What Greg Taylor said about PAOK before pre-season is now interesting as Celtic talk heats up

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Many were hoping Marcelo Saracchi would return to Celtic this summer.

But that isn’t going to happen, which has caused Celtic a little bit of a headache because another left-back is needed to challenge Kieran Tierney ahead of the new season.

Greg Taylor’s name has popped up on the radar, 12 months after leaving the champions of Scotland and joining PAOK on a free transfer.

Reports in Greece have suggested that Taylor isn’t part of PAOK’s plans, as their competitive games have already started, with the former Hoops star not featuring in the first leg of their Europa League qualifying match because of a ‘personal issue.’

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Greg Taylor isn’t part of PAOK’s plans for next season

While Celtic have to deal with Champions League qualifiers, PAOK are playing Europa League qualifiers, beating Dynamo Kyiv in the first leg last week.

As expected, Taylor didn’t feature, and now reports have suggested he isn’t part of Alessio Lisci’s plans going forward.

Greek journalist George Tsarouchas has claimed on social media that Taylor won’t be in the squad for the second leg, which takes place on Thursday, and he is on Celtic’s ‘transfer list.’

The interesting thing that Tsarouchas also added is that there is interest from ‘another team in Scotland’ in Taylor’s services.

But Taylor was planning for a return to PAOK, as he stated in June…

When Scotland were at the World Cup, Taylor returned to his homeland and did some punditry work for Clyde 1.

Of course, at the time, he was asked about his time at Celtic, including how life has been treating him in Greece, because this was ‘the first time’ he had moved away from home.

But what’s interesting, from Taylor’s perspective, is that he seemingly never had any plans to leave, other than focus on returning to PAOK for pre-season.

The Treble-winner at Celtic even noted the ‘early start’, as he referred to their Europa League qualifier game on July 23.

“It’s been a time of settling in and a whole different change for me, the first time I have moved away from home,” said Taylor in June.

“I am excited to go back for pre-season. Give it my best crack and see where next season takes me.

“I think we are in the second round of the Europa League qualifying. We had a disappointing result on the last day, which meant that we aren’t Champions League qualifiers. I think the first game is 23 July, so an early start.”