Celtic, in theory at least, should be able to accommodate Vasilis Barkas’ apparent ‘demand’ to leave Celtic when the summer transfer window opens. After all the goalkeeper, signed 18 months ago from AEK Athens for £4.5m, really would have been deemed as surplus to requirements even prior to reports from Greek publication Onlarissa, as reported by Daily Record, that Barkas had already begun the countdown to his departure.
Celtic have an excess of goalkeepers on the books already and most, if not all, appear ahead of Barkas when it comes to bothering the first team pecking order.
Scott Bain having signed a new contract would clearly the obvious choice as cover for Number One Joe Hart, meanwhile Conor Hazard is already on loan in Finland with HJK Helsinki and Ross Doohan is earning rave reviews while with Tranmere Rovers.
On top of those options, Celtic rate England Under 19 goalkeeper and Celtic B team number one Tobi Oluwayemi as the heir apparent to Joe Hart and are keen to evidence a pathway to the first team, as shown by recent inclusion on the subs bench for European ties.
As such it would appear Celtic would be unlikely to stand in the way of Vasilis Barkas even without any demands being made by the player. The issue however is whether Celtic are willing to cut their losses on the unsettled ‘keeper, and whether Barkas himself is in a position where he’d accept a drop in wages to leave Celtic.
Both those things are likely to need to happen for any permanent move to materialise, a problem that occurred in in January when there were stumbling blocks in place around finances when it came to Sheffield United pulling out of a loan deal, with Celtic and United unable to agree on a fee for an option to buy Barkas in the summer, and IFK Gothenburg apparently were interested in the ‘keeper in the same transfer window, but again it appears the deal proved too rich for the Swedish side.
If anything is going to change in the summer it will take Celtic to accept their error in signing Barkas is going to hit them in the pocket, or risk an unhappy player in the camp, and Barkas himself may well have to realise that the wage he banks at Celtic may not be on offer elsewhere. If both things happen then Celtic and Barkas can easily part ways, as both parties would seem to wish, without such movement on both sides however and Barkas and Celtic may well reach the same stumbling blocks that were in place during the January transfer window.
Niall J
Hopefully the first thing he finally catches as a Celtic goalie is flight to somewhere else