THE news – or is that fake news? – this morning is that Kieran Tierney is wanted by Everton and that Jozo Simunovic is set for a £5million move to French strugglers Lille.
Everton can draw up any list that they want that includes Kieran Tierney on it but it would be astonishing if he decided to swap the green and white hoops just wear the blue of Everton and compete with his mate Andy Robertson to see who is the best left back on Merseyside.
Everton’s ambition is to be admired but they are punching above their weight on this one.
Simunovic is continually linked with a move away from Celtic in just about every transfer window. He almost joined Torino not long after Brendan Rodgers arrived at the club and only a problem with his medical stopped that deal progressing – or perhaps there was some wideness involved in the Italian’s approach. Anyway he stayed and played a major role as an Invincible, winning great favour for THAT perfect tackle at Ibrox on Kenny Miller.
He signed a new four year deal to remain at Celtic after that – but had been linked with a move to Burnley. His form dropped off and he seemed to suffer more than most for Celtic’s first loss in 69 matches – with the 4-0 defeat at Tynecastle in December.
He dropped out of the side but was back for the first of three Beautiful Sundays – his red card for the elbow on their £12million ‘rated’ centre forward turned out to be the turning point in the match.
The score was tied at 2-2 and with Celtic going down to 10 men, Brendan Rodgers brought on another striker – Odsonne Edouard – and he combined with Moussa Dembele to fire in one of the goals of the season in a memorable day in the Free Broomloan. The visitors made too much noise so aren’t being invited back this season!
That was effectively season over for Jozo though, although he did get on in the Scottish Cup Final.
With Dedryck Boyata starring for Belgium at the World Cup and yet to commit to a new deal – he is bound to attract interest – his time at Celtic remains uncertain. He has a year to go on his current deal and like Stuart Armstrong, he will be sold if he doesn’t want to sign the new offer.
So any bid for Simunovic would not really be something that Brendan Rodgers would be looking serious at until at the very least he knows what is happening with Boyata.
Boyata and Lustig – both often criticised for their Celtic performances – are progressing into the business end of the World Cup and with have been key players for Belgium and Sweden respectively. They will get two weeks holiday after their time at the World Cup comes to a close so it could be a month before Boyata is back in Glasgow.
And that month is the most important of the season for Celtic with the Champions League qualifying rounds to negotiate.
