Former Premier League title winner Joleon Lescott has claimed that not many players in their prime choose to move to Celtic or Rangers.
The latter secured two big name veterans in January in Jermain Defoe and Steven Davis, but Lescott feels that players at the peak of their powers wouldn’t think about a move to Glasgow.
“Well I think the evidence is, how many players in their prime go to Celtic or Rangers? Not many,” he told BT Sport. “Jamie Vardy didn’t go to Arsenal… but he’s not going to go to Celtic.
“I’m not disrespecting Celtic or saying they’re a small club by no means. I’m sure most of those Celtic players would swap three [Scottish] Premier Leagues to play for Leicester and win the title with Leicester.”
"How many players in their prime would go to Celtic or Rangers? Not many." – @JoleonLescott
"If Celtic/Rangers were to come to the Premier League, they would challenge eventually because of the size of the clubs" – @chris_sutton73 #SaturdaySav pic.twitter.com/S1QVnwrikV
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) March 2, 2019
OPINION
This is an interesting argument and it probably comes down to what you determine a player’s prime to be. Defoe and Davis are clearly past their best, that’s why they weren’t getting regular football in the Premier League. And it’s true that you don’t see many top class players swapping the English top flight for the Scottish version. Scott Sinclair is one example of a player at his peak age moving to Scotland, but he wasn’t getting a game in the Premier League so does that really count? You can understand what Lescott’s saying here. He believes that a top performer at the peak of their powers playing regularly in the Premier League would never trade that in to play for Celtic and Rangers in this day and age. Being realistic, he’s probably right. Eden Hazard isn’t moving to Celtic when he eventually leaves Chelsea, that’s for sure. The Old Firm remain massive clubs, but they can’t compete with the lure of the Premier League.