Celtic-linked full-back Aaron Hickey looks set to finally complete his move to Bologna as he gets ready to fly out in the next 24 hours, according to the Scottish Sun.
The Sun believes that the Hearts youngster is set to fly out to Italy today to seal a £1.5million deal. It comes after a £1.3m offer from the Serie A club was reportedly booted out yesterday.
The newspaper also states that talks are currently ongoing between the two clubs, but that Bologna are close to meeting the Jambos’ asking price of £1.5m.
It was yesterday reported by the BBC that Celtic were still an option for the youngster, who was previously on the Parkhead books as a youth player.
However, it’s looking more and more likely that he’ll be heading to Italy, with no reports of an offer from Celtic coming through.
No movement shows how Celtic might’ve viewed Hickey
In recent days, the Scottish Sun has reported that Neil Lennon wants to add three more players to his squad (and perhaps more depending on departures).
One of those signing targets involved a left-back. Funnily enough, that’s the position Hickey appears to be most comfortable in.
Yet, judging by events over the last seven days, Celtic have hardly been in a rush to nip in ahead of Bologna and seal a deal for Hickey. Instead, there’s been next to no reports of any offer forthcoming from the Parkhead side.
And that effectively shows you where Hickey would’ve ranked in our squad had we completed a deal. We need a left-back, yet Hickey isn’t exactly a priority at the moment. He would’ve arrived at Celtic and immediately been put into the under-20s until deemed ready.
Yes, it’s always nice to hoover up as much young talent in Scotland as we can. Hickey has 34 appearances to his name with Hearts at just 18 (Transfermarkt). Meaning he certainly falls into that bracket of top young talent.
But it’s first-team football he needs right now. Whether he’ll get that at Bologna is a debate for another time, but he certainly wouldn’t have found himself receiving it at Parkhead. Or at least he shouldn’t have done in any case.
If we are indeed in the market for a left-back, it’s telling we haven’t yet moved to sign the Tynecastle man.
In other news, these Celtic fans couldn’t hide the irony on show with events in France yesterday.
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