Celtic Gossip summarises the Celtic news this morning, saying: “Morning Gossip: Reports Thomas Henry wants to join Celtic despite Gent lodging £4.5m bid. The Robbie Brady stories are circulating again, the player is a free agent. Ryan Christie new contract talks speculation. Kristjan Lovric mentioned yet again €5m seems to be the fee.”
Morning Gossip: Reports Thomas Henry wants to join Celtic despite Gent lodging £4.5m bid. The Robbie Brady stories are circulating again, the player is a free agent. Ryan Christie new contract talks speculation. Kristjan Lovric mentioned yet again €5m seems to be the fee. HH pic.twitter.com/rRUluYOU4c
— Celtic Gossip (@CelticGossip) August 14, 2021
After the excellent 3-0 home win over Jablonec in the Europa League Qualifier on Thursday, Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou certainly remained determined to bring in additional players: “I would like it, that’s the honest answer and we’ll certainly try, but what I like and what can happen in reality is different,” he said, as reported by Glasgow Live.
“We’re working awfully hard, I guarantee you. Not a moment goes past, off the field the whole club’s working hard to make sure we can do it. But I’ve just got to temper that by saying we’ve done really well with the ones we’ve brought in so far. They’ve added something to this football club.
“I want to resist bringing players in just for the sake of it. Part of the issue is mine, I’m selective with the players I want to bring in, but I’m certainly pushing to get bodies in.
“There’s been plenty of names banded about but for us it hasn’t been about us having one target. We know that in the current climate some things take longer than others and we’ve just got to be really patient and diligent in our work.”
Players who may or may not be coming in remains speculative until we hear otherwise and it’s worth remembering that many agents will use Celtic’s name to drum up interest in their client. So we all know about the pinch of salt needed. Lovric liking Celtic on Instagram is an easy way to validate a link that may suit the player. Henry certainly seems to be getting his move and if he is angling for Celtic then that’s half the battle of Postecoglou wants him.
Ange is of course correct in noting that the players coming in have made a real difference and that, coupled with he style of football that is so suited to his own game, may make Ryan Christie, a player apparently so desperate to leave Celtic last season, have a serious re-think. Playing in a side that suits the player’s style in surely half the battle and in Postecoglou Ryan Christie has ended up playing for a manager who could not be better suited to his own game.
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The other factor is money and Christie clearly feels under valued in terms of his current contract – remember he arrived on the very modest wages on offer at Inverness Caley Thistle but his pal Stuart Armstrong and maybe also KT will have been talking up the riches on offer in the Premier League. But where is the interest in Christie from down South?
Dom McKay currently has a window of opportunity to sort this out by offering Christie the kind of contract that will take him up to be one of the top earners. Anyone who doesn’t think that the huge money that was being paid out to loan players etc last season did not have an impact in the dressing room simply hasn’t being paying enough attention.
Unlike Odsonne Edouard, Christie’s current performances are bound to attract renewed interest in a player with just five months remaining on a Celtic contract which you will recall included two loan spells at Aberdeen. If McKay can sort out the financial side of the problem then it’s going to come down to where Christie wants to play his football and he’s going to be hard pushed to get anyone better to play under than Ange Postecoglou, something the player will know himself.
And one other point worth mentioning. Christie came in for a fair amount of criticism from a frustrated Celtic support last season and much of that, frankly, was justified. Others too are regularly criticised, both full-backs Anthony Ralston and Greg Taylor for instance. All three players mentioned here are regular first pick starters for Postecoglou and all three have improved and developed considerably in such a short period of time, something that the support has recognised.
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