It’s always interesting when a player fails after making their first big move, especially if they then go on to thrive at a lower level again.
Any buying clubs will need to determine if the first move came too soon, or if they genuinely don’t have the ability to step up to a higher level.
It looked like Andraz Sporar was always going to end up playing in green and white hoops for the second half of this season, but he had to make the choice between Sporting or Celtic.
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He had a stunning record in Slovenia and Slovakia but failed when he moved to Basel, so the £5.5m price tag did look like a huge gamble – especially when he would only be a back up to Odsonne Edouard in Glasgow.
According to a report from Sport via HITC, he is pleased he decided to turn down Celtic in favour of joining Sporting instead.
Most fans will think of Portugal as having a “big three” but Sporting haven’t really troubled Porto or Benfica for the title in years, so you could argue he joined the smaller club with less pressure.
Speaking about the move he said:
“I’m really glad I made a deal with Sporting, If I had to do it 10 times in a row, I would have chosen Sporting 10 times.”
“In Portugal there are Benfica, Porto, Sporting, Braga, but also other clubs are greatly organised. You have very good matches there in every round.”
It’s not clear how serious the interest from Celtic was – most of the talk about him rejecting the move to Glasgow comes from the papers rather than direct quotes, but it seems to be accepted that he had the option of both clubs.
Time will tell if Patryk Klimala proves to be the better option, but it doesn’t look like missing out on him is a huge loss at this point.
