da esport bet： As Celtic’s pre-season rumbles on, speculation about who or who will not be in Brendan Rodgers squad continues. The latest player at the heart of the transfer rumours is star midfielder Stuart Armstrong.
da dobrowin： The Daily Mail say Southampton are ready to test Celtic’s desire to keep the Scotland international with a £10m bid. With only a year left on Armstrong’s contract, that’s a lot of money for the Hoops to consider.
The midfielder has emerged into one of the brightest talents at Celtic Park after a phenomenal season under Brendan Rodgers last term. He was a key part of the side that went the entire domestic season unbeaten, winning a rare treble of trophies.
The dilemma for Celtic then is deciding whether they should cash in or convince him to sign a new deal and have him stay at the club for a long time.
Here are FOUR reasons why we think the Hoops should be doing everything in their power to have him stick around…
He’s not at his peak yet
After just one season under Brendan Rodgers, Stuart Armstrong’s game has developed massively and he has far from reached his peak in terms of ability. He still has lots of learning to do in a Hoops shirt and one can only imagine how good he can become if he continues the trajectory he is on.
One season isn’t really enough to tell whether a player will go onto become a great Celtic player but he has all the foundations there to be a star in the first team for years to come.
It would be a shame for the Hoops to miss out on the best years of the players career considering they’ve already invested plenty of time and money into his development. They may well find that the £10m reportedly on offer seems like a bargain price in the long-term.
If he signs a new contract he’ll be worth much more
The fact that fees like £10m are being talked about for Stuart Armstrong is remarkably since he only has 12 months left on his contract in Glasgow. There was a time not too long ago that the likes of Aiden McGeady and Virgil van Dijk were leaving for similar fees with lots more time left on their deals at the club.
If they managed to convince the midfielder that his future lies at the Hoops and pay him what he’s asking for then that transfer fee is only going to balloon. Armstrong may not spend the rest of his career at Celtic but he’s only 25 and another couple of seasons could do him the world of good, especially working under Brendan Rodgers.
A multi-year contract protects his value and enhances it in the future with the transfer market continuing to balloon south of the border. In two years time, £10m may sound absurd.
Brendan Rodgers is mid-project
The fact is Brendan Rodgers wants to keep Stuart Armstrong at the club and that’s perhaps the biggest reason the club should be going all out to keep him.
For over a decade the Hoops have had managers on 12 month rolling contracts so when big fees appeared for players it seemed prudent to accept them, regardless of the manager’s wishes, because that’s an uncertain situation and banking money will always be an interest of the club itself.
However, times have changed and Rodgers has just committed the next four years of his life to Celtic and if he sees Armstrong as a vital part of his project then Celtic are in a comfortable enough financial position to reject any advances.
As quoted by The Daily Mail, Rodgers said of Armstrong last week:
Contracts are always about length of time, or finances, but I am pretty confident the club and the agent will come to an agreement. He’s happy here in this environment and he knows he is improving and developing. So let’s wait and see. He’s someone I’m keen to keep.
The Celtic boss has earned the right to say who stays and goes at the club and that’s a primary reason why they should be going all out to sort out his contract situation.
His goals from midfield have been invaluable
Celtic have waited for years for a player to come along and provide the kind of forward running from midfield that defined players like Stiliyan Petrov’s careers in Glasgow.
Stuart Armstrong scored 17 goals in all competitions last term, which is remarkable when you consider he didn’t start getting a regular start in the team until well into the Autumn.
That kind of ability doesn’t come along often and in a summer when they’ve already lost Patrick Roberts’ assist-making ability, they can’t afford to let go of the midfielder’s goalscoring ability.
Celtic have dangers all over the team but it was the added contribution from the likes of Armstrong that really tipped them over the edge from a title-winning team into becoming an all-conquering, unbeaten outfit.
Replacing that would be very difficult indeed.