Only five Celtic players make it into the Daily Record’s Top Ten SPFL players of 2019!
The Glasgow based publisher has produced a list of the top 50 players in Scotland with Celtic players largely out of the reckoning in the opinion of their panel of experts.
There are a number of judgements that will amuse Celtic fans with Steve Davis rated above Scott Brown while Chris Jullien and Moi Elyounoussi trail in behind James Tavernier and Steven Naismith!
In order the Top 10 consists of Jermain Defoe, Allan McGregor, Ryan Jack, James Forrest, Ryan Christie, Scott Brown, Steve Davis, Callum McGregor, Alfredo Morelos, Odsonne Edouard.
Tom Rogic at 24 is the lowest ranked Celtic player to make the list, coming in one place behind Olivier Ntcham. Not many on the list have played in a European Championships u-21 semi-final or scored the winning goal away to Lazio. Both Celtic players are rated below Joe Aribo.
Moi Elyounoussi makes it into the list at 18 with Chris Jullien one place above the on-loan Southampton winger which is unlikely to cause either player too many sleepless nights.
Some of the stranger decisions include:
49 Shay Logan. The Aberdeen defender has been chasing after Scott Brown for years trying to add to his 2014 League Cup winners medal.
48 Michael Smith. Hearts defender has aged badly over the last 12 months, you need to go back to September 2018 for any sort of decent form from the Edinburgh side.
46 Steven Lawless. He plays for Livingston.
42 Ryan Porteous. The young Hibs defender has shown some promise but has barely played this season due to injury.
39 Vaclav Hladky. The St Mirren keeper recently spoke about an end of season switch to Ibrox when his contract expires.
34 Lyndon Dykes. It seems like he will be dining off one appearance against Celtic in September for a while yet.
31 Scott Allan. For whatever reasons he barely made a dozen appearances during four seasons at Celtic, back in the comfort zone at Hibs.
21 Joe Aribo, the honeymoon appears to be over for the former Charlton midfielder as reality kicks in.
20 Scott McKenna. Not many Celtic fans were upset at failed bids to sign the Aberdeen defender, life most certainly goes on.
15 James Tavernier. Even Ibrox fans are starting to realise now that he is missing penalties that his game is limited. Very.
13 Lewis Ferguson. The Aberdeen midfielder has an eye for goal but struggles to keep his temper in check as highlighted by his display in the Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic in April.
11 Steven Naismith- incredibly he landed a four-year contract with Hearts at the start of the season, injuries have reduced him to around a dozen appearances a season.
During his departure speech at the club AGM on Tuesday Dave King claimed that the value of his first team squad was between £50-103m more than the book value, perhaps that was based on the opinions of the Daily Record sports staff.
CLICK HERE for the Record’s Top 50.
