The Patryk Klimala transfer was a strange one. £3.5m for a relatively unknown 21 year old Pole that wasn’t exactly prolific in front of goal, his time at Celtic was a short and fruitless era.
Now, let me get this straight off the bat. Even though I wasn’t sure on the boy, what I did see, I liked. Strong, fast and powerful. Had an engine like a locomotive, his work ethic was never in question.
Although he made twenty five appearances for the Hoops scoring just three goals, Celtic still managed to recoup the transfer fee paid by offloading him to New York Red Bulls.
With the majority of his appearances coming off the bench, I always felt he was very unlucky in his Celtic career and never got a decent crack at the whip to make his mark, and Red Bulls boss Kevin Therwell agreed, as did the mystery Klimala supporters in the Hoops backroom team.
Speaking to the media, Therwell was gushing in his praise for Klimala and revealed some of the backroom team at Paradise wanted to keep him on, “I had outstanding references on him at Celtic.
” There were some people there who didn’t want to let him go, didn’t feel he had the opportunity perhaps he should have done and were also saying if he did get the opportunity Celtic would have been a lot better for it.
“These are people I trust and people we trust within our network.
I always felt he looked a player but he wasn’t the kind of forward that fitted into the Celtic system at the time. Klimala looked like a striker that would run off knock downs and through balls but with Celtic more often than not playing just the one striker up front, even getting a first team chance never mind playing in a partnership was ever looking likely.
Which made the signing even stranger. However, I wish him well. He had terrific potential, it’s just a shame he didn’t have a coaching team offering him the chance to prove himself
Teemu Pukki all over again. Klimala will be back in England and banging them in for fun. Another proven goalscorer will slip through their fingers.