With a raft of Celtic stars seemingly ready to leave Parkhead this summer, Ange Postecoglou is open to try and get those players who are into their final year a contract extension.
With Edouard, Ajer and Christie all falling into that bracket, former Rangers* player Alex Rae has said that he can’t envisage any of those stars wanting to extend their stay beyond this transfer window.
Speaking on Clyde 1 Superscoreboard, Rae said, “The new manager at Celtic is already on record saying that he wants to maybe try and get them to extend contracts. I just don’t see that happening.
“From a financial point of view I don’t think Celtic would be willing to run down the terms. I think that the money that Edouard would go for would be substantial.
“So from a business sense that wouldn’t make any sense. You think Christie, potentially could go for a small fee. That’s one of the things that Celtic did that last year they went all in.
“They wanted to try and win the ten and they allowed these guys to go into the last year of their contracts and the modern day footballer knows what that means because it’s strengthens their hand.”
It remains to be seen whether the big Aussie can pull off a masterstroke and convince the three wantaway stars to extend their stays beyond this season but I suppose the biggest question is do we want to convince players to stay? We need players that WANT to play for Celtic, not forced to.
Have we learned nothing from last season?
When Alex Rae learns the real and legal name of the club he supports then he can talk about matters Celtic. RIFC 2012, Mind The Gap.