Celtic are reported to have offered Rocco Vata a four year contract.
The terms of the offer are unlikely to be the big issue for the teenager but the need for a pathway to develop his game towards being a first team regular.
Vata came in from the cold to make his first top team appearance of the season last Sunday, scoring in the 5-0 Scottish Cup victory over Buckie Thistle.
#Celtic have offered to Rocco #Vata a 4-years contract to extend his contract, which expires in June. The young talent will given an answer in the next days. #transfers
— Nicolò Schira (@NicoSchira) January 28, 2024
Schira is an Italian based transfer expert with over 300,000 Twitter followers.
After being stuck in the Lowland League for the third season running it seems obvious that the 18-year-old needs tested at a higher level but there was no follow up appearance at the weekend at home to Ross County.
With Daizen Maeda and Oh Hyeon-gyu both involved in the Asian Cup there is a small window open to Vata as back up striker to Kyogo Furuhashi.
Should Celtic sign a striker before the transfer window closes on Thursday it would be hard to see how Vata could get any further top team experience at Celtic.
With his contract expiring in the summer the Irish u-21 internationalist is free to sign a deal elsewhere with Celtic only picking up a development fee calculated by UEFA.
One alternative could be to sign a new Celtic contract then go out on loan to an SPFL Premiership club such as Motherwell or St Johnstone to get some top team experience under his belt.
The issue with vata mainly remains as to whether he could take up a place within a 25 man squad with the 8 homegrown rule in play?
Seems as forrest is now out of the reckoning for that position, and Mikey Johnston has hardly done enough either to cement that position for himself either imo?
Personally believe it would be a sensible move for Vata and the club and to see if that potential can actually grow?
Certainly wouldn’t happen for himself at lowland league football for sure.
Both Johnston and vata could well be fighting for that position next season, and loaning out Johnston would be the sensible move to allow for more game time.
Still believe yang is a better option than Johnston for the remainder of this season, and would allow vata more time with the 1st team squad this season, to make a better assessment on what could be the better option for himself and the club next season, especially when you would expect vata game time to be very limited, if used at all for the remainder of this season imo.
But as a club is sensibility a thing we really like to put into action?