Yes, Celtic Missed Out On Ivan Toney. It’s Called “Dodging A Very Big Bullet.”

There are a few stories doing the rounds today about Ivan Toney, because he’s on the verge of an England call cap.

Joe McHugh over on VideoCelts has written a good one.

He has quoted Toney from a couple of years back, and I think that quote ought to be given consideration if we’re going to talk about him at all, and under normal circumstances I would really rather not bother.

I don’t get all frustrated over the ones that got away, not even the ones that we allowed to slip by due to stupidity or hubris. I never think about John McGinn except on those occasions where I need to recount that saga. I never think about Olivier Giroud, who was virtually a done-deal before his agent recommended that he stay in France.

Toney is a good player. He’s proved it.

But that’s not everything.

Joe quotes his April 2021 interview with a right-wing tabloid rag in which he said;

“I was actually very close (to signing for Celtic). I went up there and spoke to everybody. I was actually at the training ground and looking around and all that so it got to those stages. But I just don’t think they were too keen on signing me. I guess it’s their miss now.”

I guess it’s their miss now. Where I come from, we call it “dodging a very big bullet.”

Toney is on the hook for over 200 betting offences. He’s facing a ban of biblical proportions. He has been playing football for Brentford for months although everyone knows this.

And now he’s about to be capped for England? That’s how seriously they apparently take this issue.

But imagine for a second Toney in a Celtic strip, playing in Scotland, and facing allegations like this. Talk about a never end bad news day. We would be under the cosh every single week.

Every time he scored a goal the rival manager or some ex Ibrox player in the media would have a dig at us about it, and how he should instead be sitting in the stand.

This presupposes, of course, that he wouldn’t be automatically sent there the minute these stories emerged in the first place. My suspicion is that the SFA would have a panel convened and the long, long suspension handed out within weeks if it even took that long.

We would be buried under the odium.

We would be choking on it, and for what?

For a guy who’ll maybe score as many goals as Kyogo, who is a magnificent ambassador for us on and off the pitch and who will never generate those sorts of headlines.

I guess it’s our miss, eah? Yeah we also call that a lucky escape.