Reports Today Suggest Celtic Is Already Moving Towards Alternatives To Cho Gue-sung

There are reports everywhere in the media today about our links with a young striker in Poland.

Does this suggest, as some surmise, that we’ve already moved past the idea of sticking to our initial plan to sign the boy from Korea?

Or are we just covering our bases?

I think it’s probably the latter. Short of getting a definitive answer from Cho Gue-Sung – and eventually we will simply ask him for one – we aren’t going to move to Plan B.

Because our Plan A is such a good one, with so much potential, we’ll keep at it until either our time runs out (only we know what the limit of our patience is) or he tells us no.

We’re probably just covering our bases, but if we’re already doing that then it means that we’re actually further down the road here than people think. We’re either convinced we’re on the brink of an answer or we’re on the brink of pushing Gue-Sung to give us one, and either way that means that this doesn’t have much longer to run.

Ange is not going to leave bringing in a striker to the last minute. We’re almost midway through the month.

No wonder people at Parkhead are starting to put their alternative planning in place, and you can be sure that once we know where we stand vis-à-vis Cho we will be swift in getting the next deal lined up. Initial approaches have probably already been made.

There has been a list, all this time, of alternates.

I suspect that at least one of them was also in Korea, with the Oh Hyeon Gyu story having flared and then died. Remember, that was the player himself saying he’d been sounded out about the move.

Ange wouldn’t discuss it today when he was asked about it.

Why should he? Why would he?

Unlike a certain other manager in Scotland, who enjoys teasing the press and, quite possibly, setting himself up to look like a pure fool if his plans don’t come off (he is leaving those plans in the hands of others, much as Ange is, and it is a huge error to boast about what you expect when you do that because if they let you down …).

Ange reminded us all that when Celtic moves they do tend to move quickly.

Only a handful of deals – the one for Giakoumakis was a good case in point – dragged on until the stories and rumours about them became tiresome. He knows, because of that, that there are things you cannot rush such as what other people will say when our offer is on the table. Then you have to be a little bit patient, especially if it’s your primary target.

But not indefinitely.

On that he’s sending a clear message; if we move beyond this target we will be swift and ruthless and not look back.