A reminder that Adam Idah is a player worth waiting for

As the summer long drama regarding Adam Idah’s move from Norwich to Celtic continues I’ve noticed recently that some of our fans have started to lose patience and are now in the mindset that we should forget about Idah and move on to other targets.

Although I understand their frustrations at this long drawn out process, I think any ire being aimed at the club is misdirected. I also think those who state that we could do better than Idah and should start looking at other targets are forgetting what we potentially have in the Irish international.

Norwich as we know are trying to play hardball over the fee for Idah. I was hugely surprised Celtic hadn’t negotiated an option to buy fee with the Carrow Road club when he came up the road in January, but don’t think it was an oversight on the club’s part.

At the time Idah wasn’t in his manager’s plans and would have been regarded as their third choice striker. He was on a long term contract so it’s not beyond possibility that Norwich were shrewd and refused to add in the option to buy, hoping he would impress which would raise his profile and his worth in the transfer market.

I would be pretty confident in hazarding a guess that this is what happened as recent history points to the fact that Celtic nearly always have an option to buy deal in place with the loan players they bring in. The manager was vocal in the fact that we needed another striker at the time, and Idah was clearly Rodgers’ choice so perhaps we had to leave the negotiation without an option to buy clause to secure Idah’s signing for the rest of last season.

Idah came to Celtic and couldn’t have been anymore impressive. His signing didn’t excite the vast majority of our fans, in fact if we are totally honest a lot of the fan base were hugely disappointed that our big January signing was Norwich’s third choice striker. In this day and age players can’t avoid fan opinion like they used to. Adam Idah would have known that most of our fans weren’t overly excited by his arrival. Instead of letting that affect him he got his head down and showed all of us what he’s made of.

That shows he has the mentality to be a Celtic player. How many players over the years have we had who have buckled under the weight of expectation playing in the green and white hoops? Too many to mention. Idah came in as a backup striker and ended up playing a monumental part in securing us both the league title and the Scottish Cup. In all honesty without some of the crucial goals Idah provided at pivotal times we might not have won either trophy.

Fans can sometimes have short memories but we need to remember what Idah did last season. He was a model professional. He didn’t complain when he scored vital goals or provided game changing moments then ended up back on the bench the following week. He gave everything to Celtic and became fully immersed in the club. You could see he was enjoying every minute playing for the club and the fans. By all accounts he seemed a popular part of the squad amongst his peers.

This is exactly the type of player we should want in our squad. A player who has proved himself already. A player who understands the club and the fans and what it means to play for Celtic. A player who can be relied upon to come up with the goods in the big games. Yes, the transfer has become frustrating but this doesn’t mean we should give up on Idah and look somewhere else.

We could go and spend £6m on another striker who comes in and ends up like Albian Ajeti. I would rather we stick with someone who is guaranteed to be worth the money. Also Idah himself is giving off all the right vibes. He’s doing all he can to get back to Celtic. He’s subtly let it been known that he wants out of Norwich and that Celtic is where he wants to go. That has given Celtic the edge in negotiations.

In my opinion Celtic are also handling this situation correctly. Many will look at it as penny pinching but we won’t be mugged off by a greedy Norwich who are playing games. Noise coming out of Carrow Road is that they could be looking up to £12m for Idah which is beyond ridiculous. He was their third choice striker when he left. Now he’s back it’s pretty clear to everyone that he doesn’t want to stay and wants to go to Celtic. As we have learnt many times in the past, keeping a player who wants to leave doesn’t end well. They know that. They also know however that their seasons transfer budget will consist of whatever they can get from this sale so our aiming to maximise the fee. You can’t blame them.

We hold all the cards in this situation. This doesn’t mean we should be lowballing Norwich either. I think everyone involved, including the two clubs and all the fans know that a fee of £5-6m is correct. Norwich are holding out for as big a fee as possible but their manager will want money to rebuild so won’t be able to hold out much longer. Hopefully a fee can be ironed out soon that leave both clubs satisfied. As we saw with Paulo Bernardo these things can take time but in the end you just hope both clubs stop playing games and do the right thing.

Idah proved last season that he’s made for Celtic. I just hope the drama around his transfer doesn’t mean our fans lose sight of what we will be getting if he does sign. Idah has shown that he’s a man who can be relied upon to turn up when needed the most. A player like that is worth waiting for.

Conall McGinty