The Athletic’s Celtic correspondent Kieran Devlin has made a claim about the club’s potential chase of Aberdeen defender Scott McKenna.
Devlin was hosting a Q&A session about Celtic and many Hoops fans asked him questions about the club’s transfers and the players that they could be looking at this summer.
One fan raised a question about whether Celtic are moving towards a data-oriented approach in recruitment. He also said that it is ‘worrying’ that the Hoops may not be looking to potentially replace Kristoffer Ajer with a ‘like-for-like’ player and could ‘end up with a McKenna instead’.
Would you like to see Celtic sign McKenna?
Yes, surely
Absolutely not
This prompted Devlin to talk about McKenna. He said that while he understands the ‘scepticism’ about the Aberdeen man, he is ‘doubtful’ if McKenna is being seen as an Ajer replacement or as a back-up option by Celtic. He also said that McKenna would be a ‘fairly expensive’ backup option.
Here’s what the journalist had to say about the McKenna situation: “I understand scepticism about the McKenna interest, but I’d be doubtful if he’d be intended as Ajer’s replacement as much as he’d be a back-up option. A fairly expensive back-up mind you, given some of the quoted figures. Whether he’d be good enough as a back-up of course is up for debate!”
TIF Thoughts…
This comes after Devlin had told the Cynic Agenda (via Read Celtic) that the Hoops are interested in McKenna but it was stated that he was being seen as a replacement for Jozo Simunovic and that he is a boyhood Celtic fan.
This would suggest that McKenna isn’t being seen as an Ajer replacement and with Simunovic having departed the club this summer, it is the Croatian who probably needs replacing right now.
McKenna made 35 appearances in all competitions for Aberdeen last season, playing 24 times in the Premiership. This shows that he clearly has the experience of playing in the league on a regular basis and at 23, he is still young. So if Celtic do need a centre-back, McKenna might not be a bad option.