ITK poster reports on seasoned alternative to Celtic Transfer Project Araujo

Stephen McGowan, the reporter closest to the thinking of the Celtic board, seems fairly confident on Celtic’s interest in Tiago Araujo.

With a profile similar to the seven summer signings and having twice delved into the Benfica Academy over the last couple of summers there is every reason to believe that the 22-year-old could be a Celtic player next month.

The downturn in recruitment since Mark Lawwell took charge in July 2022 is obvious, in his first summer he signed Ben Siegrist, Alexandro Bernabei, Sead Haksabanovic and Oliver Abilgaard (on loan) which was similar to the scatter-gun approach that characterised the sort of transfer windows his Daddy would oversee.

In contrast, driven solely by Ang Postecoglou, in the summer of 2021 Celtic signed Kyogo Furuhashi, Joe Hart, Carl Starfelt, Liel Abada, Giorgos Giakoumakis and Josip Juranovic with a priceless top up in January bringing Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate and Matt O’Riley.

On Kerrydale Street the respected poster Pendy12 has come up with an alternative to Araujo, apparently scouted by Celtic but costing a bit more than the 22-year-old Estoril left-back. Using traditional Lawwell-think it would be better to buy two cheaper options and hope for the best than sign someone with a better pedigree who comes with a higher price tag.

Gijs Smal, aged 26, has five full seasons experience in the Eredivisie with Volendam and Twente which contrasts to Araujo who is in his second season with Estoril with less than 50 league appearances to his name. It seems that Araujo’s time in the Benfica Academy is driving Celtic’s interest.

With just over two weeks to go until the transfer window opens supporters will soon discover if Lawwell Mini has been working on deals over the last four months or whether he will spend January trying to work out the cheapest recommendations from the sources well used by Daddy as Celtic’s reputation in Europe crashed over the last decade.

CLICK HERE for Smal’s Transfermarkt profile.