Hibernian hit out at "patronising" clubs for pursuit of Celtic-linked Josh Doig

By David Walton

July 30, 2021

Hibernian have hit out at clubs for their “patronising” approach to signing reported Celtic target Josh Doig.

Speculation has been rife about a move away from Easter Road for left-back Doig. Celtic were first linked with the player back in January as links about a summer move opened up. Arsenal and Chelsea had also been listed as potential suitors [Sky Sports].

Celtic are in desperate need of a left-back for the new season. Greg Taylor hasn’t shown he can be trusted to be number one, whilst Boli Bolingoli falls into the same bracket.

However, it doesn’t look as though a move for Doig is in the pipeline. And speaking in an interview with Vavel, Hibs sporting director Graeme Mathie hit out at some of the approaches they’ve had.

“Lots of things need to align so that he can leave. We’ve had lots of conversations with other teams regarding Josh and I genuinely feel that he is really undervalued by other clubs and that annoys me.

“I would love it if a club were to come to me and say that ‘we think we can turn this boy into a £50million player, here’s how we’re going to develop him, we’ll give you x if he achieves this, and we’ll give you y if he does that, and within a certain number of years, we think he would be at the top level of the game.’

“That makes a conversation far easier, as it becomes less of a transaction and more of a relationship. But right now, we feel some clubs have been quite patronising and more transactional, and it is hard.”

Hibernian to Celtic move for Josh Doig still looks nowhere near complete

So here we are well into the summer window and still a move for Doig to Celtic looks unlikely. There’s been a lack of progress on this for too long for us to be confident about what lies ahead here.

There’s been reports that the Easter Road club value the player at £5m [Evening Standard]. If Celtic are going to solve their left-back position, they likely won’t be doing it at that figure.

But the truth is that it doesn’t matter if it’s Doig or someone else. Celtic fans just want to see the full-back positions improved upon.

We’ve already had a look at how uncomfortable Taylor looks in the inverted full-back role. This is one of the most important positions in Postecoglou’s system. Yet it’s a job our current options look so unsuited to carrying out.

Granted, there’s no denying Doig would take to it either. He hasn’t exactly been doing it for Hibs over the last 12 months under Jack Ross. But he’s young and will have plenty of time to learn.

Postecoglou simply needs his own men at both left-back and right-back. Should we fail to do bring the appropriate reinforcements in, it would be a bad look.

In other news, Reported Celtic target Ben Foster recently gushed over Parkhead atmosphere