In what’s perhaps the most important January transfer window in our bid for 10-in-a-row, you could be forgiven for thinking Liam Donnelly would be an underwhelming acquisition.
Belfast Live claimed yesterday that we were “monitoring” the Motherwell midfielder ahead of a shock January move.
With nine goals in 20 appearances for the Steelmen this season, Donnelly has had a fine campaign at Fir Park. He also bagged an impressive brace against us back in August in our 5-2 success in North Lanarkshire (Transfermarkt).
He’s also impressively versatile. Donnelly is naturally a defensive-midfielder, which makes his goal return surprising. However, he can also play at right-back and centre-back.
Celtic are in need of another midfielder and indeed another centre-back. But with Ismaila Soro apparently closing in on a move to Parkhead, there wouldn’t be much need for another (Daily Record).
Donnelly simply wouldn’t improve Celtic
There’s no rocket-science to this one. Donnelly is a tough-tackling midfielder, but he also isn’t any better than Scott Brown or Olivier Ntcham. In fact, he’s simply inferior to the duo. Should Soro sign, he should tick many of the boxes that Donnelly would apparently be known for as well.
He also hasn’t been enough of a standout this season. There haven’t many people talking about Donnelly outside of Motherwell – he isn’t the kind of signing we need to be taking a risk on.
He can play centre-back as mentioned before, but it’s not his natural position. Even though that area is a priority for us to strengthen in, you don’t want to fill it with a player who views it as a secondary position.
In a January where we’re hoping for so much, Donnelly’s name would be a disappointment. There’s no denying many supporters would see it as highly underwhelming, and it would stink of the club trying to get things done cheaply once again.
We have to be more ambitious than that. We’re effectively working towards one of the biggest and most historic achievements in the club’s history. Signings like Donnelly really wouldn’t do much to help us get any closer.
When signing a new player, you have to look at what he’ll bring to the side. Donnelly, from watching him this season, wouldn’t bring anything we don’t already have outside of extra enthusiasm.
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