Alistair Johnston is set to be offered a new contract by Celtic, according to Scott Burns…
The well informed journalist reports that the Celtic Board are keen to tie the Canadian International right-back down on an extended contract and he will be rewarded with a bumper new deal that will take him up amongst the top earners at the club.
Johnston arrived from CF Montreal just after the World Cup in Qatar and made his debut at Ibrox in the New Year 2023 game in Ange Postecoglou’s second season at the club. The full back still has three years of his existing deal to run so rewarding the player while protecting the club’s position seems sensible and is in line with previous activity at this time of the year after the transfer window closed.
Celtic according to Scott Burns writing in Daily Record, have made contact with AJ’s representatives to set the ball rolling.
What remains a mystery is the lack of progress on Greg Taylor’s deal at the club which is actually ending at the end of this season. Taylor has been outstanding for Celtic for the past three seasons, after having a difficult time adjusting following his move from Kilmarnock.
There is no doubt that securing Alistair Johnston on a long term deal is the clever thing to do but surely Taylor too deserves to be rewarded for his contribution and for his own salary to increased to reflect his importance to the Celtic team?
Meanwhile after his tight hamstring scare at the weekend in the win over the USA, the Canadian defender will be assessed before the game against Hearts at Celtic Park on Saturday. With the Champions League starting next midweek, it’s likely that Johnston will not be risked against the Tynecastle outfit, who are currently joint bottom of the league.
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Would be another very welcome move by ourselves.
Seems we started that approach last season, with securing key players on longer and improved contracts?
We can continue with such an approach, especially when the wage budget has been massively reduced during the summer.
And in turn, allows ourselves to set a higher wage package available to players that we would be hoping to keep hold of for the longer term?
It would also mean anyone trying to buy our key assets, would have to be paying big money, like we saw regarding O’riley?
Keeping ourselves with a strong core of key players intact, is also a requirement for ourselves, especially with CL ambitions in mind also imo?
The Taylor contract situation remains a mystery still?
Wouldn’t say Rodgers sees Taylor as a 1st choice LB in the longer term imo?
Which in turn will possibly effect the terms we are willing to offer, along without knowing if Taylor would be happy enough to play the backup role, with potentially reduced game time available to himself?
Certainly believe Taylor is well worthy of a new improved contract, with having earning a deserved one imo?
But could well be other factors involved, so possibly still a wait and see what develops over the course of the season in that regards, seems to be the approach taken at present?