Your weekly roundup Celtic January transfer rumours - Arsenal outcast closes in on Hoops return + Palma and Welsh set for exits - video Dailymotion

National World

GlasgowWorld discuss the latest Celtic transfer murmurings after the first week of the transfer window.

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to Glasgow World's first round-up of the January transfer

00:05window. We will be filming a weekly round-up of the latest deals that have

00:10taken place both in and out of Celtic and Rangers during the month of January.

00:16My colleague Declan alongside me this afternoon to discuss what has

00:21been a fairly slow start to the window, it's fair to say Declan, there hasn't

00:25been too much deals being done already at this stage but there's been

00:30rumours about potential incomings and quite exciting ones. We'll kick off

00:34with Celtic and first things first Kieran Tierney, a player that Celtic fans

00:40obviously a fan favourite during his time at the club and currently not in

00:46favour at Arsenal, he has been like that for some time since returning from

00:49injury and there's talk about this being very close to being done, it seems

00:55as well at this stage that he's knocked back other clubs in the Premier League

00:58to return to Celtic, what are your thoughts on that? Firstly thanks for having me Lewis,

01:03yeah it's been a slow start, I don't know, it feels all a bit weird just now

01:07because obviously Scottish football usually shuts down, there's a couple of

01:10weeks off in January but we're still in the midst of a very hectic fixture

01:14schedule so I don't know whether that's got anything to do with it.

01:18Kieran Tierney, I think everybody's talked about this in Scottish football just now,

01:21everybody knows him, obviously a cult hero or whatever you want to call him at Celtic,

01:27he made the club a very rich summer money, £25 million going to Arsenal which is

01:32incredibly, it'll be six years by the time the summer comes around which

01:37seems like a lifetime ago but 2019 he departed, he obviously knows Brendan

01:41Rodgers very very well, everybody would say although Ronald Ireland gave him the

01:45chance at Celtic, it was probably Brendan Rodgers who took his game to that next

01:50level, it's going to be interesting I think, it might not be a question of, you know,

01:55it's really at this point in time I think Kieran Tierney is if and when it

02:00happens because in terms of the deal, I think pre-contracts have been

02:06mentioned, loans have been mentioned, it certainly doesn't look as if Arsenal's

02:09interested in renewing his contract in the summer which means he's going to be a

02:12free agent, do Celtic have the finances to pay a chunk of his Arsenal wages in

02:18January is probably a question, what kind of free are Arsenal maybe looking for in

02:22January to let him go maybe out on loan or even, you know, come in earlier than that

02:27pre-contract, we don't know, certainly I think if you look at this, Celtic would

02:32not be able to attract a player of Tierney's quality or stature if there wasn't

02:37just that natural Celtic connection there, I know there's a lot of chat around his

02:41injury record but Celtic to be, you know, they've got somebody reliable in Greg

02:46Taylor at this point in time, obviously Alex Valle is in the door from Barcelona

02:49until the end of the season, I think they don't need Kieran Tierney to play 40-50

02:54games a season, Celtic need Kieran Tierney for derby games, Champions League games,

02:58matches at Hamden if they get that far, certainly if Kieran Tierney comes back to

03:03Celtic, I don't think you're going to see him play, you know, 40-50 games, they may

03:07only need him for 20-25. That might benefit his body as well because he has had a lot of injuries.

03:13Obviously, you know, he is settled here, if he comes back up the road, with his family and his friends

03:19and all that around him, you might just see him fit right in, just like the old KT.

03:25What do you feel like that might mean for Greg Taylor because obviously we know

03:29Taylor's out of contract in the summer, you know, fans were chanting Tierney's

03:34name on the weekend there in the 3-0 win against St Mirren, Brendan Rodgers

03:39obviously quite rightly saying that that shouldn't be the case at this moment in

03:43time, he's still an Arsenal player, Taylor has been a top servant to Celtic, hasn't he, over the last couple of seasons?

03:47Very reliable, I think you only need to look at the fact that in the time Taylor's been here at Celtic,

03:52the club signed Bolly Bollinggoly for about £3 million, they obviously brought in

03:57Diego Laxall in a loan deal I think from AC Milan, I'm not correct at the time, and then

04:02Alejandro Bernabe who came in for about £4 million as well, so £3.75 bit of what it was, but

04:08you know, nobody's been able to shift Greg Taylor, he's been there since 2019, been

04:12very reliable at the club, he took his game again to another level under

04:15Postacoglu, you know, I don't think, I'm certainly not going to forget how important

04:20he was in that system with the inverted full-backs, yeah, he might not be the

04:25standard kind of left-back that Celtic fans are looking for that takes a ball and

04:28runs to the by-line, but he's been a great player for Celtic, and if the managers

04:33won't be both of them, as I say, just in Tierney, I think whoever's going to be that

04:37other left-back is still going to play a hell of a lot of games for Celtic.

04:39Interesting you touched on Bernabe, he is one player that seems to no longer have a future at the club,

04:45I think Brendan Rodgers made that perfectly clear some time ago, and it seems to me

04:50that he's very much likely to return to Internacional where he's been thriving

04:54out on loan since the summer, looks to me like they're very keen on a

04:59permanent deal and that one could be close to completion.

05:02Yeah, it's just not worked out for him has it, came in with quite a heavy price tag, you probably could say,

05:08I think a lot of Celtic fans would have thought, profile-wise, I think Alejandro Bernabe was the first

05:13Argentinian to actually sign for Celtic, it's just not worked out, certainly

05:18attacking-wise, I don't know if he had it, but big questions over him defensively, whether it's

05:24just the Scottish football or whatever, it doesn't work out, but he's certainly been flying at

05:29Internacional, and if he makes Celtic a decent fee, it's, you know, he called it quits, he's not really lost out on anything have you?

05:38No, that's it.

05:39He contributed with a couple of goals in his time too, so you just move on.

05:42In terms of the rest of the Celtic squad, Declan, you've obviously watched a fair bit of Celtic this year,

05:47there's been talk about potentially change on the wing, on the left side in

05:53particular, they've been linked with, I think it's correct in saying, Michel-Ange Balagwisha

06:01from Royal Antwerp, who has been a long-term target, one a player Brendan Rodgers knows well

06:08and that has actually spoken to, we're led to believe, about a possible move in the near future,

06:14he could become available for around £5 million, is the asking price I think the Belgian club have

06:20set on him at this moment, and that could have potential repercussions for Luiz Palma heading in the opposite direction?

06:28Yeah, much, you know, kind of similar to Alejandro Bernabeu, it's just really not worked out for Luiz Palma,

06:33scored a decent amount of goals and contributed with assists last season,

06:39you know, scoring the draw against Atletico Madrid and whatever else, but

06:43he just kind of seemed to, I think, you go back to that game, I think it was

06:47potentially mother well at home in it, he missed two penalties, I think maybe the end for Luiz Palma,

06:52after that, we saw him come in basically to paradise and just, you know, you're looking for

06:57something, you're coming off the bench for French players, which is what he has just now to do

07:01something and he just wasn't able to produce anything and I think for his sake, it's probably

07:05better that he seek somewhere else, but in terms of Sergio in that position, generally Luiz, that

07:11I felt in the derby game anyway, that, you know, if you take Koon and Maheed out of that team and in

07:15the game, they weren't very effective, Celtic at this point in time don't really have anything to

07:20come off the bench in that department. Obviously, we've saw flashes of Yang, who's still very raw at

07:25this point in time, I think Rodgers does see a player in him, James Forrest is injured and

07:30as we already mentioned here, Palma looks probably one step out the door already, so

07:36I think the priority in this window for Brendan Rodgers will certainly be to bring in a winger and

07:40just looking at it on paper, Celtic need it because it's so important and we just need to look at the goals

07:45and as I said, Koon and Maheed have brought the club this season, they need a bit of backup in that

07:49department. It'll be interesting with Luiz Palma's situation as well, with of course, James Forrest

07:53currently out through injury, so it could be a bit of a waiting game potentially there, but we

07:58know at this stage that Palma certainly has a lot of interest, Olympiacos at the front of that at

08:04the moment in time, he also has Italy interest and two clubs in the MLS as well. Which is the same as

08:10holding home as well for MLS, isn't it? Again, a player that arrived very early on with Brendan Rodgers,

08:16I think there was a whole story about them meeting up in Mallorca there at the same time and whatever else, but

08:23just kind of seems to have disappeared into the dark holding tag home, so again maybe a player

08:29that just maybe suits him better in the club, just to depart ways and Olymp got on with his career.

08:33First bit of business that could be completed within the next couple of days certainly is

08:39Stephen Welsh, certainly well down the pecking order at this moment in time, the centre-back

08:44looks like he will complete his lone move to KV Mechelen in the Duplet Pro League in Belgium,

08:51probably a move that most Celtic fans will feel probably should have been done in the summer,

08:57would you say that? I find it difficult to look at Stephen Welsh in terms of game time for his career to

09:04progress, Luiz, he needs to be playing games and he's not going to get that when he's got

09:08Cameron Carter-Vickers, William Scales, who was that dependable pair last season,

09:13bringing in £6m loss in trust in the summer, you probably thought then that Stephen Welsh

09:18was the fourth choice, centre-half, I know maybe the managers don't work on that but that's just

09:22probably how we look at it, but certainly for his career because he's still, he's not old,

09:28he's not 24 Stephen Welsh, he's still got a hell of a lot to go, it's a decent link

09:33and interest at CCL to obviously call back Iain Murray from Queen's Park to fulfil that quota

09:40going forward, but again a player who came in earlier in the post to Kogla in that Midgeland

09:45game that I think people would like to see, whether he ends up playing a game, you don't know,

09:50but obviously it's all Welsh, they're weak at Tannanese, they don't do anything wrong,

09:56and obviously another player in that department is Mike Naroczky who again has just

10:00came in, decent price tag too under Rodgers, played a couple of games at the start,

10:04can't really catch a break, I don't think fitness-wise, I remember the pre-season game

10:09doing it in Somerset early on, I think he was the captain actually, went off quite early injured,

10:14so again somebody who's probably not really got his Celtic career started right.

10:17And just finally on Celtic then, we'll touch on one player who's returned to the club in January,

10:22now back in full training, that is young Johnny Kenny who has been on loan at Shamrock Rovers

10:29in the League of Ireland, he's had great success over there as well, he's been banging the goals

10:34in the Europa League for Shamrock and much has been made about it just being between

10:42Adam Ida and Kyoko Furuhashi of course for the strike and berth, but it'll be interesting to

10:46see now if he does get rewarded for that. Do you think those conference league appearances

10:52have maybe swivelled that a wee bit, just because with respect to the league in Ireland,

10:57but just that kind of step up that he's obviously showed that he's got something about him taking

11:01to score at that level? Yeah, I think that's a good point, I think obviously when you're doing

11:06it on the European stage you're going to get noticed, this is a player that was signed

11:11at the start of the Orange Post to Koglu era and has never really had a chance to

11:15kind of really showcase his talents, so I think supporters will be intrigued to see if he can

11:21force his way into the reckoning and Roger's plans during the second half of the season,

11:25you'd imagine given that they are in such a strong position at the top of the table at the

11:29moment in time, it's probably a good time to embed him in. And you need squad rotation, we spoke at

11:33the top there about the fixture congestion, it only takes a player to be out injured, whether it's

11:38Ida or Kyoko and you're back to one striker, so I don't think there's any risk in giving Johnny

11:43Kenny a chance to let the manager have a good look at him, but again the way football works

11:48nowadays they'll have been keeping a close eye on him, I'm sure there's been plenty of conversations

11:52between him, Rogers, John Kennedy or whoever and they'll have an idea what they're going to do

11:56with him, whether that's bleeding him back into the first team or maybe seeking his future elsewhere,

12:01but it's going to be an interesting one because he's been pictured in first team training so

12:05we'll just wait and see. Exciting times, exciting times.

Your weekly roundup Celtic January transfer rumours - Arsenal outcast closes in on Hoops return + Palma and Welsh set for exits

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