It was extremely interesting to see respected Italian journalist Gianluca Di Marzio report on Saturday evening that Celtic and Milan could be set to discuss Diego Laxalt’s long-term future.
Indeed, Di Marzio claimed that the December 3rd meeting between the two clubs could see the discussions over Laxalt’s future kick-off. This comes after the loan star has been the Hoops’ biggest success of the summer window so far.
Laxalt has put in a host of steady performances and at a time when the club has been toiling from crisis to crisis on and off the pitch.
Celtic have only won two of their last eight matches, with Neil Lennon under immense pressure and sitting 11 points behind rivals Rangers in the Premiership. Yet even through all of that, Laxalt has put in capable shifts against the likes of Milan, Lille, Rangers, Aberdeen, and Hibernian to name a handful.
But there appears to be a feeling that all it’s going to take is an agreement between the Hoops and Milan to seal a deal. Nobody is wondering what the Uruguayan is thinking about all of this.
Make no mistake, Laxalt is a proven talent. He’s played at a World Cup for Uruguay and has experience with Milan, Torino, and Genoa. With extensive impressive displays in Serie A, we can count ourselves fortunate we even have him on loan.
No certainties Laxalt will want to commit here
However, there’s absolutely no guarantee he would want to stay. Why would he with the way things are going? Everywhere he looks he’s seeing underperformers either on the pitch or in the dugout.
He has no emotional attachment to the club, and our failures in Europe this season combined with the fact we play in an unfavourable league doesn’t help us either. We aren’t showing Laxalt the best side of the club this season, and that’s something that has to change. Celtic Park can be a magical place for footballers, but right now it feels like the club is haunted.
If we’re to convince talents like him to commit his long-term future to Glasgow, we have to offer him something better than what we’ve done so far.
Celtic are a total mess at the moment. Every time you see Laxalt playing you can’t help but feel fortunate to have such a reliable figure in the squad and digging us out of holes as he did at Easter Road on Saturday.
Considering the positive press he’s getting, Laxalt will have offers elsewhere when his Celtic loan is over. That’s almost certain, and it could easily come from leagues that are of a bigger quality than ours.
We have to show ourselves as an attractive proposition, and right now we must look like anything but.
That’s not to say that Lennon simply has to go in order to keep Laxalt, but the whole atmosphere at the club has to change one way or another. Because if you’re the Milan left-back, there’s no way you’re not thinking about all of your alternative options next season.
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