According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, yep that’s the Italian newspaper James Richardson used to read over an Italian dessert on 90’s cult show Gazzetta Football Italia, Celtic have tried to re-sign Bologna defender Aaron Hickey, but the 19-year-old doesn’t want to leave the Stadio Dall’Ara.
Hickey played in Celtic’s youth set up in his younger years before leaving to join Hearts in 2018, with Celtic wisely putting a 30% sell on clause in the deal, proving they must have rated him somewhat even back then.
Hickey made his Hearts first team debut at the tail end of the 2018/19 season before becoming a regular the following campaign aged just 17. He made over 30 appearances that year and by proving himself first team ready at such a young age led to feverish speculation of a return to Celtic.
Unfortunately for whatever reason, probably due to certain people at our club’s notorious frugality, we missed out on the young star as Bologna swooped in and picked him up for a paltry £1.5m. So much for thinking that 30% clause was going to lead to a large windfall!
La Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper reports that the versatile defender has snubbed a move to Celtic twice and is willing to stay in Bologna. He has become a regular starter under Sinisa Mihajlovic.
The former defender is happy with Hickey’s developments and doesn’t want him to leave the club.
The Scottish full-back has featured in every Bologna game so far this season, scoring two goals in 12 appearances.
Hickey was supposed to make his Scotland U21 debut during the current international break, but coach Scot Gemmill said the player felt more comfortable remaining with his club to rest and recuperate.
According to football-italia.net, Gemmill said: “My job is to pick the best players. We select Aaron and then the rest is down to him. We can’t force him to come and play. It’s his decision and I completely respect it and we concentrate on preparing for the game,” the coach said as quoted by the Scotsman.
“He wants to play for Scotland. I think it’s 18 out of the 26 from the Euros squad played at under 21 level. It’s a proven pathway to playing international football and becoming a top player.
“But if Aaron feels he’s not in a position to play then we have to respect that.”
When you think of the problems we have had in the left back position ever since Kieran Tierney left the club in 2019, signing Hickey when he left Hearts the following year really was a no brainer. Josip Juranovic is currently covering the position but is a natural right back.
When you look at our other options in the position such as Taylor, Bolingoli, Montgomery and Scales, it’s hard not to imagine that Hickey would currently be our number one left back by now if we had signed him in 2020. With the way Hickey plays it’s a certainty that he would have fitted into new Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou’s system.
Hopefully we can lure the player back in the future although I imagine it will cost us a lot more than the £1.5m we should have paid a few years ago.
Conall McGinty
