I don’t want this to come across as a case of schadenfreude, but sometimes I look at players and when they choose other clubs over Celtic they make me wonder, “Why?”.
Now I know professional footballers have no emotional connection with the club like you or I do but surely there should be a degree of critical thinking when mulling over a move?
Take the case of Thomas Henry, for example. As reported by HITC, the Frenchman was a long standing summer target for Celtic and it seemed the club were in pole position to sign the 27 year old.
Vital Celtic reported back in August how Ange had pinpointed the then 21 goal forward man as an ideal addition to the squad.
That was until Serie A side Venezia stepped in and paid just under £5m for the hitman’s services.
But why choose a club side that has just yoyo’d up and down the Italian divisions in the last 60 years and who’s only major trophy of note is the Coppa Italia which was won over 80 years ago?
It certainly seems like it wasn’t the money as he is reported to be on £10k per week [Salary Sport] which would have been easily matched by Celtic.
Clearly the pull of the Italian top division was what motivated the move, but with Venezia facing relegation this season, it seems his choice of club was very short sighted.
Surely the lure of regular European football and the chance for silverware year in, year out and playing in front of 60,000 every second week would be appealing to any footballer?
But what is for you, won’t go by you as Celtic then turned to the Eredivisie and secured the services of Giakoumakis which, to all intents and purposes, seems like an inspired move considering the big Greeks current goal scoring form.