Celtic are reportedly set to offer a new contract to Anthony Ralston.
The right-back is entering the final year of his contract, and the club are reportedly keen to tie him down during the summer window.
Ralston has been at the club since the age of nine, and made his senior debut over a decade ago as a teenager.
Now aged 27, he has been on international duty at the World Cup with Scotland, making appearances as a substitute against Morocco and Brazil.
Does Anthony Ralston deserve a new contract at Celtic?
Celtic plan to offer a new contract to Anthony Ralston
According to the Daily Record, Martin O’Neill wants to extend the right-back’s existing contract which expires in 2027.
Ralston made 35 appearances this season, the most of any campaign since his breakthrough under Ange Postecoglou.
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Said breakthrough was a long time coming. For six years after his debut, he didn’t make more than ten appearances in a single season.
The primary reason for this was loan moves, which he had at Queen’s Park, Dundee United and St Johnstone.
His Parkhead career was as good as over when the Aussie arrived, but he famously scored the club’s first league goal under Postecoglou in a defeat against Hearts at Tynecastle and didn’t look back.
This season, he was one of *eight* different players to play at right-back at one point or another. Primarily, the Hoops’ starters in the position were Alistair Johnston and Julian Araujo.
The breakthrough of Colby Donovan added more competition for Ralston, but there is a chance that the teenager is loaned out this season.
Several new long-term deals have already been given out under O’Neill’s watch, with Luke McCowan and Liam Scales also handed extensions.
📝 The Ox extends!
Have Celtic made the right call?
Pat Nevin on Celtic’s Anthony Ralston
Working as a pundit at the tournament, Pat Nevin claimed that Ralston deserves more praise at the national team.
He said on BBC Sportsound: “There are certain players you think you will give every single bet you have got for every single game.
“And usually it’s an eight out of ten, every single game. You do need players like that that you can absolutely rely on.
“It may be tough for you against some of the best world-class wingers in the world when you’re out there. Yeah, you will struggle on that. But he won’t be playing against them every week.
“I have a problem with that, because I always think it’s what you can do for your country.
“It’s not what your country can do for you. If you’re needed in your country, once you turn up, you don’t have to tell me that.
“So that’s my attitude. And that’s not always been the case.”
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