Is The Answer To Celtic’s Striker Dilemma Actually Sitting On Our Own Doorstep?

A week or so ago, I wrote an article about Rocco Vata and how Celtic must not be bounced into giving game time to someone who isn’t ready.

But the news yesterday that Vata has been given an ultimatum by the club; sign a new deal or rot in the reserves until the nine months of your current contract is up. He wants to go out on loan, and Celtic seem happy enough to proceed with that … but they want a solid, serious answer about his future first.

Celtic is entirely right to want to protect itself. Mikey Johnston signed a new deal before heading out on loan. Ben Summers, a fantastic young prospect, has gone to Dunfermline for the season, and before he left he too put pen to paper on a new contract.

That’s how it will be from now on. Our club will look out for its own interests, and if certain young players and their agents aren’t comfortable with that then it’s a tough old world.

But something has changed here, and it might be in important.

With the injury to Oh we are, in fact, looking for a backup striker. If Rodgers tells him that the next six weeks are make-or-break and that if he impresses, he’ll be a member of the first team squad, that might just be what he needs to stay.

We clearly rate Rocco Vata, but this will only come about if the player and the club are on the same page. He has to make a decision on that new deal, and if he makes one that is to his and our benefit then I reckon he could be the answer. Without his signing a new deal the idea becomes a double edged sword, one that cut us just as easily, and I don’t think we’ll do it.

Because what if, in making Vata that backup, he does well enough that the interest in him solidifies into clubs submitting offers and he decides that in nine months he’s off regardless of what opportunities we’ve afforded him?

It could and does happen; football is full of stories just like that, stories about players who got the chance, grabbed it and then used it to leverage themselves a better deal somewhere else. It’s clear Celtic are at the end of the road on these negotiations; Vata either signs a new deal now or we have to look at getting rid of him permanently, getting for him whatever transfer fee we can instead of risking some low-ball development figure next year.

So it’s almost crunch-time for this kid, and I think right now is the time for him to pen a new agreement and take the chance that will be his for the next six weeks whilst Oh is on the treatment table. I had clean forgot about Vata being one of the available options until my friend Dougie mentioned it to me on Facebook in the wee small hours this morning … and I had been intending to revisit the issue of his contract anyway, but it just never crossed my mind that the two might be related and so I think him for reminding me they are.

Don’t forget; as long as Kyogo and Maeda stay fit we’re talking about a backup player here, but at Celtic those guys have been getting a lot of time on the pitch of late and that means that he really does have a shot at getting in this team and staying in it.

If he signs a new deal. Because without that, I reckon all this is academic anyway and the last he’ll see of Celtic will be a game in the Highland League somewhere. That would be a shame.