There have been plenty of speculative headlines about Celtic interest in names such as Carlos Borges of Manchester City and Young Boys midfielder Fabian Rieder this summer, but in a curious twist from the usual rumour mill, the original links to this pair didn’t come from the press.
Both Borges’ and Rieder’s names came up initially from ‘insider’ forum accounts and a few tweets from some of the more popular rumour accounts on Twitter. In turn, they became topics of discussion amongst online Celtic fans and, eventually, the subject of articles in established press outlets such as Football Scotland and The Daily Record. They’ve become talking points primarily by word of mouth.
The point here is there has been a dearth of actual reporting on Celtic transfer targets this summer. There have been the odd one-liners here and there about English Premier League players, mostly from outlets based in England that mention other clubs in the same breath. Then there was the Kieran Tierney story in The Scottish Sun from the same reporter who was breaking Brendan Rodgers to Celtic stories. Apart from that, a few South Korean players and the two young prospects we’ve finalised deals for, not much else.
I don’t see this as a problem, it’s just notable. It seems there is stony silence on who Celtic are looking at from various outlets’ usual sources at the club or on the agent side of things.
Celtic, Mark Lawwell and Rodgers will undoubtedly be hard at work pushing moves for any big targets along, we just have no idea who they are.
The club are expected to be spending a fair amount of money during this window, something alluded to by Kenny Dalglish over the weekend. There is faith that Celtic will be pleasing supporters pretty soon with regard to new additions that can help maintain our domestic success and kick on in the UEFA Champions League.
Supposed targets such as Borges and Rieder are certainly towards to top end of Celtic’s potential outlay, so the fact there is noise around that calibre of player is at least a good sign. With the club continually reminding us it is in a strong financial position, resources are available for record signings – especially in the wake of Jota’s sale to Al-Ittihad.
I guess, at the moment, it’s just about patience. While the rumour mill is pretty dry, there’s also no reason to feel panicked or anxious about what’s ahead this summer. There has to be confidence some exciting deals are on the horizon.
In other news, Callum McGregor and Brendan Rodgers speak after big Celtic contract announcement.
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