Yesterday, HITC reported that Celtic had missed out on the chance to sign left sided centre back, Ahmed Touba with the player now signing with Istanbul Basaksehir, in a reported £1.7 million pound deal.
Added to this, continued scuttle bug around Ben Davis and Schalke’s Malick Thiaw and the acceptance that Christopher Julien may have played his last game for the club seems to suggest that a left sided, ball playing centre half is still high on the priority list of Ange Postecoglou.
After a shaky start last season, Carl Starfelt grew into a partnership with Cameron Carter Vickers to form the meanest defence in the Premier League.
While put on his weaker side of defence and despite a revolving array of left backs supporting him, it would be unfair to say that he does not deserve to hold onto his starting position next year.
Indeed, with the departure of Julien looking imminent, perhaps any search for a new centre half is merely to provide cover for the partnership, or it could be that Ange will look to rotate the defence, which was the only area he refused to make frequent rotations in the team.
Or, it could be a further example of the ruthlessness of our manager in his drive to ensure we reach the heights of both domestic and European success. If so, quality competition for all places in the team can only be a good thing.
Call yourself a true Celtic fan? How well do you know the European Cup winning season? Take the quiz and challenge your friends and family to beat your score.
I’ll be hoping we sign a Centre Back. Starfelt has it all defensively, but he’s strangely prone to needlessly surrendering possession with crazy passes out from the back; if he could improve in that department, which doesn’t seem like a huge ask, he’d be a great all round Centre Back!
…he just needs to keep it simple with the passing, and our Midfield need to assist the Defence more by dropping a little deeper when we’re building moves playing out from the back, which tbf they started to do more as the season wore on.
…we still need the strength in depth at the back though, and should always be looking to improve players we have, and improve upon them with new signings.
Right Midfield is another area where we’re lacking depth, along with Centre Forward, and we’re reportedly looking at Defensive Midfield options too, which would allow us to rotate McGregor more often…its always good to have options in every position given some players may be better suited against particular opponents than others, and it helps keep the players and team fresh, as well as provide cover for injuries, suspensions and international call ups.