Former Celtic winger Davie Provan reckons that Ryan Christie did his chances of getting a move to England no harm whatsoever with an outstanding performance for Ange Postecoglou’s side in the 1-1 draw against FC Midtyjlland in the first leg of the Champions League qualifying round on Tuesday night at Celtic Park.
The winners of that tie will be determined on Wednesday night in Jutland and the reward with by a third round qualifier against either PSV Eidedhoven or Galatasaray and it’s almost certainly going to be the Dutch side after their impressive 5-1 home leg win last night, with Eran Zahavi grabbing a hat-trick.
⚽ 7th, 8th and 9th European goal
⚽ First hattrick for PSV
⚽ Absolute finishing machine— PSV (@PSV) July 21, 2021
“I think he is a player who is intending to move. Clearly would have signed a new contract by now if he wanted to stay long term,” Provan told The Football Show on Go Radio yesterday afternoon.
“I think he sees his future in England. That was a good stage for him to perform on last night, the European arena.
Although he has already proved that he is good enough to play in Europe.
“But I don’t think he will be short of clubs when he eventually runs his contract out. “I think that (performance) tells you about the boy. I think he is a decent type.
“I don’t think he is the type who could go out on the pitch and give you anything less than 100%.
“Now not all boys are like that. Oliver Ntcham springs to mind as one who has looked for some time as if he is going through the motions and he wants to be somewhere else.
“But one thing about Christie – particularly last night – he put in a terrific shift. It is just a pity that he seems determined to leave Celtic.”
Provan is probably correct but let’s have a reminder on what Sandman had to say about Christie in his wonderful Definitive Ratings yesterday on The Celtic Star…
CORPUS CHRISTIE – 6/10 – The hell are you still doing here? Not yet sealed his Barca transfer after lighting up the Euros with a scintillating 45 minutes of running around like a.. Well, like a christian in the lion pit, we got to see Corpus attempt to disgrace the Hoops one more time. And has humility harnessed the ego any? He certainly applied himself more; no major international tourneys coming up for at least 16 months (and probably longer…).
So there he was contesting the ball, seeking the ball, taking some punishment, and generally getting involved again in that non-hiding manner we’d almost forgotten him capable of. And he cracked a few over the bar just for good measure. Is this a swansong, or a new dawn? I’d like to have tried using ‘resurrection’ but we’ve long realised he’s not the Messiah.
And last week we suggested that the best thing for Christie to do would be to look at working under the New Celtic manager whose style of football is better suited to his own game and his own personal status in the game would increase considerably as a result.
Christie has lost his Scotland starting position and so far has had no decent offers to tempt Celtic into selling him for a very modest fee. He is not a higher earner at Celtic but he certainly could be if he decided to hang around. He could take a leaf out of his pal Stuart Armstrong and sign a new deal on the understanding that he could leave next summer.
While Armstrong wanted a move to England all along, after the Proper Invincible season he realised that another year working under Brendan Rodgers would be good for his development, so he hung around for the Double Treble season before getting his move the following summer to Southampton where he’s on big money and has done pretty well for the Saints.
Ange Postecoglou would then have a season to work with the player, Christie could really come into his own playing the Australian’s style of football and he would most likely get a better move than looks likely at present. He’d probably in his Scotland place back too.
Following Armstrong’s route to the Premier League is hardly the worst idea in the world as far as Ryan Christie is concerned.
Oddly enough, I think we could cope with this, because we would then know where we are with him, and he would have to produce the football that we know he is capable of – even though it was just for a year! And there would even be the chance that Ange could persuade him to stay longer term. The current situation is simply unsustainable. We have to knew where we are with him! Was it significant that the three players who came to watch Charlie Gallagher’s cortege yesterday were all Scottish but did not include RC? (No joke intended in his initials!)
DP