DERBY, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 20: Bobby Clark of Derby County looks on during the Sky Bet Championship match between Derby County and Preston North End at Pride Park on September 20, 2025 in Derby, England. (Photo by Richard Martin-Roberts/Getty Images)
Celtic are reported to have Bobby Clark lined up as a £6m January signing.
The report comes from Martin Hardy of The Times who presents it as a done deal. He even names the likely debut date for the new signing.
While adding a midfielder is welcome most fans would imagine that striker and right winger are the positions that Celtic are most in need of signing.
Clark had spent his entire career at Liverpool, there were no loan spells before leaving for Austria at the age of 19.
Now it appears that the Austrian club are ready to take a 40% loss 18 months later to move the player on.
Coming through the ranks at Liverpool Clark clearly has pedigree but is currently playing in the English Championship with struggling Derby County.
The Times reports:
Bobby Clark, the former Liverpool midfielder, is set to join Celtic from RB Salzburg in January for £6million.
Clark is on loan at Derby County, where he has played ten times this season. However the 20-year-old is ready to make a permanent move to Scotland with Brendan Rodgers’ side, who are second in the Scottish Premiership table. Celtic’s first game in January is at home to Rangers on January 3.
Clark, the son of former Newcastle United midfielder Lee Clark, has become a regular at Pride Park for Derby, who are 20th in the Championship, since moving on loan from Salzburg in the summer.
The midfielder made his debut for Liverpool at the age of 17, when he came on against Bournemouth in the Premier League, and later that season came on at Wembley in the Carabao Cup final to help Jürgen Klopp’s side beat Chelsea. He scored his first goal for the club in a 6-1 win in a Europa League victory over Sparta Prague.
He then moved to Red Bull Salzburg in the summer of 2024 for £10million, linking up with Klopp’s former assistant Pepijn Lijnders, who had left Anfield to take charge at the club. Lijnders had been a development coach under Rodgers at Liverpool, returned to the club under Klopp and took charge at RB Salzburg last year. He was sacked before joining Pep Guardiola as assistant at Manchester City in the summer.
Celtic have struggled to get the right blend in midfield this season despite appearing to have six first team ready options.
The expected arrival of Clark will inevitably lead to speculation about other midfielders moving on.
MIDFIELD OVERLOAD
Paulo Bernardo has had the least playing minutes of any midfielder this season while captain Callum McGregor has had most.
During the summer Ben Nygren was the only midfielder to join Celtic. Despite the struggles of the team he has settled in fairly quickly and scored four goals to date.
Other than the January 2022 transfer window Celtic have rarely made moves in advance of the window opening. Under Ange Postecoglou Reo Hatate, Daizen Maeda and Yosuke Ideguchi were all announced as signings on December 31.
With Clark’s Liverpool connections it seems fair to assume that Brendan Rodgers has been involved in this deal. An ongoing issue at Celtic revolves around signing policy and ‘club signings’. Clark would certainly be seen as one approved by the Celtic manager.
If it is as concrete as it appears Celtic fans will be hoping that other deals are in the pipeline to give the team a mid-season boost.
Nope. Why ? Not gonna happen
I can’t say I’d be blown away by this, if in fact it’s true. I know nothing about him but unable to make it at RBS and shipped out on loan to Derby is hardly top class? Though he must have had SOMETHING to be at Liverpool and then cost £10 million. Who knows, but we desperately need a proven striker and right winger before bringing in anything else.
Realistically £10 for a Premier League team is probably equivalent of £1-2m for a normal outfit. You’ve got bang average players switching to the prem for £40/50/60m. If he was sold for £10m then I’d say Liverpool likely don’t think much of him.
That’s not to then say he could do a job for us though as. By his lack of goals I assume he is a holding midfielder which is something we desperately need in the squad along with the RW & ST but I feel the CDM we need is already in the squad in Engels who was a holding midfielder before he joined us.
Talk is cheap: there could be talk right up to January, and then any deal could ‘fail’
– for whatever reason.
Much better to announce a new player when he is signed:
like the signings under Ange, some of which were announced shortly before the window even opened.
Is it just a feeble attempt at generating some positive spin – coming from our club?
Is this a Brendan Rodgers signing? or a Shaun Maloney signing?
This is maybe a slightly old fashioned view and as a heads-up, I would bring back wooden rackets at Wimbledon,
My point is this I do not believe Sky and the others’ money has improved the game as it just means as, comments have pointed out, average players cost a fortune.
In Scotland, managers like Rodgers can earn £3million.
In England Guys like Fodden, Grealish and Maguire were all reckoned to be £80 million at one point.
What we get is a retirement home for Old Rangers/Sevco players and my main gripe, ridiculous starting times. Friday, Sunday night football and Saturday was the sacred 3.o’clock kick off.
I wouldn’t mind if the standard of football had improved but it seems to have got worse.
Editor: In Scotland CEO’s like Lawwell can earn £3.5m. no marks like Nicholson can be paid £1m and not open their gob.
Not sure Rodgers would have had much direct knowledge of this lad from his Liverpool days – he left Anfield a full decade ago now when the kid would have been ten years old. It’s possible Micky Beale had more direct involvement with his development than Rodgers…..
Like most other posters I don’t know jack about this player, but if he is the ball-winning defensive midfielder we’ve been crying out for since Broony left maybe he’ll be a good fit…. on the other hand if he’s just another averagely talented ‘creative midfielder’ we don’t need him – we already have enough of them to start a captive breeding programme.