Chris Sutton believes that Celtic can solve their defensive problems by signing Scott McKenna from Aberdeen.
In just over two months time Filip Benkovic and Dedryck Boyata will quit the club leaving Kris Ajer as the only reliable central defender ready for European qualifiers.
Celtic had two bids for McKenna rejected last summer with Aston Villa having a bid that could have risen to £6m knocked back shortly before the transfer window closed.
Even though he is on a long term contract it seems certain that the 22-year-old will be sold in the summer with Sutton convinced that the Scotland defender can sort out a long running problem area that persisted throughout Brendan Rodgers’ time in charge.
In the Daily Record the former Celtic striker explains:
Aberdeen fans may not thank me for it, Celtic should buy the best centre-back in the country this season in Scott McKenna.
He may not be a ball-playing defender but the good thing is he knows it and keeps it simple. Ask the 22-year-old to defend and do the basics and he does it better than anyone.
If you want someone who will head, run, put the ball in row Z occasionally when it’s required coupled with sheer guts, will to win and reliability then McKenna is your man.
But Celtic need to stump up and pay the going rate. There has to be a realisation they have been papering over the cracks for much of this season in terms of performance level and need to kick-start.
Aberdeen sold Jonny Hayes to Celtic in the summer of 2017 for £1.3m with a year left on his contract and got Ryan Christie on loan during that window.
Selling to Celtic wouldn’t go down well with their supporters with interest also expected from English Championship clubs.
With European qualifiers starting in mid July the onus is on Celtic to bring in players for those matches rather than wait to see who is available in the final days of the summer transfer window.
