Celtic transfer target Aaron Hickey has been described as an ‘extraordinary talent’ by former manager Daniel Stendel, The Scottish Sun reports.
Hickey has been linked with a move to Glasgow throughout the summer, again said to be on a Celtic shortlist by The Scottish Daily Mail this weekend (15/08 print edition, page 105).
Former Tynecastle manager Craig Levein also claimed to BBC Scotland recently that the Scottish champions have tried to sign him five or six times over the last couple of seasons.
He’s a wanted prospect though and Serie A side Bologna, as well as giants Bayern Munich, have both had him visit their training centres in recent weeks.
The teenager has a big decision to make on his future.
Stendel, who worked with the player last season, thinks that he is destined to become an elite player in the game.
As quoted by The Scottish Sun, he said: “Aaron is an extraordinary talent. For such a young age, he is extremely calm and composed on the ball.
“He never panics, never loses his cool and always seems to make the right decisions. Despite being so young, he’s very hard to play against.
“Aaron as a player is like Philipp Lahm. For me at Hearts, he played as a full-back. He not only runs up and down the line, but looks for attacking moves like Lahm once did. And Aaron can also play in the central midfield.
“Trust me, he will have a great career. Is he ready to play immediately at a world class team like Bayern? Probably not yet. But I would recommend Bayern sending him on loan at first.”
Direct comparisons to World Cup winning legends like Lahm may be over-egging the pudding a bit at this stage of Hickey’s career but what’s clear is that Stendel thinks he can one day play in one of Europe’s big leagues.
Lahm, who earned 113 caps with the German national team (Transfermarkt), was well known as a versatile player and that’s definitely something that appears to be part of Hickey’s game.
Levein, in his comments to BBC Scotland, suggested he could be used as a central midfielder in future too, despite emerging primarily as a left-back.
Time will tell whether Celtic make a renewed push to bring Hickey back to the club, having had him on the books when he was younger.
With Boli Bolingoli surely on his way out of the club, we do need cover on the left flank.
In other news, KR Reykjavik’s manager has admitted they have big problems prior to playing Celtic.
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