One time Celtic target Scott McKenna appears to be heading out of Scottish football with Aberdeen’s patience in waiting for an English club to pay an over-the-top offer for the centre-half looking to have paid off, the Parkhead side having a reported £5million bid rejected last summer.
BBC Sport reported on his absence from the Dons squad to face Motherwell and Derek McInnes revealed that the odds of a move had shortened in recent days:
“We’re close, the clubs have been speaking. From our point of view, I prepared for a team without Scott in it yesterday. It’s seems to be edging a bit closer to the clubs agreeing.”
And on a fee being agreed, he said:
“Not as far as I’m aware, but talks are encouraging. There’s been interest for a while from that particular club but it has gathered momentum in the last 24 hours.”
Celtic have tried a couple of times to get McKenna through the door but when you look at the likes of Christopher Jullien and now Shane Duffy, they have individuals of a significantly higher quality, especially when you consider that Aberdeen were rumoured to have been looking in the region of £7m for the Scotland international.
Should Celtic have signed Scott McKenna instead of Jullien last summer?
Yes
No
Buying promising young players from other Scottish teams is a policy that has worked well for Celtic over the years and Neil Lennon’s side currently boasts Greg Taylor, Ryan Christie, David Turnbull and of course Scott Brown who all developed a grounding in the Scottish Premiership before making the step up to the Hoops.
Few will mourn the loss of McKenna with his displays at national level doing little to suggest that he would improve Celtic or that he could cope with the higher technical demands of continental football, thankfully one that did get away.