The one big question behind Emilio Izaguirre’s contract offer at Celtic

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So it’s recently been announced that left-back Emilio Izaguirre has turned down the offer of a new contract at Celtic (Scottish Sun).

The Honduran has been a staple of the eight-in-a-row era at Parkhead. Izzy has been involved in seven of them, but time seems to have caught up with him after a string of inconsistent performances this season.

Izaguirre, as we all know, initially left Celtic back in 2017 to head to Saudi Arabia. Within a year he was back on a fresh one-year deal. That was all well and good. Sure, it would’ve been ideal had we maybe aimed higher and more ambitiously in search of Kieran Tierney’s deputy, but Izzy’s reputation at Parkhead remained a good one.

Unfortunately, however, despite making 19 appearances for the Hoops this season, Izzy hasn’t impressed. His positioning, lack of pace, and strength have all reduced in quality over the years. Yet, despite that, someone at Parkhead felt it acceptable to offer Izzy a new contract for next season.

That’s despite the fact he was becoming a bit of a liability at the back when he featured. So much so that Jonny Hayes ended up being the solid number two to Tierney. That’s despite the fact Hayes isn’t even an out-and-out left-back.

Izaguirre’s time at Celtic was clearly up

If the new contract is the work of Neil Lennon, then it’s a bad start. Izaguirre is no longer worth keeping around, and the fact he rejected the contract shows he’s no longer happy at Parkhead either. Lennon also told Izaguirre weeks ago that he wanted him to stay, according to the player himself (Scottish Sun)

With Mikael Lustig also at the end of his contract this summer, it will be interesting to see if anything is offered there. Lustig, for all of his achievements at Parkhead, has also become too error-prone. Now would be the perfect time to go out and splash some cash on a solid right-back to help take us to the 10. So that likely adds up to Lustig staying on as first-choice right-back if he wants to.

A bad decision by a big decision-maker

Whoever offered Izaguirre the new deal won’t be sacked. It can only be one of the key decision-makers at the club. But this reeks of trying to keep Izzy on so we don’t have to spend more money. Either that or simply someone at Parkhead being too blinkered in what they’ve seen of him.

We’ll likely never find out who did make the offer either. But Celtic are a club who really need to know when to start letting go of their long-term players. Izaguirre was well past his sell-by date, yet he was still allowed to stay on if he wished and continue featuring for us.

Izzy’s achievements at Parkhead make him one of the finest left-backs we’ve had for a long time. But the Honduran’s time was up, and his contract offer alone is a worrying sign about the decision-making at our club.