I’m surprised that English clubs haven’t come in for Celtic star Gary Hooper sooner.
But with Andre Villas-Boas thought to be desperate to add to his forward ranks this January and unable to break the bank, it makes sense that he’s finally turning to the Harlow-born forward to find a solution.
Throughout his time at Scunthorpe United (50 goals in 95 appearances) and Celtic (71 goals in 116 appearances) he’s more than proven that he’s a natural goal scorer. He’d make a smart addition for many Premier League sides and Tottenham are right to declare their interest.
According to The Metro, Hooper is asking for a big pay-rise if he’s to remain at Celtic, but the club aren’t thought to be able to match it. He’s also said to be keen on a move back to England should he not be able to finalise a new deal.
Norwich have failed in a £5m bid for Hooper and it may take up to £10m to close a deal for the talented forward. I’d argue it’d be worth it though. He’d come with relatively low wages, plenty of confidence and a burning desire to make it in the Premier League.
This may be the perfect tonic for Tottenham who are missing out on players like Leandro Damiao and Alvaro Negredo – a goal-scoring forward to partner Jermaine Defoe, who won’t cost the club an arm and the leg.
Some fans may remain rather snobbish towards Hooper as he has not had any experience playing in a top League. In this sense, he’d represent a risk for a Premier League club as he hasn’t been knocking goals in against world-class opposition.
But he can only ever score against the teams that are placed in front of him and his goal-scoring record speaks of a remarkably consistent forward. Besides, players like Nikica Jelavic have made the switch from the Scottish Premier League to the Barclays Premier League with consummate ease. I’d expect Hooper to do the same.
At 24-years-old, Hooper is about the enter the peak years of his career. Should Tottenham sign him now, they’ll have a player with plenty of potential and re-sale value. They’ll also have somebody to take the goal-scoring burden off of the likes of Jermaine Defoe – something that I’d say is pretty important.
What’s your take? Should Tottenham be pursuing Gary Hooper?
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spurs discarded him as a kid. Maybe he wouldn’t want to come back to WHL. £10 mill seems to be above what Daniel Levy wants to pay for anyone! Look at the saga of Holtby, signed pre-contract agreement to come in the summer, then Shalke put a tempter out about buying him now for £2 mill, maybe euros, bbut Levy is arguing over that! Only wants to pay half as much. Just doesn’t like spending money unless it’s a real bargain. £2 mill isn’t a bargain for 4 months rent.
I appreciate that the SPL as an overall package is sadly lacking but this constant over-hyping of the EPL is ridiculous. World class opposition in the EPL? The top teams are excellent and rightfully compete at the highest levels in Europe, but the bottom half of the EPL is average.
He’d be playing against Gary Caldwell FFS – captain of one of your teams and all-round terrible footballer. In fact there are around 20 players regularly playing for EPL teams who were playing in the SPL recently. That’s 2 full teams worth of players, so either they were ‘world class’ in Scotland or, more realistically, they were, and still are, average to decent.
Jelavic had a better goals to game ratio in the season he joined Everton than when he played in the SPL.
Caldwell, Maloney (couldn’t get a game at Celtic), McArthur, McCarthy, Davis, Whittaker, Boruc, Petrov, Ki (£6m signing for Swansea – couldn’t get a starting place at Celtic), Fletcher (£12m?!), Arteta, Edu, Dorrans, Naismith, Snodgrass, Fox, Cuellar, Adam (again, couldn’t get a game for Rangers – ends up at Liverpool?).
I know this is a complete rant and, to be fair, I didn’t hate your article but it’s just that my entire newsfeed consists of fans from the EPL talking about picking up players from Celtic on the cheap because they’ve not played in the mighty EPL. It gets tiring. Yesterday one Spurs fan said they would ‘risk’ taking Hooper on loan for a season – do I need to explain why that is ridiculous?
Hooper would undoubtedly score against Wigan, Aston Villa, QPR, Stoke, Norwich, Reading, Newcastle, Southampton etc.
Hardly frightening opponents. Certainly not world class.
The top 6 teams he would get to test himself but I’m confident he’d do well.
Oh, and while I am ranting I might as well point out when you said Celtic aren’t ‘able to match’ Hooper’s demands – Celtic will turn a profit of £10-15m for this season I would expect, and if we sell Hooper and Wanyama could be looking at a profit of £30m+
We have debt of less than £3m.
Compare that to Spurs or any other EPL club…
He hasn’t been knocking goals in against worl class opposition? Champions League mate, aye? If Hooper was plying his trade in the Premier League he would easily command a fee of up to £20m!
get him for £8m, can’t lose
Is it fair to say that the strikers in the Premier League are not tested in the ‘top league’…. that would be the CHAMPIONS League..no?? Hooper is a Champions League striker. Very few strikers in the English game have that much experience.
Not to mention that he is English AND reputed to be in line for an England call up within the next few months.
Not interested in an English (England?) striker with Champions League experience…..
Gary hooper is the top scoring english player in the champions league this year, that says it all, 15 million for him at thats no even dear
Hooper was also in one of the match day player’s of the round in the Champions League. He has consistently scored against European opposition including Udinese in last season’s Europa Cup. Udinese were in the top three at the time too, so their form was good.
Make no mistake, Hooper is a better player than when he arrived at Celtic and he is one of those players who will put the ball away, if you give him the service. That said he will also come deep and deliver a good ball to provide scoring opportunities. He is strong and bullies defenders, just ask the Spartak Moscow centre back who I believe is a Brazilian international how he felt coming up against him.
Trust me, Gary Hooper in the right team in the Premiership will score goals, he has done so at every level he’s played at and will only get better playing in a league like the Premiership or Bundesliga.
It’s great to be in a position of strength.
I’m a Celtic supporter, living abroad for many a year. For the first time in many a year I find it hard to complain that we have a weak link in our first eleven ( as a 55 year old that covers a lot of years ). The topic of conversation seems to be Gary Hooper moving to the English Premiership. Few points:
1) I would love Gary to stay.
2) Gary is a great goal scorer.
3) Gary is a good footballer but not a Kenny Dalglish, nor Kevin Keegan.
4) The grass is always greener on the other side… Ok I’m drunk, the grass is always greener at Parkhead.
5) How many people leave Celtic to better things .. Ok , two football freaks (aka gods) like Kenny Dalglish and Henrik Larsson have…. wee Charlie, Rambo. Murdo, have all moved along a bit …. but heh … You don’t need to be brainwashed into thinking the EPL is the beeallandendall … Great marketing but, ‘my god I hardly each a game outside of the usual suspects’…
6) in terms of who I’d hate to see leave Celtic:
A) S.Brown
B) C.Mulgrew
C) J.Ledley
D) A.Matthews
E) V.Wanyama (ok I say this in anticipation of big Vic going at some point. His is one guy who WILL I make a MASSIVE impact on any team in the world ( just thought I’d sneak him in mid table ).
F) B.Kayal ( a year ago …. Better than big Vic .. What more can I say … More to come ).
G) Anton Rogan, Joe Fillipi, B.Wittaker etc.