Pundit Hugh MacDonald has been talking about the club’s potential signing of AEK Athens goalkeeper Vasilios Barkas.
MacDonald was recently a guest on the latest episode of PLZ Soccer’s The Football Show. The panel talked about many things involving Scottish football and one thing that MacDonald focused on was Celtic and their potential signing of Barkas. The pundit believes that the Greek goalkeeper would fit Celtic’s style of play.
Celtic are reportedly in advanced talks to sign Barkas and the goalkeeper is ‘expected’ to sign a four-year deal at Parkhead.
While talking about Barkas’ potential move, MacDonald believes that the 26-year-old is good with the ball at his feet and that is the sort of signing Celtic need. He also seems generally confident that this signing will be done soon.
He said: “He’s apparently very good with his feet as well. He’s actually like a footballer as well in goal. For some managers, that’s a requirement, certainly a requirement [for] the way Celtic want to play.
Do you think Barkas can fail at Celtic?
No chance!
Too early to say
“I notice people getting really uptight about what happens if [Alfredo] Morelos goes, where are all the Celtic signings etc. [The transfer window] is going on into October. It seems really strange to see it, but the week we have the EPL ending, we have the Scottish season starting, so it is really difficult. On this aspect, Celtic definitely needed a goalkeeper and I presume that was their highest priority this week. It looks as if they are going to get it done.”
TIF Thoughts…
The Athletic had written about Celtic’s chase for a goalkeeper earlier this month, saying that the club has a ‘huge task’ to find a capable replacement for Fraser Forster. The article had drawn similarities between Barkas and former Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boruc and revealed that the Greek goalkeeper is ‘highly rated’ in Greece’s domestic league. Therefore, it could be argued that the ‘keeper’s capture could be a small coup for the Hoops.
The piece had also claimed that Celtic have been keeping an eye on Barkas since AEK Athens eliminated the Hoops from the UEFA Champions League qualifiers back in 2018. It shows that Celtic have done years of groundwork in this potential deal and they would have studied Barkas’ strengths and weaknesses pretty well since then.
So it will be very interesting to see how this deal works out, especially since it has taken a long time for Celtic to make a concrete attempt to sign Barkas.