Should Celtic consider a January swoop for Scotland playoff hero Declan Gallagher?

By John Reid

November 13, 2020

It is not long now until the January transfer window opens, and Celtic will no doubt be looking to make additions to the squad.

One player that could possibly be on the radar is Declan Gallagher. The Motherwell defender turned in the performance of his life on Thursday night to help Scotland defeat Serbia and reach Euro 2020.

He managed to keep quiet the Serbian danger man Aleksander Mitrovic for the most part, and he should be delighted with his performance.

It was a no nonsense performance from Gallagher, the kind that everyone thought that Shane Duffy would do when he signed for the Hoops, but as yet he hasn’t.

Contract expires at end of season

Could Gallagher then be an option for the Hoops? Interestingly, his contract expires at the end of the season. Therefore, Celtic could start talking to the player in January about a pre-contract agreement. Or the Hoops could make a move to sign the player for cheap in January.

There are a few things to take into account though. Would the player get into the team? He could find it hard to displace the defenders currently at the club.

Neil Lennon could possibly sound out Celtic’s Scotland contingent about the player. The likes of Ryan Christie and Callum McGregor have played with Gallagher for the national team. They will have an idea if he can make the step up from Motherwell to Celtic.

As will David Turnbull, who of course joined the Hoops from Motherwell in the last transfer window. At 29-years-old Gallagher isn’t exactly at the start of his career. Still, maybe he could do the sort of job that Jonny Hayes did at Celtic – a solid Scottish Premiership player isn’t bad to have in the squad.

Some fans impressed with player’s performance

Some Celtic fans on social media that watched the Scotland game were certainly impressed with Gallagher’s performance.

Declan Gallagher was terrific for Scotland vs Serbia (Photo by Nikola Krstic/SNS Group via Getty Images)

One fan said that he would sign the player in a ‘heartbeat’ whilst another was impressed with the player’s intelligence.

Here are some of the best reactions from Twitter to Gallagher’s performance:

In other news, Scott Brown claims that James Forrest wants to finish his career at Celtic.