Kevin Nisbet Will Never Be An Adequate Replacement For Giakoumakis At Celtic.

Last week, I wrote a story about Kevin Nisbet and I asked whether or not he’d be a target for our club.

It was not an endorsement of signing him as a first or second choice. The story was actually about whether or not, in the event that we were looking for a backup player, that he might be the guy we looked at. Third choice, in other words.

Because Kevin Nisbet is not, and will never be, a better player than Giorgios Giakoumakis and if we signed him to replace the Greek that would not be a step forward in any way, shape or form.

This team is supposed to be all about improvement.

It is supposed to be about growing and shaping itself into a team capable of going places in Europe.

We are not dropping the big Greek for an SPL level footballer and calling that progress.

As a backup option and squad player you can see the merit in this. But as the main guy challenging the starter it would be a backward step of immense proportions instead of a deal that suggested progress. We give this club credit right now for the imagination it shows in the transfer market. You know what a move like this would say? That we’re running out of ideas.

A global transfer search has not led us to Easter Road.

From a transfer strategy which has drawn plaudits from far and wide to one which sells our assets on the cheap to buy from the SPL … that would not only be underwhelming but a tragic reversal at a time when everything seemed in our reach.

I am in favour of signing Scottish born players, and I have said this repeatedly. I would be broadly supportive of signing Nisbet as a backup player, in particular because it would meet our squad registration needs for playing in Europe.

But don’t mistake that with me saying that any player in the country right now is of a standard to get us there and progress us there … that’s far from the case and fans will support Giakoumakis and others going only if their replacements do what the manager has long spoken of … if they take us to the next level. This plainly would not.