Working the globe with Bernabei

Alexandro Bernabei was finally announced as a Celtic player by former club, Lunas, in the early hours of this morning.  At 21, the left back is the same age Greg Taylor was when he joined the club in 2019.

The environment Alexandro worked in at Lanus could hardly be more different than what he walks into at Celtic.  Lunas won only three of the last 20 league games their former defender played in, including his final game, which saw Alexandro red carded.  The pressure to win was significantly less than in Glasgow.

That factor possibly permits young talent more scope to flourish; teams stuck somewhere in the no man’s land that is lower midtable of a 26-team league, need not stress about winning or losing too much.  Even relegation is a multi-year process in Argentina, no one season alone can put you down.

One year before Alexandro’s contract expired, the reported £3.75m fee is a discount on the money Lanus earned when selling a central defender to Parma last year for €10m, or a midfielder to Atlanta for €6m in 2020.  Hopefully that discount is due more to the expiring contract than any perception of the player’s prospects.

Welcome to Celtic, Alexandro!  There is a lot of hard work ahead, but it is great to see Celtic work the globe to fine value.  Contrast with the days we travelled the M8 to find Chris Killen could scarcely be greater.