The problems of pre-contract agreements to sign players has again been highlighted as Ross County’s Richie Brittain waits to discover if he has suffered cruciate ligament damage to his knee.
Brittain was stretchered off during County’s 2-0 defeat at Motherwell on Sunday with his proposed move to St Johnstone already in doubt after an apparent change of mind.
A year ago Celtic found themselves in a similar situation with the signing of Jaroslaw Fojut from Slask Wroclaw but that deal had a get-out option if the player was unfit.
In January Brittain signed a two year contract to move to Perth, St Johnstone are in turn losing Liam Craig to Hibs, before deciding to change his mind due to personal reasons.
That issue has still to be resolved but regardless of the extent of the players injury St Johnstone intend sticking with their deal.
Chairman Steve Brown said: “We have acted in an honourable fashion all the way down the line and that certainly won’t change. Right now we don’t know the extent of the injury Richie suffered at Motherwell on Sunday, but as far as we are concerned nothing changes.”
A year ago, explaining the decision to cancel the Fojut deal, Neil Lennon said: “It looks like Jaroslaw has done his cruciate and that deal will be off now.
“When you sign a player on a pre-contract there’s always a medical clause in it, so we have the option to break it and going on the advice we’re getting we won’t be taking him.
“We really liked the cut of him and what we saw of him. I think he’d had a cruciate injury before and it looks like he’s suffered the same thing again. It’s a huge blow for him and for us.”
In December Fojut moved to Tromso of Norway but has only started three of their nine matches this season.
Now that Frazer Wright has been identified as a thug (and rightly so) I wonder how the intellectual thug Andy Walker feels about his quote that “Lustig should have expected it.”.
Ex-Celtic pundits eh.! Doncha luv ’em.! ! !