Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley has confirmed that no club has made contact with them regarding a move for midfielder Danny Mandroiu.
The Irish Sun earlier in the week reported that Celtic were confident of landing the Rovers’ top scorer in January. The Hoops had reportedly been tracking the playmaker since the summer.
Mandroiu has recently commented on his long-term future and hinted that he would be staying in Ireland beyond the January window [Irish Sun]. That, however, came before the Celtic interest surfaced.
And as we close in on the January window, Shamrock boss Bradley has refuted any suggestions that there has been contact made between the two clubs.
As quoted by the 42, the Rovers boss said: “I’ve had zero interest off any club for Danny. I’ve had zero contact from any club. He is, in my opinion, and obviously I’m a bit biased, in with Dylan [Watts] in being up there with probably Georgie Kelly as the three best players in this country this year.
“I know you have [Will] Patching who has had a good season and [Ross] Tierney has done well, but I think those three have been the stand out players for me. There’s going to be interest there, but I’ve had zero contact from any club regarding Danny.”
Lack of Celtic contact means nothing as Danny Mandroiu speculation continues
It’s not particularly unusual that Celtic haven’t made contact with Rovers yet. That hardly means anything in the grand scheme. There will be plenty of January targets that the Hoops haven’t openly pursued just yet. It’s only mid-November after all.
That doesn’t mean Celtic haven’t been monitoring the attacking midfielder’s progress since the summer. Remember, we signed Liam Scales in the summer after taking in Shamrock games in the past. It would be no surprise to see Mandroiu catching the eye.
Of course, whether we will actually go after him is up in the air. He may have 15 goals for the season, but it’s at a level a lot lower than what Celtic operate at. So much so that it would be difficult to know for sure whether this would be a signing intended to go straight into the first-team.
This is the kind of move Celtic could make whenever they feel the time is right and they won’t be punished for doing so. It’s clearly going to be affordable for us to pull this one off, but it’s whether it’s worth our time doing to begin with.
Mandroiu, of course, is 23 years of age. He would be too old to take part in the B team matches in the Lowland League. Therefore, this would only be worth it if Celtic viewed him as a player who can come in and compete immediately. Scales was meant to do the same of course.
All eyes on this one then as we look ahead to January. Mandroiu certainly doesn’t look a cert to stay where is, that’s for sure.
In other news, Croatian media claim Celtic’s Josip Juranovic has sent Atletico Madrid defender into int’l “oblivion”
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