How many times have we seen this at our club? There is a notable example in the team right now, a player who didn’t look like he had a big future at Parkhead, who was loaned out to England where he shone and who was brought back to our club as a contender.
Now he’s the captain. But for that spell south of the border, would Callum McGregor have been overlooked?
Ryan Christie was loaned out after being signed as Scottish football’s outstanding youth prospect, this after he struggled to break into the first team. A move to Aberdeen saw the player emerge. He came back to Celtic, bided his time and injuries presented him with his chance. He was rarely out of the team from that moment on, and justified his inclusion.
Kris Ajer was the same. I couldn’t see where he had a future at the club although he was highly rated. He came home, blossomed and we sold him on for a fortune. He was at Kilmarnock. Rodgers made the decision to convert him into a central defender; a mad idea which I didn’t see ending well, not knowing the thinking behind it until much later. It was smart stuff.
There are others. We all get the drift. A loan can be the best thing that happens to a player and enough of them have come back to Celtic after going out that we can say it works and that it’s worth keeping an open mind, for the most part, on what a returning player might offer.
There are a few out right now who I don’t see returning to stake a claim.
Haksabanovic has done not one thing of note which suggests he still has something to offer us. He’s way too slow for a Rodgers team and he and Palma is two too many on the left side.
Mikey Johnston is playing brilliantly, enough so that I worry we might see him as a contender … I’ll tell you, if he comes back here he has to hit the ground running and show us something real this time.
Marco Tilio has skills. But that was one of the daftest seven figure deals in our history, to pay £1.7 million for a guy playing in the Australian league. Why? Remember, this was a strategy that was meant to find us first team ready players, not people who might be ready in three years.