After recent speculation about Dedryck Boyata and his current contract situation, I’ve been thinking, if he was to sign a new contract would us Celtic fans forgive him for his actions during the Champions League qualifiers this year.
There’s no simple easy yes or no answer to this one as there are a lot of different Celtic fans out there, with different opinions.
For me, recent performance would suggest its time for us to move on and forget his clear mistake in the summer.
Of course, it will be tough for some to forgive him because our fans would give anything and everything to wear that shirt. Boyata doesn’t have that sort of connection to the club, and after that AEK Athens game, he must have realised how huge a mistake this was after fan reaction.
We will never know the real story, but from some accounts, Dedryck might have been easily influenced by his agent Jacques Lichenstein, who has a shady past for different things.
He could have been a considerable factor in his decision, all he probably had to do was show him the millions that he could earn and clubs like Fulham and Sevilla. For someone without any real connection to Celtic, these millions of pounds could be very tempting to take and move away from Scottish football.
However, I would say the Belgian’s recent performances have been nothing short of outstanding.
It could be argued since his introduction we have become so much better defensively.
In the 11 domestic games, Dedryck has played this season we have conceded only four goals, in the 2-1 defeat to Kilmarnock (alongside Jack Hendry) and two against arguably the 2nd best-attacking team in Scotland, Hibernian (alongside Benkovic).
For those who have been watching Boyata since the beginning of his career, we have seen the ability at times but there was always a mistake in him.
Ever since the defender returned from the World Cup with Belgium, he has come back a completely different animal and even better than we have ever seen him.
Although Boyata may not have apologised to the fans with his words, I believe that he has through his performances.
After his incident that we felt he had no way back from, he has been superb for us and justified why we should be trying to sign him up and join players like Rogic, Ntcham and Christie in committing their future to Celtic, for the long term.
Lewis Laird
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