Morning Gossip: Aussie media reports Ange told McKay Aaron Mooy is a priority. AC Milan looking at Edouard. Torino midfielder Sasa Lukic mentioned in numerous media. Celtic monitoring both Ali McCann and Lewis Ferguson. Ko Itakura loan is looking likely with talks ongoing. HH – Celtic Gossip.
Morning Gossip: Aussie media reports Ange told McKay Aaron Mooy is a priority. AC Milan looking at Edouard. Torino midfielder Sasa Lukic mentioned in numerous media. Celtic monitoring both Ali McCann and Lewis Ferguson. Ko Itakura loan is looking likely with talks ongoing. HH pic.twitter.com/eptMdPvfDo
— Celtic Gossip (@CelticGossip) July 1, 2021
Aaron Mooy ran the midfield for Australia under the New Celtic manager and a fee of around £4m looks likely with Dom McKay keen to get the rebuild up and running. The former Brighton and Huddersfield midfielder – who had a spell at St Mirren a decade ago – is currently in China with Shanghai SIPG but due to Covid restrictions has been unable to see his family for a considerable period. A move back to Scotland – no doubt with a large wage cut – to Celtic could possibly suit Mooy especially as he’ll get the chance to be re-united with Postecoglou.
READ THIS…Odsonne Edouard trains at Lennoxtown as Leicester City complete £23m signing of Salzburg Striker
Odsonne Edouard must have looked at the news yesterday, that Leicester City had completed the £23m signing of the Salzburg goalscorer Patson Daka, after negotiations between the Premier League club and Celtic failed to reach an agreement on price for the French Under 21 international. Whether Daka turns out to be a better buy than Edouard remains to be seen, what is probably true is that he had a better season last year while Edouard was much quieter in his still notable contribution for Celtic in what was a season to forget for everyone at the club. Edouard did shine briefly in the San Siro against AC Milan and that may help his cause as the Italians look like the most obvious ‘escape route’ for the Celtic striker, one of the want away stars at the club. Here’s Daka’s road to Rodgers…
The Sasa Lukic links appear at this stage to be unreliable from the sources out there., not saying it not in the offing just little to actually suggest that it is, so worth parking for now. Ali McCann and Lewis Ferguson are two of the best of the rest Scottish Premiership players we have written about previously and both are certainly worthy of consideration from Postecoglou now that he is in situ and making the calls. We’ll look at both separately later on.
Ko Itakura is definitely more likely to end up at Celtic in the not too distant future. And former Groningen star Jan Mennega has been giving a great insight into the Japanese defender in Daily Record. “Itakura played two years for Groningen. In the beginning he had some problems but after a while he just got better and better and he was the club’s best defender last season.
“Looking at that, he is now able to make the next step. He’s a good passer of the ball and a good defender. Itakura is not the type of defender that you would say is a big fighter and having big confrontations.
“His strength is he reads the game and it is important he is developing his game all of the time. He sees the problems when they come around and I am sure he can play at Celtic, I’m convinced he can do that.”
“It is not an easy thing for players to go into clubs from different countries. Postecoglou has experience of coaching in Japan and he will know how to get the best of Itakura or any other players from a region he has worked in.
“Japanese players have always come across as being very coachable. They are always prepared to do what the coach wants from them and closely follow the instructions. Sometimes players will listen to the instructions from a coach and say: ‘Yes, okay but…
“Japanese players do not have a reputation for doing that. They tend to do exactly what the coach says and that is important.”
On the inevitable Virgil van Dijk comparison given that that Dutch defender, now regarded as the best central defender in the World, followed the same path moving from Groningen to Glasgow to play for Celtic/
“Of course there will be a connection from the fact that Virgil moved from Groningen to Celtic and now it could be the case for Itakura. However, it is important to be realistic and understand that he is not at that level. When Virgil moved to Celtic he was not as good as he is now obviously but he was a better player at that stage of his career than Itkaura is now.
“That’s understandable. Virgil van Dijk is top class. It would be very unfair to make any comparisons based purely on the club from which they signed.”
