CELTIC can be like a dog with a bone; nobody will know this better than Manchester City who must have been sick of hearing from the club as they pursued Patrick Roberts all summer.
The persistence by the manager and the club seen Patrick Roberts make a loan move back to Glasgow where he will be able to perform on the Champions League stage with Celtic.
Brendan Rodgers spoke over the weekend that Manchester City did not want to part with their player at all, and had Celtic bid £30million for the midfielder, they would still have rebuffed Celtic’s advances. The most important thing for Brendan was Patrick came back, whatever capacity the Irishman could get him and a loan became the only option.
This deal has parallels with the Fraser Forster deal, where Newcastle did not want to sell and let the player come out on loan twice. Once the goalkeeper’s second loan spell was up after much persistence Celtic signed the player permanently from the Magpies. We were told at the time by the media and Newcastle fans that there was no way he would sign for the club permanently, and we should get over it, etc. Much like we’re getting now with Patrick Roberts.
I genuinely believe should Patrick perform well again this season, Manchester City will be more receptive to a permanent deal in 11 months time. Either Manchester City takes the EPL by storm and wins the league, which means they won’t need Patrick, or they have failed miserably again under Pep, and a new manager will probably come in and spend another vomit inducing amount of cash to chase trophies leaving Patrick nowhere in the conversation.
This would put Celtic in a great position to try and land the Englishman permanently. If they were fully prepared to break their transfer record this season, they would happily do the same next.
The player is at an age where he could commit to Celtic for ten-in-a-row and still be in a position for a big money move further down the line.
It’s becoming increasingly evident that Brendan is cultivating an environment where the best young talent sees Celtic as an ideal place to improve, win medals and fulfill their potential, giving them a fantastic platform to catapult themselves into football stardom.
Roberts, like Dembele, N’tcham and now Edouard have the world at their feet in the Hoops.
