Who is Gary Hooper?

The Scunthorpe United striker seems likely to join Celtic tomorrow in a £2m plus deal and could make his debut away to Sporting Braga on Wednesday.

Neil Lennon has been watching Hooper for some time and it looks like his patience and persistence is about to pay off.

Most strikers that come to Celtic have some sort of profile, Georgios Samaras and Marco Fortune were reasonably known from their time at Manchester City and West Brom but there aren’t too many folk keeping tabs on Scunthorpe United.

As supporters Celtic fans have been spoiled by the quality of strikers to have worn the hoops over the last thirty years, there has been the occasional disaster but by and large the fans are used to seeing the best in the business.

From Charlie Nicholas to Robbie Keane goals have never been a problem with Henrik Larsson the undisputed King of Kings ably supported by others such as Chris Sutton, Frank McAvennie, Pierre van Hooijdonk, Andy Walker, Frank McGarvey, Brian McClair, Scott McDonald, Jorge Cadette, John Hartson- all strikers capable of weighing in with the goals capable of winning championships and trophies.

And now for Hooper, an unheralded 22-year-old with a cv that features Hereford, Southend, Leyton Orient and now Scunthorpe.

With 43 goals league goals to his name over the last two seasons Hooper has been largely responsible for Scunthorpe’s promotion to The Championship and survival last season where they finished the season five points clear of relegated Sheffield Wednesday.

Hooper has came into football at the bottom of the ladder and is probably a victim of the number of foreigners now in the English game- they’ve been blamed for everything since the World Cup so there’s no harm in adding another crime to the list.

Most ambitious clubs in The Championship have been credited with an interest in Hooper over the last couple of months but it does seem that Celtic have been able to put together an offer acceptable to the Scunthorpe board.

Searching for information and opinion on Hooper I came across an interesting Scouting Report carried out by Steve Claridge from March 2009.

Watching Southend-Scunthorpe is almost as far from the glamour of the Premiership that the English game can produce with Claridge’s assessment clearly highlighting the potential that the striker has begun to realise in the 16 months since the article was written.

Some quotes from the report

a) Hooper did still manage to prove some moments of quality, particularly when a sniff of a goalscoring chance presented itself. There were two moments when Hooper looked really sharp and showed just how capable he is; once in the first half when he accelerated between the two centre-halves, leaving them both for dead, and dug a shot out with the outside of his right foot. Unfortunately for Hooper, the Southend goalkeeper, Steve Mildenhall, stood up and did not commit himself by going to ground. The second moment came late in the second half when Hooper received the ball on the right-hand side of the penalty area, took a touch, keeping his body between the ball and the advancing defender, and hit a fierce rising drive from the angle that Mildenhall did well to turn away.

b) Hooper also loves to play off the last man but he has to get the balance right to ensure the player on the ball has time to pick him out so he can make the run in behind or, when the player on the ball is in a tight area, offer an option short in order to provide his team-mate with a yard of space to play in

c) I still left Roots Hall with the definite impression that Hooper is a genuine goalscorer. This was a hunch borne out by the brace he got away to Leeds on Saturday, which took his tally to a more than impressive 24 for the season. If he improves his all-round game then there is no doubt in my mind that Hooper can progress to a higher level.

Claridge scored over 200 senior goals in his own colourful career which visited 20 clubs with the highlight being alongside Martin O’Neill at Leicester City where he helped win a League Cup.

John Hartson famously said that any striker at Celtic should be capable of hitting 20 goals a season- sadly there have been a few failures on that front in recent seasons.

Reading about Hooper, easily done on-line, he seems to be an up and coming striker who’ll be desperate to make an impact and be a success at Celtic.

If that eventually leads to a move back to England and the excessive riches of the Premiership then no-one will be left unhappy.

Lennon’s big signings of Joe Ledley, Efrain Juarez and probably Hooper all fit into a similar profile. Younger players with something to prove with the potential to be sold on at a profit after enjoying the profile that a successful Celtic team can provide.

Anyone with an insight into Hooper please feel free to add your comments below.

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Steve Claridge Scouting Report