Reports are circulating today about Liel Abada being wanted by Turkish club Fenerbahçe. I find those reports amusing for a number of reasons, not least of which is their characterisation as a “big spending club” because they recently signed a couple of famous names.
They are a little like the club across the city in this regard; they do enjoy a bit of bling. But their “marquee signings” of this window so far are Edin Dzeko (37) and Dusan Tadic (35), both free transfers.
They haven’t won a Turkish title in ten years.
Their European record is virtually non-existent, and they sit just behind us in the five year co-efficient. They are the current holders of the Turkish Cup, but they are the perennial second team in a country where Galatasaray rule the roost. They can probably pay a little more in salary terms … but they aren’t setting the world on fire.
The Turkish league is nowhere near the standard Abada needs to improve. He has a chance at the Champions League this season, and a chance to put himself on a bigger stage. He could play in a top five league, comfortably, and a move to Turkey would represent a sideways step for him at best.
Amongst his team-mates would be Ryan Kent; I hardly think it needs saying that any team which thinks he’s a decent player might be better avoided.
It’s not the platform Abada belongs on. And the fee which it would take to tempt Celtic to part with him? Fenerbahçe have only paid more than £10 million for a player four times in their entire history, and not in the last dozen or so years.
That number is a low-ball figure anyway for a guy his age, with his progression possibilities and the length of time he has left on his deal. They would have to shatter their transfer record – £14 million for Dani Güiza, in 2008 – to get us to part with him.
Abada can play anywhere. I suspect that this is just another rumour, another piece of filler so that some hack doesn’t have to find, or do, real work. I don’t know why Abada or his agents would want such a move when something far better might lie just over the horizon.
Rodgers will make this guy a better player.
Rodgers will allow him to flourish in a way he hasn’t been able to thus far, with his not being the first pick on the right flank. If that’s changed then everything has changed. He would be better, and so would we, if he gave it another ear.