After denying reports linking the club with either Edouard Michut or even Aaron Mooy, Ange Postecoglou refused to deny the links recently to Banik Ostrava striker Ladislav Almàsi after playing against the attacker on Wednesday night. Celtic warmed up for their home friendlies by playing the Czech side to finish off their pre-season training camp.
Now Ange has remained reticent when quizzed on whether or not the big Slovakian was a target this summer, as the Hoops look to reinforce the squad for another extremely challenging year ahead, both domestically and in Europe. He said: “No, I don’t because I get asked these questions every day and there is a new player every day. We’re still working in the background and hopefully we’ll get some new players in”, as reported by Football Scotland today.
It could be telling that Ange hasn’t outright dismissed the link as he did with Mooy and Michut. Could it be that interest in the giant centre-forward is being ramped up with the view to a bid for his services shortly? Then again, he could just be swatting aside rumours and tenuous stories in a slightly different way to the outright denial when asked about the others.
Almàsi has been quite prolific in the Fortuna Liga, managing to bag 16 goals and also managed three assists in his first season for Ostrava. The player is quite the specimen physically and would certainly offer a different option up top if we were to make a bid. However, we have been mentioned in relation to an endless number of names recently and it would probably be foolish to read to much into his reply. Almàsi also didn’t make a hefty impression whilst playing against the Hoops yesterday. But then again, it is only pre-season bounce games at the moment.
Time will tell if Ange is eyeing up a swoop for the big man, or if it is just bluster and hot air like the Michut and Mooy tales.
Paul Gillespie