Tim Vickery gives the lowdown on new bhoy Bernabei

For over a decade Tim Vickery has been the South American football expert for a variety of UK media outlets. 

Around World Cup time he is almost on a loop as he gives his views and insights into the nations that are normally out of view with new players emerging on the world stage. 

Transfer news is regularly covered but there hasn’t been much demand from Celtic fans for coverage of domestic Argentinian football. 

That has changed over the last couple of weeks with speculation about Alexandro Bernabei turned into a concrete signing yesterday morning. 

Celtic’s first ever Argentinian player will certainly come under the spotlight, there is a curiosity factor plus the stamp of Ange with the Celtic boss comfortable moving into previously unused markets. 

Kyogo Furuhashi set a high benchmark last season, replacing the goals and status of Odsonne Edouard almost instantly. 

Three years ago Kieran Tierney left Celtic for Arsenal, that is a standard that not many left-backs will get close to but speaking to BBC Scotland, Vickery provided an impressive profile of Bernabei: 

This is the first Argentine to sign for Celtic and hopefully it will work out better than a certain high-profile Brazilian. I was in London recently and someone presented me with a photo of Rafael Scheidt, who I thought would be a good signing and it didn’t turn out that way. 

Experience has taught me to be a little more cautious and he doesn’t have a great deal behind him, partly down to the pandemic – he had just got into the team at Lanus and then Argentine football shut down for a considerable time. 

What does he bring to Ange Postecoglou’s team? A quick little left-back. He’s not going to defend like Danny McGrain, that’s not his game. 

What he does give you is terrific pace, with a lovely left foot, which can be very useful for set-pieces. I think there is an eye for a goal in him as well and a player who can get in at the far post and open up the pitch. 

What I didn’t factor in with Rafael Scheidt, who was in the Brazil team at the time, was how much higher up the field he would be expected to defend with Celtic. 

He will have to adapt to extra physicality. The Argentine league is physical, but you look at the players and they are smaller than most of the players he will face in Scotland, but what I’ve seen leads me to the conclusion that he has the potential to take this step and maybe steps beyond as well. 

The Champions League puts him in the spotlight. If Celtic weren’t there, I don’t think he would be there and perhaps there wouldn’t be the finance either. I was surprised to hear that this was the first Argentine to sign for Celtic and, if he succeeds, he won’t be the last. 

Bernabei is expected to make his Celtic debut next week when the hoops play two matches in Austria.