When it comes to Celtic and how they’ve handled their player contract situation, I’m finding it seriously difficult to point the finger.
Don’t get me wrong, this football club deserves to be hammered from pillar to post. Whether it be due to the shocking mismanagement from the coaching staff, to the woeful indecision at boardroom level. Whether it’s the now 105 days without a manager, or the lack of communication with fans all season. Celtic deserve every inch of criticism they receive for these issues.
However, when it comes to player contracts, it’s important to hold back any verbal jibes. When you take a look on social media, some aren’t happy with the current situation surrounding our top stars. There’s a feeling that the likes of Odsonne Edouard, Kristoffer Ajer, Ryan Christie, and Olivier Ntcham should’ve been sold last summer.
It’s undoubted, after all, that we could’ve raked in millions. Three of the four were coming off blistering campaigns whilst Ntcham was still a valuable commodity. It’s not outrageous to say Celtic could’ve banked upwards of £60m for the quartet.
In the end, we decided to keep all four and push for the 10. All of a sudden, we’re 12 months on and we’ve lost the title whilst our players have vastly decreased in value. Edouard is now being touted for £15m moves [The Times], whilst Ajer is said to be the subject of £10m interest [Scottish Sun].
Celtic knew the risks of each individual contract; they were demanded to take them
My gripe with having a go at Celtic for this is due to the fact that they would’ve been vilified if they’d done any different last summer. Could you imagine if we’d have sold Edouard or Ajer? Potentially both? The board would’ve been accused of failing to back the manager. They would’ve been told in no uncertain terms that they didn’t have the 10 at heart.
Look at the reaction to the summer transfer window when it closed back in October. Everyone was left buzzing and there was a general acceptance that Celtic, as a club, had performed admirably. That we had backed the management staff by keeping all of our best players and adding six new bodies to the ranks.
We all knew the risks at the time. We knew that by keeping these players we were massively decreasing their valuation. That’s just what happens when top players enter the final year of their contracts. It’s what made Celtic’s commitment in keeping them all the more impressive.
No complaints had we won the 10
Had we won the 10, nobody would’ve been complaining about selling them for cut prices. It’s so easy to say that we should’ve sold them for millions last summer. But we’re only able to claim that through the benefit of hindsight. Sure, we’ve missed out on millions this summer, but it was the price the club was willing to pay to try and achieve the 10.
It’s a shame their commitment to the 10 wasn’t as strong enough as their commitment to Neil Lennon. But that’s a different story. Isolating this solely to player contracts, it’s just not right to take a pop at the club.
All we can do now is try to drum up as big a fee as we can for the likes of Edouard, Ajer, Christie, and Ntcham. But this is what we all signed up to when we wanted them kept on.
In other news, Ntcham’s departure won’t sting, he’s let Celtic down far too often.
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