Podcaster John McGinley has recently made a claim about Celtic target Alfie Doughty and his suitability to the club.
McGinley was a guest on the latest episode of The Grand Auld Podcast and the panel discussed multiple issues involving the Parkhead-based side. Apart from talking about the club’s 5-0 win over Ross County, they also talked about Doughty and Celtic’s chase of the Charlton Athletic man. McGinley believes that while Doughty is a ‘decent prospect’, he can be considered a ‘project signing’ by the Bhoys.
Charlton have already rejected a bid from Celtic for the 20-year-old and the club’s manager Lee Bowyer has confirmed the same too. The youngster scored for Charlton against Crewe in their League One meeting recently.
McGinley described Doughty as a ‘decent prospect’ but he believes that it will be a ‘risk’ for Celtic to depend on the 20-year-old.
He said: “He’s young, right? So he doesn’t have a lot of experience. So he doesn’t have a lot of matches under his belt at left-back or at left-midfield, but he has played both. He primarily plays left-midfield for them, but I think he might have the athleticism and pace to play left wing-back – basically the hybrid role.
Would you like Celtic to sign Alfie Doughty?
Absolutely!
No
“Now, the problem here is he’s not got loads of experience. He would be what some would consider as a project signing. So I’m not sure if we’d be signing him and another perhaps more experienced left wing-back if there’s one available, or whether he’s just coming in to compete with [Greg] Taylor and [James] Forrest on the left-hand side. I think he looks like a decent prospect, I think that it’d be something of a risk just to hang our hat on a 20-year-old from Charlton in League One.”
He continued: “So if we’re talking about players who are likely to come in rather than who we’ve been linked with, he looks like the one for me. Apparently, he’s available for a six-figure fee. His contract’s up next summer, so there’s a few boxes being ticked there from Celtic’s perspective.”
TIF Thoughts…
Doughty became a regular for Charlton in the 2019/20 season, as he made 29 appearances in the Championship and directly contributed to five goals. Three of them were assists and two of them were goals. It shows that despite being young, he has some sort of experience of playing first-team football.
The 20-year-old can play at left-back, left-midfield or in the central midfield. The Hoops have only Greg Taylor as their out and out left-back option now that Boli Bolingoli has joined Istanbul Basaksehir on loan. Doughty will add some depth to the left-back position and because of his age, he might still improve as a player. So moving for Doughty could be a smart move for Celtic.