Casper Schmeichel will be a good signing, but is only the halfway point in replacing Joe Hart with another signing expected..
Celtic look like replacing veteran goalkeeper Joe Hart, with someone even older in the shape of Kasper Schmeichel.
When Joe announced his retirement it was widely assumed that we would be searching for a younger keeper with great potential and to be fair that still appears to be the case.
But it now looks like Brendan will make a move for his former number one at Leicester in an effort to partially fill the huge void left by the former England international. Joe Hart is unlikely to be the only Celtic exit from the goalkeeping side of the current Celtic squad with Ben Siegrist also likely to be leaving. This means that Celtic will sign also sign a younger goalkeeper who will likely become the log term number one.
The Barkas mistake Celtic want to avoid
Celtic spend near on £5m on Vasilis Barkas in the summer of 2020 and threw him right into the first team action. He struggled to cope with the pressure of being the Celtic number one. That is the mistake Celtic is looking at avoiding.
So it’s a good, clever move by Brendan Rodgers as Schmeichel is a talented keeper with lots of experience at club and international level and is a leader in the dressing room, just like Joe Hart.
Schmeichel spent last season at Belgian side Anderlecht and played in all of his country’s games at Euro 2024, so he’s still capable of playing at the top level.
While it’s a good move by Brendan it still asks big questions of our recruitment process.
After all we’ve known for months that Joe was calling it a day at the end of the season, yet here we are just a few weeks from the start of the season and we’ve just signed a replacement.
A replacement that is well known to the manager. No matter how good a signing, it still raises questions over our recruitment process and whoever may be running it. If as indicated there is a decent signing of a top quality younger keeper in the pipeline then those two plus Scott Bain as a back-up will mean they have succeeded in their goalkeeping task.
Signing Casper Schmeichel takes them half way there
Brendan Rodgers appears to have been as frustrated as the Celtic support at the lock of activity as far as arrivals are concerned in the transfer market but has stressed that this is about to change with a few new arrivals coming in ahead of the squad leaving for the three match tour of the USA.
“Of course, we would want to get them in sooner rather than later. But it’s a two-way thing so hopefully we can get them done in the coming weeks,” Brendan said to Celtic TV.
“Would we like to get some in before America? That’s the plan. I think every manager would like them in on the first day but what’s most important is the players we want are targeted.
“We know what we want to bring in to improve the squad and I’m sure over the coming weeks we’ll conclude the deals and get us stronger for next season.”
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