Pay £4m or wait 171 days for McGinn pre-contract

John McGinn is worth the £4m Hibs want for him.  If he was under contract at Celtic, we would not sell him for anything less.  But his sale price will be determined by the number of potential buyers in the market and where the player wants to move to, not his inherent utility as a football player.  These factors set his price.

I would not be surprised if Peter Lawwell had the the words “171 days” marked on a whiteboard in his office.  That’s how long he will need to wait to put a pre-contract in front of McGinn.  Having signed such a deal, the player’s value would be no more than £250k, a drop of £3.75m over the period, reducing at just shy of £22k a day.

You know Peter, it’s not going to happen.  He’ll wait.  John will wait too, and the people at Hibs will continue to murmur about Rod Petrie.  I like signing players on pre-contracts.  In the Celtic universe, it makes the world spin a little faster.

Stick at it, John.  Give Hibs your best between now and January.

I’m reluctant to touch the Kieran Tierney “story”.  By all reports, Celtic’s very firm reaction has convinced Everton to look elsewhere, but I’ll be pleased when the English Premier League transfer window closes in four weeks.  Killing a transfer is an art, not a science.