This weekend the Championship gets underway in England, Celtic’s season is reaching it’s most critical days.
For some reason a player with five back-to-back titles to his name, a current internationalist and the 2012 Player of the Year is on the outside looking in.
Whatever the reason or reasons Charlie Mulgrew won’t be putting his boots on this weekend. After two seasons blighted by injury every game should be precious but it seems like the 31-year-old has been negotiated out of a deal.
At the end of June it seemed like there was a route back to Celtic but when the squad left for Slovenia Mulgrew was missing, the signing of Kolo Toure seemed to close that door firmly shut.
Speaking just before Mulgrew’s Celtic deal ran out Brendan Rodgers said: “If there is not an agreement, that will obviously just run out. If it happens, we’d like him to be with us sooner rather than later but he’s out of contract and within his rights.
“There is always obviously a fear for a player when they come out of contract, if they train and get injured, they could be snookered. So I respect that and understand that completely.
“He seems a good guy, I’ve talked to him on the phone and people I’ve talked to around the club like him but obviously it’s probably the last contract of his career, so he has to make sure he’s making the right choice for him and his family.”
From a position of strength it seems that Mulgrew will need to alter his expectations to get back into the game.
With the season about to kick off most managers will have their first XI in mind with players that they’ve worked with through the pre-season.
Signing someone with a proven track record has plenty of appeal but as the days slip by it looks like Mulgrew will be forced into taking a deal that wasn’t a consideration when he turned down the offers from Celtic.
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