota, Forrest and Abada are all outside choices if you have a full-on injury crisis. I can see us going for a left sided winger – although the argument for one is greatly reduced when you consider that we have a few players for that position now – but a striker is harder to argue for.

Still, it’s not even so much the player’s name or the position but the number of names which the press has pushed into the public domain, almost all of them without the least foundation. Look at what happened when we made the last two signings; the press knew a signing was coming for over a week and although some guessed Mooy might be one of the two they were completely flat-footed until the last day about who the other might be.

At the same time, there is the Juranovic story which came out of nowhere and was based on the substance of wind. Nobody has yet ever asked Romano to explain just who it was who “expected” the player to leave in this window, and although a lot of articles have accused his agents of all sorts of stuff I don’t see any real evidence that he’s done anything.

Indeed, whenever he’s spoken about this he’s said the player is happy at Celtic and they are pleased that he’s at such a good club. So where’s the mischief making?

The press is good at inventing these tales. It is even better at continuing to support their being in the public domain. But if this window should have taught us anything it’s that even the “in the knows” don’t really know what’s going on at our club.

So Saed Haksabanovic. Maybe. Or maybe not.

The Rumour Guy is a Celtic fan and blogger from Glasgow.