John Kennedy has aimed a dig at David Turnbull, and claimed that Celtic want players who aren’t just interested in money.
The Hoops failed to agree a deal with Turnbull and his representatives. This led to the Hoops removing the deal from the table and dropping their interest (Scottish Sun).
Celtic have, for some reason, taken criticism for it too. That’s despite the fact they quickly met Motherwell’s asking price only for the player to refuse the move to Glasgow. There was nothing more the Hoops could’ve done.
Kennedy seemed to hint that the reasoning for the disagreement was simply financial. Speaking in the Daily Record, the Celtic assistant boss had a pop at Turnbull.
“What we want is for players to be hungry and we also want them to come here for the right reasons, not just financially. For a 19-year-old coming from Motherwell who has played pretty much one season, the offer we made was very good.
“It all comes down to a player’s idea of what he wants and the representative who is advising him in that respect. If you do well at this club, the world is your oyster and that’s what we wanted to give him, but they chose not to take our offer. It’s not one we are going to lose too much sleep over.
“It’s also not just about talent. You need players with the right mindset who are hungry to come into be successful and be part of something successful. Players coming in have to have the right attitude and have the right motives.”
Kennedy makes motives clear
It’s clear, then, that Turnbull’s reasons for declining wasn’t down to first-team football assurances. Instead, it all seemed to come down to one thing – money.
Celtic, however, can’t go breaking their wage structure. Delving into territory where he was earning the same as the treble treble winners would’ve been a no-go. Whatever he was offered, it would’ve been an incredible improvement on his current wage at Motherwell.
Just how much he believed he was going to get off Celtic probably won’t ever be known. What it does do, however, is make it all the more suspicious that he’s agreed terms with Norwich City so quickly (BBC). Did he ever have any intentions of coming to Parkhead?
In any case, we dodged a bullet here. If Turnbull had made the switch to Parkhead, think where we would be two years down the line. The player would likely have been looking towards England as opposed to staying at Celtic for the long-term. We probably wouldn’t have seen the best out of him, and therefore we can now switch our attention to other targets.
Kennedy’s words about not losing any sleep over it are quite brutal too. It shows that the club aren’t overly-concerned with losing out on him, and neither they should be.
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