Whilst most Celtic fans will understandably still be celebrating our pre season friendly victory over Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side earlier this week, the expectation remains that manager Brendan Rodgers will shortly begin significantly adding to his first team options as we seek to improve on what was a successful, but mixed, 2023/24 Scottish Premiership campaign.
The summer was not the most active for us, with the only significant loss so far being the departure of Rocco Vata to Watford. However, after the retirement of former England goalkeeper Joe Hart, we successfully solved the goalkeeping problem by signing Premier League winner Kasper Schmeichel from Anderlecht and highly regarded 22-year-old Finnish goalkeeper Viliami Sinisalo from Aston Villa. This transfer was a real jackpot, comparable to the best pg slot game in online casinos, which are becoming increasingly popular among both betting enthusiasts and people inclined to calculated and clever gambling, who can turn their game into a big score.
Outfield will certainly be next on the list, and although the transfer rumour mill is now abuzz with claims that we have now agreed a firm deal with Benfica for 22 year old Portuguese midfielder Paulo Bernardo, if those claims prove to be true, he should simply be the first. Despite only featuring 15 times in Rodgers’ starting XI last season, he clearly impressed and should he return to Parkhead, he will undoubtedly be confident of significantly adding to the league and Scottish Cup wins he has already picked up in the years to come.
A medical is still to take place, but will reportedly be complete this week and the claimed £3.5 million deal should sail through. From our point of view, given his development potential, he could well be viewed as Matt O’Riley’s long term replacement should he unfortunately, but ultimately, move on this window.
Whilst transfer activity inevitably makes the vast majority of the headlines at this time of year, fans will also be eagerly watching on to see what happens with left back Greg Taylor. The 26 year old Scottish international is entering the final year of his contract at the club, and will be free to talk to potential suitors when we move into the New Year and ultimately move on as a free agent should he choose.
Given he has been one of our first names on the team sheet for the last four years following his arrival back in 2019 from Kilmarnock, eyebrows have been naturally raised that a new deal has not been put on the table for him yet – especially as the gaffer made it pretty clear a few months back that he wanted the club to nail him down to a new long term deal.
If the players’ own words are anything to go by, it does not sound as though we are even in discussions with him or his representatives at this point. In a recent media interview he confirmed that ‘nothing’ was in the pipeline when it came to a contract extension, but whilst it did naturally give rise to some uncertainty at the back of his head, ultimately it is football, it is business and these types of things do get worked out in time – and with January being a decision point for him given the nature of free agency in the modern game, that does still leave plenty of time for the situation to change.
He has certainly proven to be a good bit of business having originally been signed for £3 million, and with over 170 appearances and nine major honours to his name, it seems inconceivable that we would let him leave for nothing after that service, and he does not particularly sound like a man who actually wants to move on from us either, stating that it has been an ‘amazing’ period in his career, and he remains absolutely convinced that his time with us will get even better in the years to come, especially as given his age, his peak years are still ahead of him.
