Anya, Fletcher, fantasy

“Celtic suffer double transfer blow as they are priced out of moves for Scotland duo Steven Fletcher and Ikechi Anya.”  Fantasy stuff from a guy at the Record who was chased from Celtic Park a long time ago and hasn’t been allowed back since.

No offence to Ikechi, but if Peter Lawwell sanctioned the payment of £4m to a guy who is in and out the Watford team he’d be the next one chased out of Celtic Park.  He is categorically not a person of interest.

They’ve also got the story on Steven Fletcher wrong.  Sunderland are keen on Virgil van Dijk and know Celtic are looking for a striker.  The English club were up for using Fletcher as a make-weight but we confirmed here two weeks ago this scenario was dead before it got off the ground.  Celtic didn’t even ask to speak to Fletcher, never mind inquire about his wage demands.  Celtic need Virgil for the qualifiers and need a striker for the qualifiers.  The deal was not contemplated at any wage level, Sunderland knew this from the off.

Sunderland paid £12m for Fletcher and are coughing up £48k per week wages, not the £60k reported this morning.  Getting the wages figure right is easy, just ask someone who was involved, and it wouldn’t change the parsimonious Celtic agenda.  The fact that Fletcher’s wage figure is wrong tells you the quality of the source.  He’s a good enough player but he’s a totem of so much that’s wrong in English football.

Today’s ‘news’ is as old as I am: ‘Rangers’ ‘immediately stepped in with a bid which has been accepted’, Celtic are ‘priced out of moves’.  It’s what it looks like, the fantasy of a man who’s banned from Celtic Park.

God help this poor Irish lad if he makes it through his medical, the weight of expectation will be heavy on his shoulders soon enough.  I seriously didn’t get where they were coming from with that ‘Fear no Foe’ business, b.t.w.  The world’s changed so much.

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