Charlie Nicholas has a novel approach to Celtic’s Ryan Christie dilemma- sell Leigh Griffiths and Ismaila Soro!
It might sound like good business on Football Manager but achieving all three deals in the next three weeks.
Christie is out of contract in January making him free to sign a pre-contract deal with any non-Scottish club.
His performances this season have been notably better than those that he turned in last season as almost everything on the pitch collapsed.
Ange Postecoglou seems to have taken a hands off approach to contractual issues but getting the goalscoring midfielder onto a new deal would be a massive boost to his trophy prospects.
Picking up on his column in The Express, The Sun reports Nicholas saying:
Celtic must raise the funds to keep Ryan Christie – even if it means selling other players to do so. Hat-trick hero Kyogo Furuhashi got all the headlines after last weekend’s 6-0 win over Dundee but Christie was the main man with his passing and pace.
Christie is in the final year of his contract but rather than trying to cash in on him now for, say, £5million, Celtic should push the boat out to get him tied down to a new deal because it would cost a lot more to replace him.
There is talk that the club will make him a new offer but why didn’t they do that weeks ago? If it comes down to it, they should sell Leigh Griffiths or Ismaila Soro to fund his wages.
Griffiths has played just 35 minutes this season, in the friendly against West Ham after signing a 12 month contract on July 1.
Soro has been a regular this season but his place looks to be under threat with the arrival of James McCarthy.