Celtic appear to have fallen victims to a six day transfer stitch up.
At 6.30pm last Wednesday Motherwell decided to issue a statement announcing that they had agreed a club record fee with Celtic for the transfer of David Turnbull.
At 6.30pm on Tuesday the Daily Record and The Sun reported that Celtic had pulled out of the transfer, less than three hours later a number of sources including the Record confidently announced that Norwich City had had a bid accepted for the midfielder. So far there has been no sign of a Motherwell statement about the bid from Norwich.
According to the Record, who have got stories wrong in the past, Turnbull will head south today with their story carrying a level of detail that suggests they are getting the information from a source very close to the player, or his agent.
Like John McGinn the debate will rage on about the tactics employed by Celtic, in the meantime the club identified a player to improve the side and have failed to deliver the deal.
The Scottish market should be the easiest for Celtic to operate in, there is a natural reluctance on the part of clubs to see a player return to their ground in a Celtic jersey but Scottish clubs aren’t in the habit of turning down deals that can be close to 50% of their turnover. £3m to Motherwell is the equivalent of Celtic being offered £50m for a player.
In three weeks time Sarajevo have to be faced, the first of four potential obstacles to reaching the Champions League and a £40m windfall and morale boost across every area of the club.
Some swift signings, especially in defence at right-back and in the centre are quickly required otherwise Turnbull is going to overshadow this transfer window just as McGinn did 12 months ago.
89 min England 1-0 France (France missed two penalties
FT England 1-2 France oh la lahttps://t.co/VxUjfZdfYV— Joe McHugh (@videocelts) June 19, 2019