Bernardo’s Portuguese Goal Really Changes The Equation In Relation To Celtic.

The idea of Celtic being able to buy a Portuguese under 21 international for just £6 million sounds like an enticing one, doesn’t it?

That’s where we find ourselves this morning after Bernardo played and scored for his national team’s under 21 side last night. I was pleased for him. The boost to his confidence will certainly not hurt us whilst he’s at the club.

But what does it do to the summer question we face over him? It certainly changes it. But does it necessarily change it for the better? I don’t know about that.

First, this is still an awful lot of money to pay for a guy who really hasn’t done enough in the Hoops to justify it. You’d want to have seen a player at that cost grab more of our games by the throat, to look like he has the quality that such a decision would demand.

You would want to see him produce better footballer than he has thus far.

I like him. Just not enough.

We are working with finite resources here. The rebuild we require to avoid another season like this one, with its fits and starts and lack of forward progress, is not a small one.

Can we really afford to take a punt like this at that cost? A punt is still what this would be. You could, if your scouting was up to snuff, get two pretty good players for that cash or one really good one, one that you are sure about, one who can really make a difference.

And of course, last night has raised another question, a darker question; would we get Bernardo to stay now that he’s closing in on being a full international?

As I said earlier in the week, in the Butland article, the media here is forever fond of reminding us that players who want to play for these countries just don’t stay in Scotland if they have a say in that … Bernardo, if he winds up in the Euros squad, will have plenty of options to go elsewhere.

If he thinks staying in the Portuguese side depends on his going then there’s nothing that’s going to keep him here.

It’s fine having a right-to-buy option. But the player himself has to green light it before you can proceed and if his agent gets in his ear and tells him to use the Euros, should he end up in the squad (I don’t think that he will, by the way) to get himself a move to a side in a top league then that’s all she wrote and we can ask, but we must know what answer we’ll get.

So I think that if something has changed here about the decision we face in the summer it may not necessarily be something in our favour.

Having someone play for the Portuguese national team in our squad would be … nice. And he would clearly be a saleable asset if he kept on playing for them and did it well.

But that’s a hell of chance to take as I doubt that he’ll become a regular in the national team whilst he plays in Scotland anyway.

Still, if we’ve learned one thing from our proximity to the lunatic asylum across the street it is the power of a really good bullshit story.

If we make him an offer and he turns it down we can always say that people changed the agreement on us and make the ludicrous claim that we stand to get £1 million if he moves on somewhere else; a sell-on clause for a player we didn’t actually own.

That’s perhaps the most ridiculous pile of steaming horse manure I’ve ever heard in my life. Still, we should consider running with it. Celtic fans might not buy it, but none of the hacks would be able to question it with a straight face.

Thanks to the folks who pointed out that it was his Under 21 team he played for last night and not the full side. Probably not going to the Euros … it would have been a surprise if he was. Still, the point stands, it’s raised his profile … and he’s still yet to prove it for us anyway.