Scottish football journalist John McGarry has recently talked about Vasilis Barkas and his situation at Parkhead.
On the latest episode of The Celtic Huddle podcast, McGarry talked about numerous issues involving the Parkhead-based club. He talked about the situation of multiple Celtic players and one player that he focused on was Vasilis Barkas. The journalist made it clear that he hasn’t seen anything convincing from him so far this season.
The Hoops had paid an initial fee of £2.95 million to AEK Athens to sign Barkas in the summer. They have to pay more add-ons on the basis of the number of appearances he makes (as per Sky Sports).
Does Barkas deserve another chance?
Yes
No
The Greek goalkeeper was signed after Fraser Forster returned to Southampton, while Craig Gordon joined Hearts on a free transfer.
McGarry talked about Barkas and said: “Barkas – I’m afraid I just don’t see anything with him. You need something to work with, I don’t see anything to suggest this guy is a £5 million goalkeeper. I fully understand that it’s been really difficult for players coming across during lockdown – it’s been a really difficult year for everyone, but I think that it might be pushing it to get a tune out of him.”
TIF Thoughts on Barkas…
In the current season, Celtic have used a total of three goalkeepers – Barkas, Scott Bain and Conor Hazard – which shows that they haven’t been trusted enough in the long term.
Since 26-year-old Barkas came in from a different league and in a different environment and arrived for a bigger fee, perhaps he needs more trust and confidence from the manager to succeed in the longer term.
Celtic can’t afford to record a loss on the money that they spent on him, so the next manager trusting him would be beneficial for everyone.
In other news: ‘Would be unreal’, ‘Be colossal for us’ – Many Celtic fans excited as news emerges