Celtic Summer Scouting 2015

Back for another summer of speculating is the transfer rumour central that is the Celtic Summer Scouting. For those who haven’t read through one before, it looks at the players linked, the positions needed and then comes up with other likely lads who will be spending the summer on the back pages being linked to Celtic.

The men already linked

Starting at the very back with the goalkeepers, Lukasz Zaluska is out of contract meaning that the slot of back up keeper is available. Dundee’s Scott Bain has been linked, however it is more likely that Celtic will choose to keep it in house and promote Leo Fasan from third keeper to second. His form in the Development League and the friendlies he appeared in was solid and he more than warrants a shot at it given Celtic’s rather shaky record should their first keeper be injured in recent years.

At the back, three players have so far been linked. Dedryck Boyata of Manchester City played a couple of games for the club a few years ago but never made the breakthrough. After a couple of unsuccessful loan spells at Bolton and Twente, he is departing the club this summer, a year before his contract was meant to expire. He offers a big physical presence but it is difficult to see Celtic really going for a player who is the player Jason Denayer doesn’t want to turn out like - they would much rather go for Denayer instead. As for Denayer, Manchester City wish to give him a once over in the summer before making a decision whether to send him on loan again. With rumoured interest from Ajax among others, though, even if he is going back out on loan, it is very unlikely that it would be back to the SPFL.

The other big link is that of Danny Wilson, who has confirmed he will leave Hearts at the end of the season. Having looked very assured at Hearts, he has recovered his career after his disastrous move to Liverpool from Rangers (in spite of being a Celtic fan). However, that’s not to say that the link is without issues - big ones. After last season’s relegation caused by the financial situation and this season being in the second tier, there still must be a doubt as to how well Wilson would fare playing against Premiership teams week in, week out. And if there is a doubt over that, there must be a doubt over his ability to cope in Europe. Wilson would not be a bad signing, but he would be a deeply unambitious one, especially as a replacement for Virgil van Dijk or Jason Denayer. Wilson’s career stuttered after benchwarming for the worst Liverpool side in recent memory - it would stutter again were he benchwarming at Celtic which, unless he showed an improvement, he would end up doing. It’s hard to think that Wilson wouldn’t have been best served spending another season at Hearts and proving himself as a player and leader of a top six side.

Finally, Brandon Mechele of Club Brugge has most recently been linked. Having broken through into the first team there, ahead of good players, he certainly possesses the quality but, with his side likely to be automatically in the CL Group Stage next season, a move to Celtic wouldn’t make that much sense and, as such, can be easily dismissed.

Ahead of the defence, there have been three players linked so far, two actually, one who I’m including because he will definitely be linked sooner or later. The one who falls into that latter category is Ryan Jack. The Aberdeen midfielder is legitimately one of the best players in the league and does an unfashionable job (that of being the base of the midfield and doing the simple things effectively) better than any other player in the league. Aberdeen fans rightly rave about him and while he isn’t making headlines week in, week out, that he has been linked with a move to Serie A shows that there is serious interest from serious sides in the signature of Jack. For Celtic, they have a dilemma that they can sort out now or leave for a season - Scott Brown, with his injury record, isn’t going to be around or able to influence games as much as he can now when he’s 32-33 and, with the emergence of Stefan Johansen, there is an argument to be made that his talents may be on the wane already as he slides back into a deeper role. In Brown’s defence, this has been said the past couple of seasons also and he has managed to defy it but there is only so long he can play 2 games a week every week and do the job. Ryan Jack is the obvious long term replacement for Scott Brown but to fail to make a move this summer would likely mean missing out on him completely. To make the move would mean having to rotate the midfield more than Deila would like but gives Jack the time to buy into Deila before being thrown into the fray, which is clearly a good thing considering the transitional period Celtic had. It has the potential to be a transfer saga.

Also in the centre of midfield is Brescia’s Ahmed Benali. More advanced, Benali is another from Manchester City’s youth setup that never made the breakthrough. There is one key issue which is that he would want to play in the middle of an attacking midfield three, which isn’t a position that is currently up for grabs. As such, he would be a back up at best.

The commentators nightmare of Alireza Jahanbakhsh (who, I assure you, is on my clipboard and not being written out each time) is an interesting proposition from NEC Nijmegen. Thought of last season as close to Memphis Depay in talent, he stuck with NEC this season after they slipped into the Eerste Divisie. They were rewarded with 12 goals and 18 assists in just 28 games and, internationally, he excelled for Iran at the Asian Cup. He is certainly good enough - the extensive YouTube highlights back up the statistics. Not only can Alireza Jahanbakhsh score, he can score all types of goals from one on ones, to headers and spectacular long range hits along with good crossing. He would be a replacement for and an improvement upon James Forrest - almost a cross between Forrest and Kris Commons. Arguably, that gap has already been filled by Gary Mackay-Steven but Alireza Jahanbakhsh would appear to be a distinct improvement on him also and with the right midfield slot still in flux, it is feasible he could be added and make that spot in the side his own.

Up front, there have been two linked players, one more solidly than the other. The more tenuous link is that of Aberdeen’s Adam Rooney. Scotland’s premier marksman is certainly effective but, much like Danny Wilson, would be seen as a particularly unambitious signing given that, to some, he has still to shake off the perception of being a bang average striker who failed in England. The reality now is much different - having scored against every Premiership side, he could not be faulted for versatility and, being considerably bigger and bulkier than any striker at Celtic currently, would offer Celtic another dimension in attack. For all Leigh Griffiths may have his talents, being big enough to win aerial battles isn’t one of them. The other thing working in favour of Rooney is that there is every chance that, by the end of the summer, the Celtic strike force could consist of Leigh Griffiths and that’s it as Anthony Stokes looks set to be disposed of and Stefan Scepovic is likely to disappear also with loanees Teemu Pukki and Amido Balde also unlikely to return to the club on a permanent basis. Celtic will need numbers up front and a proven SPFL goal scorer like Adam Rooney whose goal scoring record is comparable to that of Leigh Griffiths but who offers a distinctly different skill set to Griffiths would be a low risk investment.

Zakaria Bakkali is the final of the linked players. Subject of a bid on deadline day in January, the winger/striker has seen his breakthrough year followed immediately by a year of doing nothing which has seen his value plummet from being linked to Atletico Madrid last summer to nothing. While, at 19, he still clearly has potential and, having played well for PSV in the past, it’s hard to deny that he can perform, such a swing in the space of a year from future star to disposable part would suggest something has gone very wrong and if any club can fail to justify wasting more money on forwards who don’t make the grade, it’s Celtic. Which means he’ll probably sign.

The men who aren’t yet in the frame but will be

This section is, by its very nature, a bit more speculative but, crucially, we already have a very good idea of what Celtic need and what they are looking for - a centre back (at least one), a winger, a central attacking midfielder and many strikers. The back up keeper slot is available but it’s more likely that Celtic will promote from within and look for a young prospect to go in as third keeper.

As such, we can begin with the centre back slot. The future of Virgil van Dijk is the big question - with Jason Denayer all but certain to leave, if Virgil goes also, it leaves Celtic needing to get an entire defence in short order as, while potentially very entertaining, an Efe Ambrose-Charlie Mulgrew pairing to start the Champions League campaign doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. But, the fact remains, that Celtic are tight fisted and aren’t going to splash any big cash on a centre back until their European fate is sorted (nor are they likely to sell van Dijk before that is sorted, if they can avoid it). This, then, leaves Celtic looking at out of contract players in the first instance.

The first of this brigade would be Hamburg’s 26 year old Serb Slobodan Rajkovic. He may be on the outskirts of a frankly pish Hamburg side thanks to an injury hit season, but with interest from the distinctly not-pish Augsburg and the distinctly Celtic-sized Vitesse and Panathanaikos, Scotland would appear to be a move that would have some appeal particularly as the playing time would get him firmly in the reckoning for more caps for Serbia. Having played well in the past in the Eredivisie and helped his team win many of the games he has been fit for this season, there can be little doubt he would fit in at Celtic. The only doubt is his fitness - he has been kept out thanks to a cruciate ligament injury for the first half of this season. How he comes back from that is important.

Also a man who has spent much of the season injured is previous target Mickael Ciani of Lazio. Ciani was linked last summer and, with rumours of interest from England, it’s hard to see why exactly Celtic would want to get a player the wrong side of thirty who will have high wage costs. He may well be linked again, but he would be a very un-Celtic signing.

Of the fee paying defenders, to fit with the Celtic model, we would first look to Patrick Banggard of Midtylland in Denmark. Part of the side that went undefeated through Euro U21 qualifiers and standing at 6ft 5in at just 21, he is an imposing figure and has attracted interest from the lower end of the Bundesliga. Available for, likely, around £1m, he is a future full international and raw enough to have plenty of potential going forward to be sold on for a big profit.

Secondly would be Thomas Grogaard of Odd in Norway. Similarly young but smaller, Grogaard has made the breakthrough into the senior international set up, doing it for a resurgent Norway side and doing it from one of Norway’s least fashionable clubs. Deila will be well aware of him and, should he fancy raiding his homeland, Grogaard would certainly be in his sights.

Moving up to midfield, we deal with a linked player of a sort - Martin Odegaard. Odegaard, football’s next big thing, has already made his move to Real Madrid but with Madrid toying with sending him on loan next season, Deila is of the opinion that he can bring him “home” so to speak. However, this very much depends on the compliance of Real Madrid and, with managerial uncertainty there already, it is hard to predict what might happen considering the answer from Carlo Ancelotti may be different from Zinedine Zidane’s. For what it’s worth, Odegaard has had issues settling in and with the language barrier so Real may be more amenable to a loan move than under normal circumstances.

Federico Viviani of Roma has been close to full Italian recognition, having been given the once over as part of a training squad by Cesare Prandelli. Set to go to Leeds earlier this season, he ended up on loan from his parent club Roma at Latina in Serie B. Similar to Nir Bitton in that he is good at the defensive elements of central midfield but also has the guile to create chances. He also has the ability at set pieces to contribute more goals than most defensive midfielders and the composure to be the club’s main penalty taker. Similar would be Gojko Cimirot of FK Sarajevo who has done the rare achievement of breaking into the Bosnia side from an unfashionable domestic side and has pace, skill and very quick feet. If Celtic need an assured central midfielder for a lower price than Ryan Jack, Viviani or Cimirot could be it. To be fair, however, if any element of the side doesn’t need extra players, it’s midfield with Liam Henderson and Callum McGregor already having worked their way into recognition.

Which leaves the striking role. Celtic, as already established, need numbers. As such, there is almost no such thing as a wrong answer as to who will be targeted. We could start with Mark Uth of Heerenveen who, with a goal every other game in the Eredivisie this season. Heerenveen have a good record of producing strikers, most recently Bas Dost, which would make Uth a fairly safe gamble for a couple of million. Were Celtic going down the loan route, Manchester United’s Angelo Henriquez, currently doing well on loan at Dinamo Zagreb would be an available option to plug a gap. For out of contract players, they could look to Takashi Inui of Eintracht Frankfurt who plays in the Samaras role of left wing/striker and offers the commercial advantage of Celtic once more having one of Japan’s premier players or, looking to Japan again, Takashi Usami of Gamba Osaka. There is more or less no such thing as a bad suggestion (aside from Nadir Ciftci) for a few reasons - striker play has become rarer and rarer meaning that it is harder to tell who can give 20 goals a season than ever as target men go out of fashion. Celtic have thrown away £6.6m over the past 2 seasons on as strikers (£8.8m over the past 4 before loan fees which likely take it over £10m) so just getting one decent striker to complement Leigh Griffiths would probably class as a fruitful transfer window as Celtic’s record is such that anything other than complete failure is probably enough to count as an improvement.

Whatever happens and whoever is linked, the fact is that Celtic have to have a busy transfer window. At least, they will be one central defender down and are finally likely to get rid of deadwood like Anthony Stokes, who has had more than enough chances to do not enough to be in the team. As such, they need reinforcements almost everywhere to have a chance at the Champions League. If nothing else, it will be busy and the names mentioned are all likely to come up in discussion sooner or later.