As Tommy Smith signs on his move to Stoke City today, it’s another blow in our search for Mikael Lustig’s replacement.
Former Huddersfield right-back Smith completed his move to the Potters this afternoon. He’s signed a three-year deal with the Championship club, with the fee in the region of £4million (The Examiner).
The move interestingly sees the full-back swap Championship club for Championship club. It had previously been reported that Celtic weren’t interested in going above £2.5m for the ex-Huddersfield man (Daily Record).
This is something Celtic fans will have been expecting to have been confirmed over the last few days. There appeared to be a reported breakthrough several days ago as it appeared Stoke would win the race for the right-back (Daily Record). Today, it’s been confirmed, and the sum shows just why we weren’t near a deal either.
Latest reports have had Celtic moving on to George Baldock of Sheffield United(Scottish Sun). He was a target earlier in the window, and it remains to be seen if we revisit it.
Tommy Smith signs and Celtic miss out
If this was Neil Lennon’s top target, it’s disappointing we didn’t splash out to sign him. Regardless of how long he may have had on his Huddersfield deal, sorting out our right-back issue for £4m would’ve been received well by supporters.
Evidently, the club simply didn’t feel he was worth it. That surely must mean that there are plenty of other targets being lined up by Celtic instead. We would hope to hear more about this in the coming days.
Neil Lennon said in the Scottish Sun a few days ago that he hoped to get a right-back in for the second qualifying round of the Champions League. As of yet, there’s been no reported progress, but hopefully, the club moves quickly like they did with Christopher Jullien and Boli Bolingoli-Mbombo.
Smith’s transfer to Stoke certainly won’t be mourned by the supporters. He was hardly a player that stood out as a must-have for many. But at the end of the day, it’s still another reported target to have escaped the club’s grasp.
Fans won’t dwell on it, and the club won’t too. Hopefully, our right-back search accelerates further in the next few days.
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