Philadelphia Union’s sporting director Ernst Tanner has dismissed the idea that Mark McKenzie will definitely leave for Celtic in January.
Sky Sports News has reported this week that the Hoops are in the market for another centre-back in January, with McKenzie high up on their list of 2021 targets. This comes with the MLS season drawing to a close as they get ready for their off-season break.
Tanner stated back in August that Philadelphia had held talks with Celtic over a summer move, but that they would only be interested in talking once the MLS campaign was over.
But now that it is, the Phialdelphia man has admitted that Celtic now face fierce European competition to land the USA international.
As quoted by Sky Sports, Tanner said: “Not recently. Yeah there were and they signed other players. It’s not necessarily going to be Celtic. There is a German league club and other European leagues going for that player. Some of the Premier League clubs are also observing him.
“We don’t have any sort of pressure on him and he also doesn’t need to force a transfer. He’s a good player and plays in a competitive league. There is nothing on the table for him but I know there a lot of rumours out and we are certainly following that. There are some loose discussions at this moment but nothing concrete.
“The situation in Europe is pretty difficult due to Covid. Mark has certainly really stepped up over the course of the season and he is ready to go. But he could also stay here for another year or half-year.”
Have Celtic waited too long on this one?
The sad truth about McKenzie’s situation is that if there is indeed serious interest from a Premier League and Bundesliga club, we can likely forget it should either of those teams move for him.
The reason being that the centre-back has expressed his desire to play Champions League football and move to a standard of league that focuses on ball-playing (MLS).
It also doesn’t help us when we have MLS pundits such as Charlie Davies talking down the Scottish game and telling McKenzie that he should swerve any move to Celtic. If something like that gets shouted loudly enough, the likes of the Union centre-back will probably listen.
When Celtic were in discussions with Philadelphia over the summer, that looked like the ideal time for us to make our move for McKenzie. It’s highly unlikely that Celtic couldn’t afford him or talk the Union into selling. Not when you consider the MLS doesn’t trade in big money when it comes to outgoings.
Since then, McKenzie has been named runner-up for the Defender of the Year award whilst also guiding his team to its first-ever MLS Supporters’ Shield. He capped it all off with a second USA call-up last week in what’s been a huge second half of the year for him.
Hopefully we haven’t waited too long here, because McKenzie could be exactly what we need to reinvigorate our season. He could effectively become what Shane Duffy was supposed to be.
In other news, a popular Celtic supporters’ group sent a late-night message of defiance to Celtic.
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