Former Celtic striker Scott McDonald believes Ryan Christie’s agent has played a blinder by not committing to a three-year plus deal that will see the player’s contract end in December instead of next summer.
When Celtic signed Christie to a new three-year deal in late November 2018, it was assumed it was three years plus what was left of the remaining season.
It’s transpired the deal will end in December and Christie will be free to sign a pre-contact this summer.
Mark Wilson had Scott on the Celtic Huddle Podcast on Tuesday where the striker also claimed potentially losing Ryan for nothing is a disaster for the club.
“It’s a disaster for Celtic. The money they were portraying they could get for him of near enough £10 million to be getting, let’s be real, more like £1 million if they are lucky with six months to go, then that’s a huge disappointment.
“And it’s not been worth the gamble for them because they’ve not won anything.
“His agent is a genius. If you’re allowed to have a contract run out during the season that’s fantastic for a player or agent.
“There’s a deal to be done whether that’s with the club or another club. It’s very odd. It doesn’t happen very often.
“I don’t know about Ryan. His form has not been as good this season, but you could say that about the whole Celtic side.
“It’s a big Euros for him. He’s performed very well for Scotland and there are a few players within that Scotland side, not just from Celtic, looking for big moves off the back of playing in the Euros.
“Christie will be one of them looking to put himself in the shop window.”
Celtic have so much turnover already but allowing first team players to sit on contracts like this and see out their time is negligent by the club.
Ryan could get a move away this summer for pennies.
There are lots of fans who won’t mind seeing the midfielder leave the building but there’s absolutely no doubt we could have got a decent fee for him.
If Christie was under contract for another season, you would have seen anything north of £5m for the former ICT man.
Now, as McDonald points out, we’ll get next to nothing.
