Moussa’s winner, World Cup Bhoys march on but is KT really about to leave Celtic?

MOUSSA DEMBELE scored the only goal of the match to give Celtic their second win of the day as the pre-season trip to Austria drew to a close. Sparta Prague are a decent side so Brendan Rodgers will be reasonably pleased wit the result and indeed the performance as his squad gear up for the vital Champions League match next week.

Meanwhile over on Russia Mikael Lustig helped Sweden get past Switzerland with a 1-0 win in the round of 16 but frustratingly for the Celtic star, he picked up a second booking of the tournament, just before half time so will miss the quarter final against either Colombia or England.

Dedryck Boyata last night wasn’t selected and that almost backfired as Belgium shipped two goals at the start of the second half to Japan and looked to be heading out. However that remarkable fightback to win 3-2 will have the Belgians believing that their name is on the trophy.

Both Celts progressing is obviously good news for Celtic financially – the further they go into the competition the more the club will make. Celtic will be getting close to making a cool million from sending four players to Russia.

The downside of course is that we don’t have them for the qualifiers and Brendan Rodgers has already confirmed that he has given each player two weeks off for a holiday starting when their country’s World Cup campaign coming to an end.

Now to Kieran Tierney. David Potter wrote a heartfelt plea on The Celtic Star this morning urging Celtic not to sell the young star to Everton. David’s article was rather gloriously OTT but he is a Celtic historian has written more Celtic books than most of us have read and understands what it means to Celtic when we lose key stars at different times in our history.

David had his rant and it was widely read and commented upon on social media. However not even he actually believed that it would happen, that KT would actually agree to sign for Everton. He said so in a follow up email by the way.

But some things weren’t quite right. Barcabhoy, correctly regarded as having an ear close to the action at Celtic Park, was on straight away firefighting in response to David Potter’s rant. He pointed out that Tierney would be able to increase his salary by 500% and Celtic would be powerless to to prevent him moving IF the player wanted to go.

Brendan Rodgers explained this position on some detail a few years ago, saying that it would be morally wrong to deny the player a move to the richest league in the World if he wants to go. We reported too at this time that those advising Tierney have been actively pursuing matters and have been ‘in his ear’ telling him that now is the time to leave Celtic.

Incidentally Barcabhoy didn’t think that Tierney would be joining Everton either but did appear to believe that a move looked like it could happen.

Then a podcast released today seemed to take the speculation to the next level by claiming that Everton are much closer than anyone expected to getting our man. It even listed the financial package that KT would receive at Goodison Park over the four years of his contract.

So it looks like Celtic will sell the player IF he has decided that he want to go PROVIDED that the valuation is met. Everton are trying to establish what that valuation is.

Assuming Everton do make Celtic an offer, say for £25miliion, will this start a bidding war with clubs like Tottenham and Manchester United getting involved? If Kieran wants to go Celtic shouldn’t stop it happening and we as a support have to appreciate that he has every right to try to maximize his earning potential – but surely he can do much better than Everton?

Surely he wants to be in the Champions League?

If he goes every last penny needs be spent on improving the team.

About Author

The Celtic Star founder and editor, who has edited numerous Celtic books over the past decade or so including several from Lisbon Lions, Willie Wallace, Tommy Gemmell and Jim Craig. Earliest Celtic memories include a win over East Fife at Celtic Park and the 4-1 League Cup loss to Partick Thistle as a 6 year old. Best game? Easy 4-2, 1979 when Ten Men Won the League. Email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk

Comments are closed.