PAUL THE TIM took some stick last week after he tweeted from Austria that “McGinn wasn’t happening.”
Paul is one of a very select number of supporters who make it a huge part of their lives to go to just about every game Celtic play. These supporters should be help in the highest of esteem but sadly that is not always the case.
When Paul tweeted that last week, it was obviously what he had heard and was correct at that particular moment. McGinn remains a Hibs player for now and ‘NOT HAPPENING’ related to a rejected offer. Celtic wouldn’t have minded that the ‘not happening’ story got out there too.
Scott Allan. Some at Hibs thought that they were getting him for free, no questions asked and with his bus fair to Edinburgh thrown in. They have started to realise that Celtic don’t roll that way. The midfielder, who was outstanding for Hibs in his loan spell, is now back within the Celtic squad and is being given the same amount of respect that every other professional footballer gets from the Celtic manager and his team.
The message to Hibs is clear and deliberately so. It is that Scott Allan is a CELTIC player.
The debate on McGinn’s future is pretty much over. The player has a year left of his contract and can speak to other clubs in January and will be able to leave Hibs at the end of the new season for free. Hibs can’t and won’t let that happen.
They have actually stated this.
McGinn doesn’t need to sign for any club, including the highest bidder who may suit Hibs. Think about the Stuart Armstrong situation. Southampton revealed that they beat many other Premier League clubs to his signature yet Celtic only gave the Saints permission to talk to the player.
That’s because Celtic knew that’s where he wanted to go.
McGinn and his advisors will be well aware of the interest from Celtic and elsewhere and just as Armstrong only had eyes for Southampton, McGinn wants to sign for Celtic.
So if the likes of Derby want to offer more than Celtic – it’s almost irrelevant.
Celtic know that they WILL get their man, now that Brendan Rodgers and Peter Lawwell have made their move. That was the worst kept secret for quite a while on The Celtic Star.
It would be within Hibs’ rights to refuse to sell him and Celtic could simply decide to wait, sign a pre-contract in January and maybe pick John up for a few hundred grand then. Or get him for free on 1 June next year.
Hibs won’t – probably can’t – let that happen so they can huff and puff but the player will decide where he is going to play his football. Yesterday they lost Dylan McGeough. The former Celtic player joined Jack Ross at Sunderland on a Bosman so Hibs got nothing at all from that move. The clock is ticking for the same again happening with John McGinn.
Now back to Scott Allan. Hibs want him, Brendan Rodgers appreciates that the player will want to play football. That’s unlikely at Celtic. He will get respect, he won’t get game time. It’s logical that Hibs should look to recruit the player from Celtic and while Rodgers and Lawwell will not be hard to deal with given the circumstances, then they surely have a right to expect the same from Hibs re McGinn’s move to Celtic.
So it’s not a matter of whether Celtic will sign John McGinn or not. It is just a matter of when it will happen.
Expect it to be sooner rather than later with Scott Allan going in the other direction.
