Evan Ferguson is not a player Celtic should be thinking about.

Yesterday, I read some comments from Shay Given made at the press conference promoting the upcoming friendly between ourselves and Newcastle, which takes place early next month. Now, I like Given. He’s always had nice things to say about Celtic.

But his suggestion that we sign Evan Ferguson because “he needs a home” doesn’t impress me in the slightest. We’re not a charity. We’re not a rehab clinic for footballers who’ve lost their spark. We’re a professional football club, and it’s our needs that matter—not those of a down-on-his-luck footballer.

I don’t think Given meant we should be doing a favour for some struggling player; he genuinely meant well.

But if this guy wasn’t currently playing in the Premier League, nobody would even be suggesting him as a Celtic signing. He hasn’t done nearly enough to be considered in the calibre we’re looking for. He’s got hype, yes—but hype is not a CV. He’s not produced anything to justify the noise around him.

He would cost a fortune—and that’s if we were buying him outright. The alternative, of course, is to take him on loan and develop him for someone else. And those days should be well behind us.

We’re not mugs. We’re not fools. This isn’t a deal we should even be entertaining. There’s literally nothing about an Evan Ferguson move that stands up to scrutiny. He’s not worth the transfer fee, and we’re beyond the stage of taking other clubs’ projects and turning them into stars on someone else’s balance sheet.

It looks like we’re in proper negotiations to sign the young winger from Norway. That’s excellent news. He won’t be overly expensive. He ticks the right boxes: right pedigree, right age, right profile. I’ve no doubt he’ll fit into our system like a hand in a glove. That’s the kind of signing we should be making.

If we’re going to sign 23-year-olds, they should be developed for us, not for someone else. Ferguson hasn’t done nearly enough to be seen as a good fit—and frankly, it would be as much a PR signing as a footballing one.

And you know what? We shouldn’t let the fact that he’s Irish mess with our internal radar either, and I’ve seen that mentioned a lot. Much of the noise around him seems to come from the fact he’s an Irish international.

I couldn’t care less what passport he holds. I care whether he’s proven. I care whether we’d waste a significant outlay on another high-profile punt.

And I have a needling suspicion that Ferguson wouldn’t be worth what we’d have to spend to get him here permanently.

I said at the time that when the alleged fee for Idah started creeping up, we could’ve found better value at that price. Everyone knows I’m happy with Idah. But I’m not happy if we paid £9 million for him.

If we’re going to drop £9 million on a player, we need to know they’re worth it—that they can justify that kind of spend. I think Idah has proved his worth. But then, Idah had already shown us something before we even agreed to the fee.

In many ways, Ferguson would represent an even bigger gamble.

And here’s the key question: what would he actually have to do to be considered a success? Idah has just scored over 20 goals this season, and some people still don’t think he’s been a success—that absolutely baffles me.

So how high would the bar be for Ferguson? Pretty damn high. And I’m not sure that someone with as little track record as him could clear it.

Strellic has a better scoring record including in Europe—he’d be a better option. There are probably other strikers out there we’ve looked at—or are looking at—who could be signed for more reasonable fees and would be better suited to us.

And all of this presupposes, of course, that we’re even going to bother trying to sign another striker. Because the truth is, that’s not a given. It may be that we stick with Maeda through the middle, that we keep Idah as his main backup, and maybe the young lad we’ve just brought in becomes the third option.

If that’s what the manager decides, we’ll support it—because we trust he knows what he’s doing.

Every signing comes with a risk, no question. But signing an alleged wonderkid from the Premier League—one who hasn’t shown much of anything—just because of his nationality? That’s not smart business. It’s certainly not Celtic business. It’s a silly idea being pushed for all the wrong reasons.

And while I’ve got no ill will towards Shay Given—in fact, I quite like the guy—this is just another case of someone offering us advice we really don’t need.