The similarities between John McGinn and Scott Brown have forever been made, but will Celtic rue not signing the former?
The reason this has come up is because of Brown’s dilemma facing him at the moment. He has an offer on the table to head to Australia and earn a nice payday with Western Melbourne.
It’s an idea many would laugh at. Brendan Rodgers, however, is genuinely concerned that his captain may take up the offer. It would certainly be a huge surprise if he did, but it appears as though Brown is mulling over it.
Therefore, with no real replacement on the horizon, it would make the club reflect on not signing Aston Villa star McGinn.
Let’s not kid ourselves, Celtic messed around with McGinn in the summer. Desperate to land him on the cheap, the club continuously had offers of £1.5million and £1.75million rejected by the Edinburgh club.
Hibs wanted £3million. Celtic, therefore, didn’t want to give them £3million. Aston Villa more or less did, give or take a few hundred thousand, and McGinn made the move south.
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It was a bitter pill to swallow for Brendan Rodgers. Many saw McGinn as the ideal replacement for Brown, and now would’ve been about the time he was stepping up to the plate.
The McGinn debate
Of course, there are arguments against this.
For example, would we have seen the emergence of Ryan Christie had McGinn been at Celtic since the summer? When Brown got injured, surely McGinn would’ve been the man to come in ahead of Christie?
That may very well have been the case. But Rodgers liked Christie in any case, and probably would’ve found a place for him in his side.
Christie also isn’t a natural CDM. He likes to go from box-to-box, and plays more like Stuart Armstrong than he does Brown.
The other man being teed up as the natural replacement to Brown was Kouassi. Perhaps even the under-performing Olivier Ntcham himself. The problem is, neither is up to the task of stepping into Brown’s shoes.
He may not even go in January or indeed the summer. The Celtic captain could see 10-in-a-row within his sights and want to see it through. After all, he’s been there since the first title was won back in 2012.
It all points back to the missed opportunity in the summer if he does depart, however.
McGinn was in Celtic’s grasp, and they let him unforgivably slip through it. Here’s hoping the club don’t rue that fact.