Celtic have been told to sign Bristol City’s Tommy Conway. The Championship star is having a sterling season down the road in the English second division and Rotherham United manager, Steve Evans, has urged the Bhoys to go after the player this summer transfer window, after having witnessed the success Matt O’Riley has had in a Celtic jersey since moving up north to Paradise.
Evans, who is a lifelong supporter of the Hoops, was the man who recommended the former Fulham and MK Dons man to the scouting team at Celtic Park, back when Ange Postecoglou was rebuilding in his first campaign. A snip at just £1.5 million, Matty has gone on to another level at the Parkhead club and has already been capped by Denmark after he switched allegencies a while back now.
Conway, meanwhile, has managed to bang in 12 goals this season in the Championship and is looking to put himself into contention for the Euros with Steve Clarke’s side. Clarke is on the lookout for those who can aid the Scotland cause and has been eyeing up numerous players down in England that could qualify to a for Scotland. Harvey Barnes and Tino Livramento have been mentioned previously but neither has been drafted in yet.
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The 21-year-old has represented his nation already at U21 level and is looking barge his way into the former Kilmarnock manager’s plans this summer. Evans has revealed that Conway could indeed cut it at both the Scottish Premiership Champions and the national team, saying, as reported by Daily Record: “The last player I recommended Celtic should sign, when I got a call from the manager, was the boy who went from MK Dons who’s now worth multi-millions.
“I see a lot of Celtic – they’re the only club other than Rotherham that I’d have left Stevenage for – and if you’re asking me, could Conway play at Celtic? Absolutely. Get in the car and go today, he could play there.
“But he’s also at a very good football club here with lots to achieve and if I was Liam Manning I’d be saying to the board, ‘we need to keep players like that, if we’re genuinely going to challenge for the Premier League.’ He might want to go to Celtic, but you can’t (let him), he’s a gifted boy.”
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“He’s a really good player, first and foremost, and does Steve Clarke have enough really good players? Possibly not,” Evans said.
“Stevie Clarke has taken a country that was despondent about the national team and how they were playing and he’s come in with his staff and they’ve worked incredibly hard. But I would think anyone who’s come to watch the boy Conway must be saying, ‘we know he’s in the 21s, we know he’s in the organisation’ so they’ll have a handle on him.”
He added: “But I certainly know some players who play in that first-team squad for Scotland and I’m sure the boy Conway could go into that and play some minutes, for sure, but in fairness that’s Stevie Clarke’s decision.”
Paul Gillespie
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