MANY in the Celtic fan base were quite excited about what we might be getting when the club confirmed that a loan deal had been agreed with Portuguese giants Benfica for 22 year old midfielder Paulo Bernardo.
The 21 capped Under 21 international did have a slow but steady start to life at Parkhead, but since the turn of the year his form and confidence levels have shown significant improvement, and with a growing number of supporters, they will be very pleased that we managed to insert a buy deal clause into the deal.
Around the time of the most popular tournaments, UK gambling sources prepare freebies, usually consisting of free bets that bettors use when the odds are in their favour. Similar can be true around transfer windows and Celtic fans are nearing a new one.
However, one potential sticking point to bringing him in on a permanent basis would be the fact that the clause has apparently been set at around the £6 million mark. Undoubtedly the player has now done enough to tempt manager Brendan Rodgers into persuading the board to make his stay permanent, but it is now being claimed that although Bernardo is our top midfield target for the summer, and a ‘priority’ for us, we are hoping to negotiate a new full fee for him, that would obviously see that £6 million come down a fair bit.
Whether or not Benfica are open to amending the clause remains to be seen, but former Hoops striker Andy Walker is now on record as saying that at £6 million he does not feel it is a value for money deal from Celtic’s point of view, and he feels that there is a far better option available much closer to home, and it involves a club that we have regularly done business with in the past.
With Stephen Pearson, David Turnbull and Phil O’Donnell all making the move from Motherwell to Parkhead in previous years (as did Walker himself all those years ago) he believes we should try our hand at Fir Park again and make a firm move for rising star Lennon Miller.
Miller has had a very good 2023/24 campaign for his current side, featuring 24 times across all competitions, and we saw first hand what the 17 year old talent is capable of with his assist for Blair Spittal in our clash with them earlier this year.
Whilst Bernardo has his fans, even they would probably agree that given the development curve that Miller seems to be on, he would certainly be worth the gamble of bringing him in, even if the move was more slightly along the lines of one for the future.
“Lennon Miller I think is someone who will go on to bigger and better things but £6m for Bernardo? It seems very steep. I think it is a lot of money for someone who has played a decent amount of games but not really impressed that much other than that little purple patch that he had.”
It is certainly an interesting suggestion, and as a gamble it would very much depend on the kind of valuation they would place on his head, but one thing is for sure – there are going to be a whole host of speculation and media suggestions with every passing week and we near the summer.
Then it is over to Celtic to see what they actually do at the end of the current campaign.
