Jim Duffy explains what the ‘majority of people’ think about Greg Taylor at Celtic

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Greg Taylor’s contract situation at Celtic was brought sharply into focus this week after the defender spoke about it whilst on the US Tour.

The Scotland full-back is well into his final year at the club and spoke ‘honestly’ about his Celtic future and admitted that it’s not at the forefront of his mind.

We discussed today how Brendan Rodgers revealed he has had a chat with Taylor’s agent about it and is keen on keeping the Celtic defender.

The Celtic fans are keen on Rodgers to bring in competition for the left-back position because as it stands now, Taylor is the only recognised left-sided fullback at the club.

Taylor did get criticised for some of his performances at Celtic last season but Jim Duffy has leapt to his defence as he believes that the negativity surrounding the treble-winning defender has been too harsh.

Duffy hails Taylor’s Celtic consistency as ‘very good’

There were times last season when Celtic’s left side of defence was being targeted by the opposition and it led to cries from the supporters that it was a weak link in the team.

However, Duffy disagrees with that view and believes too much was made out of nothing about the Celtic defender.

Duffy said [Superscoreboard], “I think that from Greg Taylor’s point of view, he’s only got a year left on his contract and you want to try and get that resolved if you believe that he can still contribute, which I think the majority of people would think yes.

“I mean in terms of the back post stuff, in terms of defending with height, I think if you look over a couple of hundred games that Greg Taylor‘s played, there’s probably only once or twice [he’s been beaten in the air].

“Teams don’t throw balls at the back post. It’s just not a normal part of the game now. You maybe get the odd one but it’s not something that somebody gets it wide, sticks it into the back post, and you’ve got a towering centre forward coming in. It’s just not a regular part of football these days.

“So overall, I think his consistency has been very good.”

Taylor signed for Celtic in 2019 but really only came into his own when Ange Postecoglou joined the club.

The inverted wingback role gave Taylor the chance to shine and he was an ever-present in the Australian’s Celtic team as he fought off the competition from Alexandro Bernabei.

Now that the Argentinian is on loan in Brazil, Rodgers does need to bring in another player for that position if not to take over from Taylor but to at least rest him at some point.

Like Rodgers, I hope Taylor is offered an extension to his current deal because he knows what it takes to play for Celtic and how to cope with the demands and pressures that come with it.

And as the Celtic support has seen with Bernabei, getting the wrong person in can be an expensive mistake to make.