As the the League Cup final fallout about Celtic’s win over Rangers continues, there is another discussion set to be had over the future of one of the penalty heroes of the day.
Celtic beat Rangers 5-4 after Hoops winger Daizen Maeda converted the Bhoys’ winning spot kick to bring the League Cup back home to Celtic Park.
On the day, the five Celtic penalty takers were Callum McGregor, Adam Idah, Reo Hatate, Arne Engels and, of course, Maeda.
But it is none of those Hoops heroes that Michael Stewart was talking about as he reviewed Celtic’s win over Rangers at Hampden.
The person the BBC and Premier Sports pundit was actually talking about was the man who saved Rangers’ third penalty, Celtic ‘keeper, Kasper Schmeichel.
Michael Stewart would be ‘amazed’ if Kasper Schmeichel left Celtic next summer
Speaking about the great Danish international, Stewart admits that he has completely changed his opinion of Schmeichel and that he would be ‘amazed’ if Celtic let him leave the club next summer.
Stewart told The Scottish Football Social Club, “I’m thinking back to the Dortmund game, and actually, it was fairly early on the season, and I thought to myself, Kasper Schmeichel was looking a wee bit the age that he is.
“That’s the only game this season, to be honest, because since then, he’s come up with big, big saves. But at that point, I did think to myself, that this was a real stopgap.
“Now, doing a complete 180, I’m thinking to myself, I would be astonished if he was not there next season and Celtic don’t trigger that extension.
“Obviously, the club can do it if they want, but they’re going to only do it if Kasper Schmeichel wants to play on. And I go back to it, I’d be astonished if he didn’t want to play another season at Celtic.”
Celtic must find ‘long-term’ Kasper Schmeichel solution
“So they need to,” continued Stewart, “Obviously try and find a long-term solution because Joe Hart felt as if it was the end of his career, but they got three years out of him.
“Kasper Schmeichel, I would imagine, is going to stay for another year but they need to try and find somebody that’s going to give them a bit more longevity in goals.
“But at the moment they’ve got another top-class keeper that they can rely on because he comes up with big saves.”
Indeed, Schmeichel is out of contract at Celtic at the end of the season but the club, as Stewarts states, do have the option of extending that for another year.
Whilst Rodgers still has Viljami Sinisalo to call upon, the fact that the young Finnish international is yet to make his Celtic debut does question if he’s ready to slip on Schmeichel’s gloves come the start of next season.
So it seems that whether or not the 37-year-old does decide to stay at Celtic, Brendan Rodgers will need to find another goalkeeper anyway either as a back up to Sinisalo or a replacement for the Finn if the Hoops boss isn’t convinced he can do a job for the Parkhead club in the near future.
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