Stephen Robinson on the David Turnbull injury that halted Celtic move

By David Walton

June 30, 2019

Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson has confirmed that David Turnbull will be out for a “few months”.

The Steelmen manager has jumped to the defence of his young starlet. It comes just days after a move to Celtic fell through due to problems arising in his medical. The two clubs had apparently agreed a fee of around £3.25million for the midfielder (BBC).

There was no denying there was a desire from all parties to get the deal done. Turnbull would’ve wanted to push himself, whilst Celtic would’ve been keen to get Scotland’s hottest young prospect in the door. Motherwell, meanwhile, would’ve been gaining revolutionary money for a club of their size.

David Turnbull was close to signing for Celtic (David Young/Action Plus via Getty Images)

As expected, Robinson has been doing his best to push his youngster’s talents. But, speaking to Not the Old Firm, Robinson explained Turnbull’s current situation.

“I don’t know what time it’ll be but what I do know is that we have a £3million pound player minimum on our hands. He’ll be out for a few months and we’ll see where we are with him.

“We won’t rush him. we’ll make sure he’s 100% right, we’ve been assured he will be. We’ve been reassured that he’ll come back fully fit and we’ll have a top player on our hands.

“I’m very confident we can still get a large fee for him. It’s only preventative surgery, it’s not something that is stopping him from playing football at this moment in time.”

Stephen Robinson doing his best to keep the value high

You can hardly blame Robinson for continuing to drum up his youngster. Motherwell will be fearing potentially losing out on their massive asking price of £3m for him.

Will Motherwell still get the £3million fee they desire? (David Young/Action Plus via Getty Images)

The Scottish Sun, however, reported just two days ago that Turnbull could be out for as many as six months. Not a couple, and certainly not “a few” either. Considering it’s also a knee issue that’s plaguing Turnbull, the sad state of the matter is that there’s no guarantee he hits top form after such a potentially long period of time out.

Celtic have, quite clearly, made the right decision here. Turnbull is a sensationally exciting prospect, but was never an essential buy. And if he does turn out to be a top performer after his return, there’s nothing stopping the Hoops from coming back in with further interest once again.

Peter Lawwell and Celtic made the right move here (Vagelis Georgariou/Action Plus via Getty Images)

Say what you will, but we don’t come in for criticism here. Not Neil Lennon, not Peter Lawwell, and not Dermot Desmond. We did our business right on this one, and fair play to Celtic for knowing when to finally pull the plug too.

Now that the deal has been officially canceled, we will move on from it. But don’t expect the interest to have dropped. Celtic could easily be monitoring Turnbull to see how he performs after his injury, no matter how long it takes.

But were we right not to splash £3million on a player set for knee surgery? 100%