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Smith and Stacey- whatever happened to Celtic’s summer signing targets

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As Celtic started their programme of pre-season friendlies at the end of June it became obvious that Tony Ralston was the only right-back still at the club.

Mikael Lustig had made an emotional departure, Cristian Gamboa was away on international duty but wouldn’t be returning while Jeremy Toljan’s loan stint from Borussia Dortmund was completed.

Kris Ajer was a decent option for the early rounds of the Champions League qualifiers but after being linked with Timothy Castagna throughout January a permanent, quality right-back was expected. The previous summer Celtic had appeared close to signing Cristian Piccini before Valencia moved in quickly to capture him from Sporting Lisbon.

Rather than look to the expected markets of eastern Europe or Scandinavia it appeared that a likely replacement was lurking in Yorkshire where Tommy Smith was set to leave Huddersfield Town after six years service. Another option seemed to be Luton’s Jack Stacey.

Players from England come at a premium, they have a far higher wage expectation while fees of £5m are thrown around in the Championship for average talents with £20m the going rate in the EPL.

On a daily basis Celtic supporters tracked Smith and Stacey. Smith was in Austria at Hudderfield’s pre-season training camp when news emerged of interest from Stoke, Bournemouth became competition for Stacey.

Celtic’s interest, real or rumoured, fell by the wayside despite #announcerightback trending as a reply to most of the club’s twitter announcements.

Hatem Abd Elhamed was the man selected for that position with Moritz Bauer arriving later on loan from Stoke, displaced by Smith, to provide competition.

As career moves go leaving Huddersfield for Stoke hasn’t worked out well for Smith with both sides down in the basement, more likely to be playing in League One next season than returning to the EPL.

Stoke paid £4m to sign Smith and awarded him with a contract until 2022, the last of his four Championship appearances was in the 2-1 defeat away to Birmingham at the end of August.

Stacey has fared far better, coming into the Bournemouth side for the last four EPL matches with Eddie Howe’s side sitting in 10th place despite yesterday’s 1-0 defeat at Arsenal. For £4m he seems to be providing far better value than Smith with his career definitely on an upward spiral.

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