Celtic seem to be closing in on a short term deal for Carlton Cole. This news has been met with a mixed reaction from Celtic fans on social media.
Some are quite willing to give the guy a chance but there are others who have seen this movie before. The fact that Celtic are courting a striker out of necessity at this stage of the season should show how much we have been failed by the Celtic herirachy during the last window.
With Ciftci coming in to replace the gap left by Guidetti there was still room for another striker and that was even before Stefan Scepovic was sent out on-loan on the last day of the window. Celtic knew they were desperately short up-front and while Stefan had failed to really get going in his first season it would have been wise to keep him at the club if there was no alternative.
The situation is we are now looking at a 31 year-old striker who has injury problems throughout his career – An English striker who can’t find a club down south. In his second spell for West Ham he managed 8 goals in 49 appearances albeit a good amount of these appearances were from the bench.
The lad seems like a hard worker and will no doubt bring experience to a relatively young Celtic side but he is not being brought in under the right circumstances. He may be able to hold his own at SPFL level and give us a big presence up-front but it still shouldn’t mask the fact that his signing would highlight our own transfer window failings.
Celtic are worried about Leigh Griffiths potential ban for singing a song about former Hearts player Rudi Skacel in an Edinburgh pub last year. Since he has plead guilty to the incident in a court of law he is now at the mercy of the SPFL disciplinary panel who will be pontificating over how long a ban to give the striker. This would put Celtic in a precarious situation with Stokes and Ciftci as our only options up top. From a simple number games perspective Carlton Cole should be welcomed. But if he is just in to make up the numbers then it becomes mind boggling why Scepovic was allowed to leave on-loan. Perhaps Celtic were convinced they would land a striker before the deadline with many outlets reporting there was a late dash for Steven Fletchers signature. Ridiculous that a clubs of Celtic’s size operate in such a way.
If Carlton Cole does sign he will get the Celtic supporters backing as every signing does. He will be a stop-gap signing like Dion Dublin was back when Strachan was at the helm. Wont be expecting fireworks but a solid worker on a short term deal.
As for the Celtic hierarchy, they must right the wrongs of this window in January. If Celtic manage to get into the knock out stages of the Europa League we could be doing with some proper re-inforcements.
