Chris Sutton can’t see any way back for Vasilis Barkas.
A year ago he was signed to take over from Fraser Forster as Celtic’s first choice keeper but spent the season rotating the position with Scott Bain and Conor Hazard.
The slate has been wiped clean under Ange Postecoglou but that claim is easier applied to outfield players than keepers.
Cruelly it is claimed that Barkas never made a save last season. He did end the term with clean sheets against St Johnstone and Hibs, in Celtic’s early season win at Ross County he bailed out his defenders a few times.
With massive gaps throughout the squad bringing in a new goalkeeper is unlikely to be a priority for Postecoglou but even so Sutton doesn’t see Barkas having much of a future in Glasgow.
Sutton told the Daily Record:
Wwhile I feel there might be a chance for Ajeti to turn things around, I just don’t see it when it comes to the ex-AEK Athens keeper. Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems easier to integrate and rejuvenate an outfield player than a goalie.
The position of goalkeeper feels different. It’s isolated. You can’t hide behind team-mates if you’re not up to it and Barkas was unable to show anything to convince last season.
It became a standing joke, but it was basically true that he never made a proper save in any of his games and some of the goals that were lost were, to say the least, dubious.
For me, Barkas is too far gone. Same goes for Scott Bain. The pair of them just don’t strike as having the ability or the stature to the main Celtic No.1.
Celtic face Charlton this afternoon in the second of their three friendlies at their Welsh training camp.
