Quantcast
Blogs

Is Tom Rogic better than Ki?

|
Image for Is Tom Rogic better than Ki?

In the not so distant past, life as a Celtic supporter was a bit grim. As someone who doesn’t miss many home games, I found it all a bit boring and although we were winning the league and aiming to win domestic silverware, the football just wasn’t particularly enjoyable to watch.

I remember years ago overhearing a conversation between two guys, when Martin O’Neill was the boss. It was after a four or five nil win against St Johnstone when the guys were talking about how the “fitbaw was pure crap” because it was boring winning regularly and not having a real challenge.

Fast forward on a few years and when we signed the type of player that made you enjoy the football, we struggled to keep them. Some went on to do quite well and some are continuing to do so – mainly Victor Wanyama, Fraser Forster and Virgil Van Dijk. Yes, there’s others so apologies if I’ve missed out your favourite players.

One of our former players who are doing quite well for themselve is Ki. He reportedly left us for a fee of around £6 million. The kind of transfer fee that Celtic are not very likely to spend on a new player.

Often when players have left us, we’ve struggled to get a good replacement. When Gary Hooper left, we went a wee while before we got a right good goal scorer. The same could be argued about Ki, do we have a classy midfielder who’s capable of opening up a tight and stubborn defence ?

Britain Football Soccer - Aberdeen v Celtic - Scottish League Cup Final - Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland - 27/11/16 Celtic's Tom Rogic scores their first goal Action Images via Reuters / Jason Cairnduff Livepic EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 45 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.

We need the guy in the middle of the park who’s able to be a box to box type player. Step forward big Tam, better known as Mr Rogic. Like a lot of players, Rogic has had a massive improvement under Brendan Rogers. That’s to be expected, a top end manager tends to be able to get the best out of players.

So, the question that I’m wondering is whether or not Rogic is currently a better player than Ki was when he left us? I know it’s open to opinion but for me, big Tam is a far better player. If a team tried to sign Rogic for £6m, I think we’d politely decline their offer and quite right as well.

Do we even want to sell Rogic? Does he want to move on? I hope the answer is no to both of these questions. I was a big fan of Stan Petrov when he played for us and I like the fact that we have a guy in the middle of the park who can score goals.

I’m not saying that Rogic is as good a player as Petrov but given a bit of time, I reckon he could end up being a similar player. This season, his fitness has improved, we recently saw him complete 90 odd minutes v Motherwell.

Football - Celtic v Motherwell Scottish FA Cup Final - Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland - 10/11 - 21/5/11 Celtic's Georgios Samaras and Ki Sung Yueng (R) celebrate with the trophy after winning the Scottish FA Cup Mandatory Credit: Action Images / Pool Pic Livepic

In 66 appearances, Ki scored nine goals for us. Rogic has had 52 appearances for us and has chipped in with 14 goals so far – I think 10 of those have been scored this season.

While goals alone doesn’t define the players, it certainly helps to win matches. Think back to when Rogic first signed for us, he was sent back to Australia on loan and I doubt many fans would have been too bothered if his departure was permanent. Now, how you would you feel if he left?

I believe that we’re close to something pretty special at Celtic. As much as I try to blank it out, I remember the days when the best we could hope for was a cup win and the odd win v a team that went bust – usually at a time in the season when we were out of the title race.

Now, we expect to be in the Champions league. This season, the Champions League possibly came too early for us and the results weren’t all that great. If we made the amount of money that some have suggested (between £25m – £30m), we might just be able to offer Rogic and others the type of contract that will keep them at the club for a wee bit longer.

So, the whole point of writing this was to see who you think was better Ki or Rogic? There’s a comments box below and a poll to vote in.

Cheers and hail hail.



Videocelts Extension Button

Share this article