Pundit Kevin Graham has recently talked about Celtic’s Australian midfielder Tom Rogic.
Graham was a guest on the latest episode of the ‘A Celtic State of Mind’ podcast and the panel discussed multiple issues involving the Bhoys. One topic of discussion was Rogic and Graham believes that the fact that a club from Qatar wanted him left the player and his agent disappointed as he might have been looking for a move to the Premier League. Rogic is currently valued at £1.80m.
An unnamed Qatar-based club was in talks with Celtic to sign Rogic in the summer transfer window. It was reported that the Australian was ‘set’ for a move to this Qatari club and the fee in question was £4 million (as per the Daily Mail). The move couldn’t happen as Rogic didn’t agree personal terms with the Qatari club.
Was Rogic right to stay at Celtic?
Yes
No
Graham feels that Rogic might have decided to stay at Celtic now that a big move hasn’t materialised for him.
He said: “At 28, I wonder if he was expecting at 28 to have the bigger move away to the English Premiership – and that’s not happened. Is that because injuries have held him back; is it because he hasn’t got the speed that that big move has never come about for him? Because he’s got the ability in his feet, so maybe he’s just now decided that it is time to actually make a decent fist of it at Celtic, because where is he going to end up after Celtic?
“The only offer on the table in the summer was a semi-retirement league in Qatar, and maybe that’s disappointing to him. Maybe that is disappointing to him, it is disappointing to his agent that the ‘big move’ that he wanted is not there – never materialised.”
TIF Thoughts on Graham’s comments regarding Tom Rogic…
Former Celtic man Scott McDonald had said that Rogic would have only gone to Qatar if he was offered a high amount of money and a move like that would have been the ‘end-game’ for his career (as per the Scottish Sun).
Rogic has now come back to the Celtic first-team and has already picked up three assists in the last two Premiership games. He has now picked up a WhoScored rating of 7.04 in the Premiership and he has been the club’s ninth-best player in the campaign.
Since he’s now contributing to goals for the club’s first-team, Celtic fans should be glad that Rogic ended up staying at Parkhead in the summer transfer window.