David Turnbull, according to Football Insider, has been undergoing a medical as part of his proposed move to Celtic and hopefully it won’t throw up any surprises like the one last year that revealed the midfielder needed immediate knee surgery.
Neil Lennon will be hoping that the deal can be completed sooner rather than later and at least the two clubs will have a decent starting position for negotiations with a fee of £2.75million rising to £3.25m said to have been agreed, and Noel Whelan, has backed the gaffer’s attempts to get his squad completed sooner rather than later.
So what has Whelan said?
When asked to reflect on one of the most protracted transfers in Scottish football, he said:
“The quicker they get him through the door the better. Every club and manager wants to have their squad to be assembled as quickly as possible.
“The season has already started but Neil Lennon realises that they need more quality and more depth.
“They tried to sign him last season and they were extremely close to getting the deal done but now it looks like it is inevitable that he will be joining Celtic.”
So is Whelan correct?
The main aspect of the Turnbull deal is getting it over the line before any other clubs get involved and we lose out in a similar way to the John McGinn fiasco a couple of seasons ago.
At the same age, the 21-year old is a better player than McGinn, Stuart Armstrong and maybe even Callum McGregor, to pick a player up of his calibre with the potential to get even better makes not only good footballing sense, but great business sense.
Are you frustrated that Turnbull hasn't already been signed?
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No
He might not go straight into the starting XI but outside of Lennon’s usual go to men, there isn’t a great deal of depth in the middle of the park outside of Scott Brown and McGregor.
Turnbull isn’t a project signing like Ismaila Soro or Patryk Klimala, he is a known quantity, who, alongside McGregor, could form part of the Hoops engine room for years to come – if there are no last minute hitches of course.