Celtic fans look set to have fears around the lack of depth in the goalkeeper department eased this week with the arrival of Vasilios Barkas, as the Greece international heads to Parkhead from AEK Athens in a deal believed to be around £4.5million plus add ons, including a 10% sell on clause, according to the Glasgow Times.
Neil Lennon spoke after the 3-1 friendly victory over Hibernian yesterday when he revealed that he expects to see new faces through the door this week without giving too much more away for fear of last minute hitches and Barkas could be the first of those.
The Hoops gaffer hasn’t had his troubles to seek when trying to identify targets for between the posts, it was widely predicted that Fraser Forster would return in one capacity or another to finish what he started under Lennon, however, with Premier League clubs said to be targeting him and Southampton wanting to reassess him, ironically, his form for Celtic has priced them out of a move for the giant stopper.
Plan B was, surprisingly, to offer Craig Gordon a new contract and when the Scotland international took to the media to criticise the deal, the writing was on the wall which left Scott Bain as the only recognised senior keeper.
Lennon finally appears to have got his man though with Barkas fitting the bill as the safe pair of hands required to see Celtic continue their unprecedented dominance of domestic football and an historic tenth successive Premiership title next on the Northern Irishman’s to-do list.