VASILIS BARKAS finally departed Celtic on Tuesday, heading to Holland to join FC Utrecht on a year-long loan.
The Celtic flop was close to an exit on a few occasions in January, but his wage demands couldn’t be matched elsewhere, so he remained at Celtic. The Athletic report that Barkas signed a contract worth £20,000 a week when he joined Celtic, it’s almost certain another club wouldn’t match that for an out of favour goalie.
Reports in Greece suggest that Utrecht are covering 2/3 of Barkas’ wage while he’s at the club, just over £13,000 a week. This frees up a decent size proportion of Celtic’s wage budget – around £620k for this season, something that would’ve been an aim for Ange Postecoglou as he looks to continue his Celtic rebuild.
Sport24 also confirms that there is no option to buy included in Barkas’ deal, quite strange considering Celtic are looking to offload the player.
There is no doubting that Barkas is a good goalkeeper, Celtic wouldn’t have spent the best part of £5 million on him if he wasn’t, but to believe he could revitalise his career and push Joe Hart for the jersey in the years to come is a fantasy.
