Vasilis Barkas has admitted that he regrets moving to Celtic and that he wouldn’t recommend a switch to Parkhead to other goalkeepers.
Barkas has been shipped out on loan to Eredivisie side Utrecht for the 2022/23 season. This comes after failing to win over Ange Postecoglou to round off a dismal 2 years at Celtic Park.
Signed for a reported £4.5m back in the summer of 2020 [Scottish Sun], Barkas was supposed to be our number 1 heading into a potentially historic campaign. However, he never managed to impress under Neil Lennon nor Postecoglou. So much so that he was third choice heading into pre-season this year.
And unsurprisingly, Barkas has opened up on his Celtic regret in an interview carried out by Greek outlet Betarades. The video was posted on YouTube 2 weeks ago, with Barkas saying the following:
“It all happened very quickly. But then the coronavirus came and the situation was difficult on a day-to-day basis. I regretted that decision because things didn’t turn out the way I thought they would. But you can’t know beforehand.
“What saddens me is that some money was spent on me and I didn’t feel the investment. I didn’t feel I was an important part of the team. But it may not even be the team’s fault. It was a Covid year, everything was different. The first six months I didn’t know my teammates, we were in different locker rooms. Celtic is a huge club, but I wouldn’t recommend a goalkeeper to come here.”
Vasilis Barkas simply wasn’t good enough to be a regular at Celtic
There’s no denying that the Covid situation that plagued the world didn’t help footballers looking to integrate into a new country or environment. For the likes of Barkas, it wouldn’t have been straightforward.
Given how everything unravelled at the club during that 2020/21 campaign, it’s evident that it wasn’t the kind of environment you would’ve expected new signings to flourish in.
However, at the same time, Barkas had several big opportunities to nail down the number 1 jersey. Lennon gave him multiple before Ange threw him in against Midtjylland in the Champions League qualifiers last season.
The reason it didn’t work out was because Barkas simply didn’t prove himself to be a decent shot-stopper. He can point to Covid and other external issues, but he made far too many basic mistakes to justify any Celtic manager placing their faith in him.
The fact he hasn’t even managed to stay as our second choice goalkeeper says a lot about his he’s performed in Glasgow. Players of course just don’t settle at certain clubs and it can have a majorly negative effect on their performance levels.
But when Barkas is reflecting on his time at Celtic, he could do with looking at himself a bit more than he does in these comments.
In other news, Celtic hero Daizen Maeda visits first professional club; takes part in training session
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