When the transfer saga surrounding David Turnbull going to Celtic finally reached a sorry end in the summer, many fans were disappointed that the club hadn’t landed their man.
The Motherwell midfielder’s potential move to Glasgow had more twists and turns that a Jeremie Frimpong forward run, but it ended in frustration for both parties as an issue was picked up during the player’s routine medical.
As the BBC reported at the time, an issue had been found with Turnbull’s knee and surgery was required. The Scottish youth international has since gone under the knife and, as we told you just last week, he’s targeting a return in the not too distant future.
https://twitter.com/10DavidTurnbull/status/1204123815707586561
That’s all well and good, but the fact is that Turnbull hasn’t kicked a ball in anger since May. And Celtic have dodged a bullet in not completing his signing.
Turnbull would be down the pecking order at Celtic
It wasn’t exactly pennies that we were prepared to shell out for the Steelman youth graduate either. Back in June, the Herald reported the agreed fee to be £3.25million. That’s pretty much more than we’ve ever shelled out to any Scottish team other than Hibernian for Scott Brown.
The club clearly thought very highly of Turnbull, and may still do, but we’ve hardly missed his influence in the first half of the season. In fact, you could argue that we may not have seen the best of Ryan Christie or Olivier Ntcham had the Motherwell man been signed in the summer. The latter may well have departed as a result.
Celtic did the right thing dropping out of negotiations following the medical hitch. We can always revisit the signing in the future if the player hits his stride again, but there was simply too much on the line to take a risk.
There could be space for Turnbull to make an impact at Celtic further down the line for sure. But for now, it’s really hard to see who he would even challenge for a first-team place.
The club don’t always get it right in the transfer market. But they certainly did in one case this summer.
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