Celtic pundit Paul John Dykes believes that the club should’ve allowed certain influential players to leave in the summer transfer window.
Dykes was hosting the latest episode of the ‘A Celtic State of Mind’ podcast and the panel discussed multiple issues involving the Bhoys. They discussed Celtic’s recent run of form and while talking about it, Dykes said that certain players had been agitating for a move in the summer and they should’ve been allowed to leave.
Following Celtic’s loss to Ferencvaros in the qualifying stages of the UEFA Champions League, Neil Lennon had publicly said that some players don’t want to stay at the club. He even urged players to get their mentality right following that loss (as per BBC Sport).
Should Celtic have allowed agitating players to leave in the summer?
Yes
No
Dykes feels that the players who wanted to leave the club in the summer have continued to create issues at Parkhead.
He said: “What we’ve got there is, according to Neil Lennon after the Ferencvaros game, we’ve got players and influential players who are looking to move and who have wanted to move from Celtic for some time. I think the agitators should’ve been allowed to move. Because what’s happened since the transfer window is they’ve continued, obviously, to create these issues.
“We’ve not had a performance out of Edouard over a 90-minute period, we’ve not had performances out [of] some of the other players that you’d expect to get a performance out of. So they’ve agitated behind the scenes.”
TIF Thoughts on Dykes’ comments about why Celtic should’ve allowed players to move…
In the summer transfer window, Odsonne Edouard was linked with a move to Premier League clubs like Crystal Palace, Aston Villa and Leicester. Olivier Ntcham drew links to clubs like West Ham and Everton. Milan were interested in Kristoffer Ajer and Ryan Christie was linked to Burnley as well.
So there was clearly interest from other clubs in multiple Celtic players. Having said that, Christie, Edouard and Ajer have been amongst the top ten performing players in the Premiership for the Hoops this season. So they are clearly important stars of the team and losing all of them in a single window might have damaged Celtic a lot this season.
It may be easier in hindsight to suggest that these players should have been moved on in the summer, while it may be difficult at this point to know which individuals are responsible for the so-called ‘agitation’ that has hindered Celtic’s campaign so far. Perhaps, therefore, the proof will only become apparent if Celtic’s fortunes improve following any departures from Parkhead in the coming months.