Neil Lennon’s Celtic could do with signing a central defender during the January transfer window.
Although Christopher Jullien has been hugely impressive since signing in the summer, forming an effective partnership with Kristoffer Ajer, there is a definitely a depth issue in the position.
Jozo Simunovic is still recovering from injury while Nir Bitton is a natural midfielder. Beyond those two, there are no effective options and it’s something of a concern heading into the busy second half of the season.
Any injury to Jullien could be a hammer blow to our trophy chase.
Given this need, you’d expect there to be more transfer speculation regarding any Celtic interest in Leicester City defender Filip Benkovic but there’s been a real lack of that since he returned to the Premier League outfit, beyond supporter discussion.
The Croatian international looked strong at points last season on loan at Celtic Park and was vocal about being happy with life in Glasgow.
Brendan Rodgers has made it clear he could be moved out on loan in January if the right club come along (Leicester Mercury) after stalled progress at the Foxes. Despite reported interest from Derby County (The Telegraph), nothing has been said about the Hoops’ stance.
If anything, the silence suggests we are not keen on a loan move or a big-money offer.
Fresh injury blow
One good reason for that was on full display this weekend.
Benkovic was handed a massive boost by Rodgers when he played in his first Leicester match of the season, against Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup.
However, all the match did was to remind everyone that Benkovic has a problem with fitness and injuries. So much so that any big move back to Celtic should not be considered at our end.
As reported by the Leicester Mercury, Benkovic went down with an apparent knee injury in the second half after impressing up to that point. The seriousness of the blow is not yet known.
Benkovic had plenty of injury problems at Dinamo Zagreb before his move to England, missing three months of action in the 2016/17 season (Transfermarkt) and missing 14 matches in 2017/18 (Transfermarkt).
At Celtic he had problems too, having to be subbed off at half-time in an Ibrox defeat, then missing much of the second half of the season, partly due to an ankle injury.
Rodgers admitted, while Celtic boss, that he didn’t necessarily want to risk Benkovic on plastic pitches in Scotland (The Daily Mail).
Although none of this is his fault necessarily, including his latest Leicester problem, it doesn’t suggest he can be the reliable first-choice pick for Celtic either this season or moving forward.
We simply can’t afford to have another defender sitting on the sidelines for much of the season.
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