Celtic-linked Omar Colley dropped from Sampdoria XI; January move must be considered

By David Walton

October 27, 2020

Ever since being constantly linked with a move to Celtic and England over the summer, Omar Colley’s place in the Sampdoria starting XI has slowly been taken away from him.

Sky Sports reported during the window that Celtic had enquired about the availability of the Gambian international. Sampdoria, however, had seemingly put a £10million valuation on his services.

In the end, Celtic went for Shane Duffy on loan from Brighton, and the early signs certainly haven’t been good. A style of football that doesn’t suit Duffy’s traits combined with careless individual errors have led to some panic over his ability to shore up our defence.

Naturally then, potential options in January will surely be looked at with the club needing to ensure no stone is unturned in our quest for 10-in-a-row.

And Colley looks like he may very well become available again after being pipped to the starting XI in recent games by Lorenzo Tonelli.

Despite looking solid enough in a 3-0 loss to Juventus on opening day, Colley struggled along with the rest of the Sampdoria defence in a shocking 3-2 home loss to Benevento. That was six goals conceded in two games with Colley in the starting XI.

And that appeared to be enough for Claudio Ranieri to drop him from his side. Since then, he hasn’t played a single minute in any of Sampdoria’s three games since.

Sampdoria’s upturn in fortunes has been without Colley

Wins against Fiorentina, Lazio, and Atalanta respectively have all been played out with Colley either not in the squad or rooted to the bench. His latest blow was not appearing during the weekend’s 3-1 victory in Atalanta – with Sampdoria turning around their fortunes without his influence.

SampNews24 reports that Colley will finally be given his chance to shine again vs Salernitana in the Coppa Italia this afternoon. However, that’s only due to Ranieri taking Sunday’s game against Genoa into account, where Colley looks set to be dropped again.

What’s becoming more and more clear is that the centre-back isn’t going to be a regular with Sampdoria this season. And that should lead to further interest from Celtic in January should Duffy fail to settle and the club feels the need to add more depth.

Omar Colley has lost his place at Sampdoria (Photo by Marco Canoniero/LightRocket via Getty Images)

You can question whether it would be necessary of course. Considering we have six centre-back options at our disposal, you can see the merit in looking to develop what we have. And whilst that may very well be the right way to go, the panic this season should still have Celtic considering all of their options.

Colley should be available at a price in just over two months’ time. Should Sampdoria stick with their reported £10m valuation then it looks foolish to think we could nab him. But considering they were reportedly looking to sell £30m worth of talent in the summer (Daily Record), they could be up for negotiating further given his contract expires in the summer of 2022.

We’ll see what happens between now and the winter window. However, if things stay the way there are, don’t be surprised if Celtic jump back into the market again. Should they do so, Colley must remain on their radar.

In other news, the Celtic supporters have responded to a club legend’s rallying cry, and not everyone agreed.