Paul John Dykes and Kevin Graham have been speaking on the latest edition of the A Celtic State of Mind podcast about all things relating to Celtic.
One of the topics that Dykes spent a bit of time on was the Bhoys’ failed move for Preston North End’s Ben Davies.
Celtic had looked to be signing the 25-year-old before Liverpool stepped in to take the defender to Anfield.
Davies was mentioned as Dykes discussed Celtic’s defence and the fact that he thought they needed to reinforce it.
Dykes said: “We have a depleted defence, we need to strengthen that defence and we have been involved in some chat [with] some of the names Kevin [Graham] has already mentioned, but before we get onto some of the so-called targets; Ben Davies, we were led to believe, was a done deal. How disappointing is it at this stage, in a season of disappointments, Kevin, when we can’t even do a £2m deal for a Preston player?”
Graham responded, but believes that missing out on Davies is actually not that much of a disappointment.
He said: “It’s so low down on my list of disappointments for this season.”
Are you annoyed Celtic didn't sign Davies?
Yes, we should have got him
No, we don't need him
TIF Thoughts on Davies’ failed move to Celtic…
Davies had looked to be swapping the Championship for the SPFL, but we don’t think you can blame him for deciding to sign for Liverpool especially as Joel Matip has been ruled out for the season, which might mean he gets a good amount of game time.
The Bhoys did sign a right-back in Jonjoe Kenny but failed to add another centre-back, which means they will have to make do with the options they currently have.
Davies made 19 league appearances for Preston this season in which he earned a solid average rating of 6.82/10 (as per WhoScored), so he could have been a good addition for the Bhoys.
Judging by the podcasters’ reactions to the Davies deal falling through, it appears that the collapse of what should have been a historic season for the Hoops has unsurprisingly taken precedent, though it will nevertheless be interesting to see if the 25-year-old performs well for Liverpool and makes Celtic’s failure to sign him look even worse in a campaign where very little has gone right.