Sutton demands Celtic make new goalkeeper their January priority

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Chris Sutton has claimed that Celtic need to bring in a new goalkeeper this month after a worrying first half of the season.

The Hoops splashed out £4.5million on Vasilis Barkas in the summer (Scottish Sun). Since then, he’s been dropped on several occasions as he’s failed to convince he’s the number one. The Greek stopper also hasn’t made a single top save of note.

Neil Lennon has been forced to go with Scott Bain and Conor Hazard at differing stages between August and January. But even so, the Hoops boss has recently refused the idea he needs to sign another stopper (The Herald). That’s despite the fact not one of the trio has managed to claim the jersey as their own.

Sutton, however, has torn that idea to shreds. Speaking on the Record Celtic podcast, the Parkhead great believes a new number one should be the club’s main January focus.

“I think Celtic can make do without a new centre-half. I think the position they can’t make do with is the goalkeeper. It’s probably sickening for Celtic fans watching Fraser Forster keep a clean sheet against Liverpool. Just his presence and authority – it’s a different ball game.

“That’s the priority position. It’s been interesting this season – the chopping and changing. We had it with Hazard then Bain, and Barkas at the start of the season was chopped and then he’s back in.

“But there’s nothing to suggest that somehow their form is going to be good enough to warrant playing in goal for Celtic. So that must be the priority. I know it’s been a waste of money (Barkas), but what have we seen where we think he’s going to turn it around. I just don’t see it with him.”

Sutton right on Barkas; but Celtic won’t be signing a new goalkeeper

We’ll defend anything about Celtic that deserves to be defended. However, the signing of Barkas most certainly doesn’t fall into that bracket. In fact, Sutton isn’t going OTT in saying that it was a waste of money.

So far it has been. He’s had to miss key fixtures in Europe in particular because he simply hasn’t been good enough. Whether he’s found it hard to acclimatise or simply isn’t as good as we all hoped – it doesn’t matter. He was brought in for the 10 and it looks like he won’t be helping to deliver it.

However, the idea of us signing a new goalkeeper can be dismissed. Perhaps if Forster became available then Neil Lennon may have decided to encourage the board to move. But his clean sheet for Southampton against Liverpool on Monday night ends any talk of that. He looks set for a spell in the team there.

The fact is that the Celtic boss will want to justify his outlay on Barkas too. He can’t afford to turn to the Celtic fans and admit that the signing of the Greek was a disaster. That does nothing for Lennon’s reputation. His inclusion at Ibrox was pretty much proof of that.

And Barkas didn’t have anything to do in Govan either. So Lennon will feel he’s come through that unscathed and can now go on a run of form and bag some clean sheets.

The prospect of signing a new number one, especially with Hazard in reserve too, can be disregarded this month. It reflects poorly on the manager in so many ways if we move for one.

In other news, these Rodgers comments from 2019 could be about become reality.