Patryk Klimala was one of the first casualties of the Celtic rebuild this summer. The Polish striker joined from Jagiellonia Bialystock in January 2020 for around £3.5m and was sold on for roughly the same fee to the MLS side. Tipped as the ‘Polish Jamie Vardy’, Celtic didn’t get the best out of Klimala and now he is in New York earning praise from his manager.
Speaking to the club website, Head Coach Gerhard Struber said that he was delighted with the partnership of Klimala and Fabio but that Klimala possesses a number of impressive attributes for the team.
“I can see today that Patryk and Fábio, they have a good connection together. They make many, many good movements. I think it’s very difficult to manage the game from Nashville. Very interesting, Patryk with his outstanding movements and with his pace, it’s not easy to handle.
“And yeah, Fábio it was very good for him to score and this gives him a lot of confidence for the next big games. For the whole team, I think it was a good feeling that our strikers did a very good job in the end. Also they help us with the right goals at the right time.”
Klimala managed just five starting appearances last season but was Celtic’s most used substitute coming off the bench 23 times. The player arrived as an unknown quantity and, in truth, we probably didn’t see enough of the player. Being thrown in versus Rangers and Lille can hardly be used as the test for Klimala’s attributes. Celtic may live to regret the decision to sell Klimala and also not properly integrating him in the team. Neil Lennon didn’t seem to fancy the player, instead preferring either Elyounoussi or Griffiths to Ajeti or Klimala as the second attacker to Edouard.
Ange Postecoglou cannot dwell on the sale of Klimala, clearly it was a decision taken by those at the club and he needs to hope that the budget that is available to him includes a couple more attacking options.
It does make you wonder, though, who okay’d the decision to sign Klimala and then to sell him?
ALEC McNAIR – CELTIC’S ICICLE by David Potter…
David Potter’s new book Alec McNair – Celtic’s Icicle is now available at Celtic Stores, on Amazon and of course direct from Celtic Star Books, just click on the image below to order and we will post your copy first class post tomorrow….
