IT COULD cost Celtic around £4million-plus to sign Lennon Miller from Motherwell in January.
However, the champions could have had the 18-year-old midfielder in their squad today – for NOTHING!
Miller was in the Parkhead club’s academy before leaving to join the youth set-up at Fir Park in his bid for a first-team breakthrough.
The exciting teenage talent has been linked with Brendan Rodgers’ men in recent times and former Hoops and Well striker Brian McClair reckons Celtic should be interested in getting a deal done.
PUSH OFF…Alistair Johnston and Lennon Miller challenge for possession in Celtic’s 3-0 win over Motherwell at Fir Park last month.
But the one-time Manchester United favourite and Scotland international marksman, who was signed for the Parkhead side by Billy McNeill from the Lanarkshire outfit in June 1983, also points a possible stumbling block, game time at Scotland’s title kings.
McClair said: “What’s critical for Lennon is that he’s going to play. He could potentially be the very first name the Motherwell manager chooses every week.
“If he’s going to go somewhere, it’d have to be somewhere he would be confident of playing. Not guaranteed, because no-one can be guaranteed a game – irrespective of who you are, or your transfer fee.
“But to go somewhere maybe that suits the idea and the style that you might want to play.”
McClair, speaking in a Daily Record report, continued: “He was at Celtic as a young lad and, very much to Motherwell’s delight, he wasn’t happy there and he came back to Motherwell.
“So, of course, the top teams in Scotland would be interested in any young Scottish talent. Probably even more so now, because both Celtic and Rangers probably don’t have enough homegrown players that are going to be playing ahead of some of the other players.
HEADING FOR THE TOP…Lennon Miller leaps above Liam Scales to thump in an effort that was saved by the ever-alert Kasper Schmeichel at Fir Park.
“So I could see him moving, but he’d want to play. Wherever he goes he’s got to be thinking: ‘Have I got a chance at playing?’
“Go to a football club that plays in the kind of way that you would like to play and where you have a great chance of playing.”
The former prolific Hoops hitman added: “Playing is the whole reason that you become a professional football player.
“You want to play as many games as you can. He has improved quite rapidly over the last couple of years. If he stays at Motherwell, he gets to play and improve.
“He may then get the opportunity to play on the full-international stage. But, of course, Celtic should be interested.”
The problem, of course, is the quality already available to Rodgers in his midfield with skipper Callum McGregor a first pick when he is fully fit.
Arne Engels, the club’s record £11million recruit from Bundesliga club Augsburg on deadline day, is another at the head of the queue with Reo Hatate, Paulo Bernardo and Luke McCowan, a bargain £1million arrival on the same day as Engels, also main men in the squad’s engine room.
The alternative would be to to get Miller, capped five times at Under-21 level, signed, sealed and delivered and loan him out for regular first-team appearances elsewhere.
In the meantime, other clubs, notably both Manchester teams, are reported to be monitoring the youngster’s progress.
