Opinion: Celtic Afraid To Write Off £4.5m Deal

VASILIS BARKAS has come under fire after conceding against Midtjylland on Tuesday evening. It’s just one error in one game, but when you align it with the goalkeeper’s form last season, it paints a poor picture.

Let me prefix this by saying I would love Barkas to prove us all wrong and become a top goalkeeper for the club. However, I’m very concerned we’re sleep walking into another goalkeeping crisis.

Simply put, if Barkas can’t come good, we need another option.

Scott Bain is a number two goalkeeper, we have a large sample size of Bain to know he’s not what Celtic need this season. Barkas has shown us very little, but has had much fewer games to show his worth.

The concern for me is Ange tries to persevere and work with the goalkeeper in the HOPE he comes good. If the manager takes this tact, and we don’t bring in another goalkeeper, we will be in free fall until the January window – repeating the same mistakes as last year.

There has been change at the top, but the club are still very aware of the investment they made in the Greek goalkeeper.

To admit defeat would mean writing off the best part of £4.5m [TransferMarkt].

For Celtic to concede that amount of cash is not easy to swallow, but what would be worse is continuing with a failing project that’s going to cost you much more money down the line.

Let’s not forget the SPFL winners this season will have next summer off and no qualifiers to play – they will automatically gain entry to the Champions League and the riches within. If Celtic don’t get this right, they will lose the competition, tv and gate receipt cash that comes with playing in the group stages of the Champions League.

We need a solid keeper, someone who will win us 6-12 points per season.

If people still don’t think how much a good goalkeeper can change things, just look at the 2019 League Cup final – Celtic had no right to win that game but Fraser Forster was incredible that night – like he was the whole season.

Across the city, their goalkeeper pulled them out of some very sticky situations and won them games marginally. We cannot have a passenger in goals and if Ange has doubts, now is the time to pull the trigger and look for an alternative.