Former Celtic star Simon Donnelly returned to a theme of his from last season when he was urging Celtic to sign Hibernian talisman Martin Boyle. The rumours about Celtic’s interest in the Australian international – who scored a hat-trick in the 3-1 win over theRangers in the League Cup semi-final in November – won’t go away and Hibs are judging by reports this week, looking likely to cash in on their star man if their valuation I met.
That, as is usually the case in Celtic and Hibs transfer negotiations, os usually the stumbling block with Hibs beloved to be looking for round £3m for the player. Whether that’s too rich For Celtic, given the lack of a likely sell-on fee down the line given Boyle’s age, remains to be seen. Reports of Celtic interest re-surfaced this week with a report in The (London) Times however it was later revealed that Hibs hadn’t received any bids at that stage for the goalscoring winger.
Earlier today we reported on former Celtic defender and Hibs manager Alan Stubbs giving a very positive assessment on how Boyle would do at Celtic and now Simon Donnelly, a former right sided goalscorer himself, has had his say to repeat the assessment he gave several times last season urging Celtic to sign Boyle.
“I’ve mentioned Martin Boyle as far back as last season,” Simon Donnelly said on the Go Radio Football Show. “He’s one of the best performers in the Scottish Premiership and I’ve had a lot of flak for it saying: ‘Where’s he going to fit in?’.
“A lot of Celtic fans are thinking, ‘Is he better than what’s there?’. I think, at 28, he’s at the top of his form and is ready to have a move like that.
“I don’t think Hibs fans would thank me for saying that because I think he’s their top performer. You can’t have enough good players and the criticism of Celtic of late has been their lack of depth, so bringing these Japanese players in and somebody like Martin Boyle would certainly add to that.”
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i would certainly sign him if the price was right