Reported Celtic target Taylor Harwood-Bellis left Manchester City’s superstars “blown away” when he was just 17, according to Pep Guardiola.
Sky Sports has today claimed that the Hoops are monitoring the situation of the England under-21 international. However, they’ve stressed that no contact has as of yet been made with City.
Harwood-Bellis spent the second half of the 2021/22 campaign on loan with Stoke City in the Championship. However, manager Michael O’Neill has already confirmed that they likely won’t be able to make the move permanent [Stoke Sentinel].
And that could leave an opportunity open for Celtic to make a move. Harwood-Bellis came up through the City youth academy before being promoted to the first team by Guardiola back in 2019. The Citizens boss stated back then that he had left the first-team stars at the Etihad “blown away” during their pre-season camp that year [The Sun].
The centre-back has gone on to make 8 appearances for the first team including a Champions League cameo against Dinamo Zagreb.
He also shone in a League Cup win at Oxford during the 2019/20 season too. Raheem Sterling even handed over his man-of-the-match award to him for his performance that night, going on to state that he was “brilliant”, “fantastic” and gave him an “easy night” [Manchester Evening News].
Celtic move for Taylor Harwood-Bellis on the cards?
It’s important to stress that this doesn’t appear to be anywhere near finalised. That no contact has reportedly been made yet only goes to highlight that. But it backs up the idea that Ange Postecoglou is still in the market for another centre-back even if Cameron Carter-Vickers signs up.
Harwood-Bellis unfortunately wasn’t able to solidify a place in the City first-team moving forward, but he’s certainly been receiving plenty of loan experience over the past several years. He’s played under Tony Mowbray at Blackburn as well as Vincent Kompany during a spell with Anderlecht.
He’s also been captaining the England under-21 side during their Euro Championship qualifying campaign. Not to mention he had the experience of UEFA Conference League football with Anderlecht at the beginning of last term.
He may only be 20 years of age, but Harwood-Bellis is clearly a player with plenty of experience and potential. It also remains to be seen whether he would be available either on a permanent or loan move.
Many will believe the interest could be a direct influence of new head of scouting and recruitment Mark Lawwell, who worked with the City Group before moving to Parkhead.
We’ll see what happens with this one moving forward, but at face value it certainly holds appeal.
In other news, Report: Lee Buchanan contract at Derby extended after Celtic scouting missions
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