Patryk Klimala’s likely signing has been given a lukewarm welcome from Celtic fans.
Scarred by a decade of dodgy strikers ranging from Mo Bangura, Morten Rasmussen, Stefan Scepovic, Amido Balde and too many to mention it’s natural if fans are refusing to proclaim Klmala as the solution to the club’s striking problem.
Twenty years ago most Celtic signings were players that the fans were already aware of with Jorge Cadete, Paolo di Canio and Andy Thom known to some degree.
Henrik Larsson fell into that category, remembered for his exploits at the 94 World Cup Finals when Sweden reached the semi-finals. Three and a half years later Wim Jansen exploited a clause in his Feyernoord contract to bring the Swede to Celtic, coming in just as the Three Amigos of Pierre van Hooijdonk, DI Canio and Cadete moved on.
Looks like Patryk Kimala will be signing on today, the January window is a difficult one to get players in at times so at least the club are trying. We should reserve judgement on the player until we see him play, I recall some moaning about a dreadlocked Swede years ago pic.twitter.com/0abxnDElLd
— Lisbon Lion (@tirnaog09) January 14, 2020
After setting up a winning goal for Chic Charnley on his debut the Swede found the net 242 times over the next seven years before stepping down to Barcelona and Manchester United.
Donnelly will be watching Klimala closely in his role as co-commentator for Celtic TV as fans rush to make judgement. The lessons of Larsson suggest that it’s best to hold fire a game or two with the spotlight on the young Pole to buck the trend of almost a decade of striking flops.
