It’s fair to say that reported Celtic target Robbie Brady had a nightmare for Burnley last night.
Plenty of people have been talking about it, ourselves included. Even if it’s simply because he’s been linked with a pre-contract move to Celtic [Scottish Sun].
Yes, Neil Lennon is reportedly interested in taking a punt on this one. And whilst we’ll leave the debates on whether Lennon should even be part of the recruitment process for now, Brady certainly didn’t sell himself to an already skeptical Celtic support last night.
The Ireland international was subbed on against Fulham at half-time, booked, failed to stop a shot on the goal-line, then hooked. All in the space of a 25-minute period too.
However, contrary to how it may have appeared, Brady wasn’t hooked because he had been poor. Instead, Dyche has revealed the winger could have an injury. As quoted by Lans Live, the Burnley boss said: “I’ll find out more by tomorrow morning, we’re waiting 24 hours just to settle things down, but it doesn’t look great with Johann and Robbie going off. We’ll find out more in the next 24 hours and we’ll probably get them scanned just as a precaution.
“We don’t think either is drastic but we keep getting these knocks in this heavy schedule of games and it is affecting us.”
Celtic move for Robbie Brady won’t gain popularity if inconsistency remains
As mentioned previously, this isn’t a move that appears to have caught the Celtic fans’ imagination in any case. However, if Brady struggles in the second half of the campaign then it won’t help its popularity.
So far, Brady has only managed one goal and one assist in 19 games [Transfermarkt]. It’s not a run that reads well for a Celtic support crying out for extra creativity next season. Granted, we all acknowledge the vast difference in difficulty between the English Premier League and Scottish Premiership.
Dyche gave an update on Brady’s contract situation during the week. He effectively confirmed discussions were ongoing and that the Brady situation would “sort itself out” [Lancs Live].
But it’ll be interesting to see how his injury concern affects everything. Dyche states that it doesn’t look too bad, but we’ll all know a bit more in the coming days. A nasty knock may reduce his chances of Burnley wanting to keep him on, but it wouldn’t help the mood of the Celtic fans regarding this one.
Yet it’s probably more what this move represents that frustrates fans just as much. A sign that the people still at the club are making decisions on recruitment. A sign that Lennon could potentially be staying on. Two situations supporters simply can’t find acceptable.
In any case, we’ll see how Brady recovers from this. It would hardly surprise you if he does indeed end up at Celtic Park this summer.
In other news, Lennon was given a fine Wednesday boost with this youngster’s performance.
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