He is an enigma is Patrick Roberts.
All the talent in a winger you could ever wish for, but not the mentality to back it up. Or is that too harsh?
Don’t take it from me. Take it from Peter Grant.
The former Celtic defender was Roberts’ coach when he was just a youngster at Fulham and he has lifted the lid on why Ange Postecoglou may have knocked back the chance to bring the winger back to Paradise in the summer.
Speaking on The Go Radio Football Show, Grant said, “I had Pat as a young man at Fulham. He was a terrific young player.
“There’s things in his game that I feel he’s not improved enough and I can see why Ange probably wouldn’t take him back, because it’s more about the team ethic at this moment in time.
“Young Abada’s gone in and done terrifically well. He’s more productive in terms of goals and he’s probably looked at that.
“It’s easy to say somebody’s got the talent, and Pat’s no doubt got that. I think it was £10million we sold him to Manchester City for.
“But the thing for us was that Pat needed to go out and play.
“Was he going to play at Manchester City? No, I don’t think that was going to be the case but the loan process was going to work fantastically well for him.
“He’s a Celtic-type of player but do they need him at this time? I think Ange has made the right call to be perfectly honest.”
And that summation is pretty much spot on.
Could you see Roberts tracking back and doing the donkey work that Ange demands from his forwards? Remember the ‘non-negotiable‘ terms that Ange set out for all his players?
I asked the question earlier last month if Ange could revive his career at Celtic. We now have our answer.
Hopefully now the usual summer transfer talk of ‘Bring Paddy home’ will stop.
But something tells me it won’t.
Why is this even a question? Ange spoke to him, decided not to pursue him further. It’s a non issue!
Paddy was brilliant with us and must know he could never again play for a bigger club.
He had his chances, for reasonly he knows, spurned the opportunity for immortality in Paradise so let’s move forward, and stop looking over our shoulders!