The incredible £11m transfer of Ross McCormack from Leeds Utd to Fulham highlighted the madness of the English transfer market- plus the fact that there remains a demand for Scottish players.
Ronny Deila would be delighted to get £11m to spend on his squad but as the last few seasons have demonstrated it’s highly unlikely that Celtic will go above £3m for a player with Teemu Pukki and Stefan Johansen picked up for just over £2m last season.
Clearly signing players from the Premiership is a thing of the past with even the transfer fees and wage demands of players in the Championship becoming out of reach.
McCormack’s career path demonstrates the volatility of the transfer market with his departure from Rangers (IL) to Motherwell in 2006, following a loan spell at Doncaster, attracting minimal attention.
Two seasons at Fir Park earned him a Bosman move to Cardiff City where he scored regularly before another Championship move to Leeds in 2010.
At no time has there been a clamour from Celtic fans to ‘get him signed’. His Rangers (IL) background is clearly a factor but at no stage has the new £11m man looked likely to do the sort of job that Scott McDonald or Gary Hooper managed in the hoops.
McCormack’s transfer, not long after Ryan Gauld joined Sporting Lisbon for £2.5m, does demonstrate that there is still a market for Scottish players with Swansea snaping up Jay Fulton, Adam King and Steven Kingsley from Hearts and Falkirk almost as soon as they emerged into first team football.
The signing of Leigh Grifiths from Wolves in January was Celtic’s first Scottish signing since Charlie Mulgrew in 2010
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