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Celtic: Paul John Dykes slams the club’s usage of David Turnbull

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Image for Celtic: Paul John Dykes slams the club’s usage of David Turnbull

Celtic pundit Paul John Dykes has recently criticised the club’s usage of midfielder David Turnbull.

Dykes was hosting 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 Turnbull. Dykes believes that it is ‘frustrating’ that Celtic aren’t using Turnbull enough after waiting for one year to sign him in the summer.

Turnbull arrived at Parkhead in the summer transfer window for a fee that could be worth £3.25m. His move to Parkhead came about 14 months after an initial move to the Glaswegian club had collapsed in the summer of 2019 (as per BBC Sport). The young Scotsman had failed a medical at the club and as a result, the move fell through in 2019.

Have Celtic hindered David Turnbull's development?

Yes

Yes

No

No

Dykes urged the club to use Turnbull in the midfield more often than they are.

He said: “The thing with Turnbull, the reason I bring him up is – what happened when we chased this young player, this huge talent in Scottish football? I think if you had to say in Scottish football, ‘who’s the top two?’ A lot of the people would say probably Turnbull and Lewis Ferguson – I see these names quite a lot.

“We chase him and we get him to agree to sign. He’s sitting in the boardroom with a Celtic top on, we’re ready to actually unveil him to the press as a new signing, or to the Celtic TV guys and the internal media staff, then obviously this issue turns up. So we have a chance to sign him, we go back in for him, we wait for an extra year – this is how much we believe in David Turnbull, this is how much we want him as a Celtic player. Obviously, he also waits for us, because I’m sure there are other offers on the table.

“He comes in – correct me if I’m wrong – he’s started one game and we’re in December. A big part of the issue with the play, the drop in tempo, the lack of creativity, the lack of directness has been the midfield. So why not give Turnbull more minutes? It’s quite frustrating when you bring a player like Turnbull in and he’s not playing.”

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Which club did Brown join Celtic from?

TIF Thoughts on Dykes’ comments regarding Turnbull…

Before moving to Celtic, Turnbull had been a regular at Motherwell this season. He made five league appearances (or starts) and even scored once while picking up a rating of 7.25. At Celtic though, he’s made just one start and has come on from the bench five times (as per Transfermarkt).

This suggests that he indeed has been under-utilised at Parkhead. Olivier Ntcham has picked up an unimpressive rating of 6.47 in the league and perhaps, taking the Frenchman out of the team will make sense if Neil Lennon wants Turnbull to feature more often.

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European Football Writer. Contributed for FootballItalia, Manchester United, Manchester Evening News, Calciomercato, GFFN and more.